There are a few movies with this title. If you're looking for the Steven Seagal one, it's the 2004 version. I've seen this on a couple different TV stations, most recently Spike TV. I TiVoed it on my folks' box, and as I recall, I was watching it during a marathon viewing session where I was trying to see as many movies as I could at my parents' so I could erase the movies to make more room on their DVR. As such, my dad was around for this movie and a few others, like one of the Bloodfists (I think V). Anyway, he had had about enough after this one, so we took a break and watched Jerry Springer.
Out of Reach is about a former special ops dude played by Seagal who has adopted a pen pal in a Polish orphanage. She tells him she's leaving the place to go somewhere else, and he gets suspicious. At the same time, his former bosses at special ops want to kill him (why?), so he decides to shoot over to Poland to see what's up. It turns out the bad guy from and The Transporter and Torque is running a child pornography ring with the girls from the orphanage. With the help of a sexy local detective, Seagal brings down both the bad guy, and the feds. All in a day's work.
This is pretty solid Seagal. At the beginning, the pen pal letters are given to us in voice-over. Seagal's voice in these is hilarious. I don't know how to describe it. It's almost like Snagglepuss, if you remember him from those Hanna-Barbera cartoons. In my mind it's actually funnier than the talking in Ebonics he did in Today You Die. As far as the martial arts, it's pretty much what you expect, and I'd say it's pretty good. The final battle between him and the baddie is a great sword fight set in this immaculate white building. It was like something out of a Highlander episode, and I mean that in a good way.
The plot is ridiculous. For one, they didn't write a reason for Seagal's character go to Poland. Instead of something like, say, a distress letter from the girl, they just have him go, like he's psychic or something. Also, we never find out why the feds want him dead. It's assumed that we'll buy that the feds are dicks, and they just want people dead. Who knows? Perhaps worst of all, the Turks are portrayed in this as very scheming and untrustworthy. Maybe someone in Ankara should consider getting Turkey a better agent.
Seagal's female partner is of course ludicrously attractive, and unrealistically attracted to Seagal. Even sillier, she's shot at one point, and Seagal does an impromptu surgery to remove the bullet with some garden variety kitchen utensils. Who writes these moronic scenes? Not only that, but who bankrolls this kind of stupidity? I mean, I expect a certain level of lowest common denominator out of a direct to video Steven Seagal film, but having him do surgery is just beyond all sensibility.
I'd be remiss if I didn't devote a paragraph to this film's baddie, Matt Schulze. He's as great in this as he is in Transporter, Torque, or the Point Break rip-off Fast and the Furious. For me he's like the Vin Diesel of baddies, and I'd love to see him more stuff. Dolph and Van Damme, take a page from Seagal and Jason Statham, and sign this guy on to play your nemesis in your next movie. Please.
If you're having a Seagal night, this wouldn't be a bad choice, especially if you're either focusing in on his newer DTV stuff, or you're showcasing his older, mainstream stuff, and you want a new one for juxtaposition. It's plenty silly to get you to the church on time. The action's a little lackluster, but what there is is pretty good, and you've always got that hilarious opening with the Seagal Snagglepuss voice voice-over. I would recommend renting or TiVoing, but not buying until you've seen it once.
For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377100/
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