It's REEL To Me Dammit: Maximum Conviction by PaperClipMike

Horror movies will always be my first love. But if I had a second favorite child it would be action movies. All I need is shoot-outs, decent fight scenes, explosions, maybe a car chase or two, easy peasy. I would like it to be acted well, but sometimes a movie with not the best acting makes it better in a charming way. A great example of an action movie that checks all my boxes and even acted well is “The Raid: Redemption” and its sequel “The Raid 2.” The first one is one of my favorite action movies of all time and some say that the sequel surpasses it. But sometimes you just need an ‘empty calorie’ movie, and that brings us to today’s offering, “Maximum Conviction”.

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin is one of the best of all time, not a hyperbole. I first remember him as a kid in WCW as “Stunning” Steve Austin, wildly different from SCSA. Think of it as similar to Dolph Ziggler. He was a WCW TV Champ, a Tag Champ, and a US Champ. He was even a member of one of my all-time fave stables ever, The Dangerous Alliance. He was one of the greats, but the Attitude Era put him over as one of the best. As one of the main stars of his time, he delved into acting, mainly on TV. I remember him having a recurring role on the TV show “Nash Bridges”. 

Once he retired after Wrestlemania XIX, he mainly stayed with action movies. While there were a few that hit theatres, like “The Expendables” and “The Condemned”, most of them went direct to video, my bread and butter.

On the other hand, we have the other Steven in the movie, Seagal. To be honest, I do like some of his earlier movies. Movies like “Out for Justice”, “Hard to Kill”, and “Marked for Death”. But he has not made a good movie where he was the primary focus since “Exit Wounds” in 2001. He almost reminds me of Vince Russo. If he is kept in check, he can do good things. Left to his own devices, well…most of his straight-to-DVD movies are very bad. I remember one time when I was in the Army, I saw a movie called “Out of Sight” for ten bucks. I bought it, unaware at the time of the reputation these movies had. I went back to my barracks room to watch it. It was so bad that I have not watched it again, some twenty years later.

Seagal also has a reputation for being one of the worst people to work with, period. His arrogance, his treatment of women, and his bullying of others on the set, actors and crew alike. John Leguizamo tells a story that while during pre-production for “Executive Decision” he was slammed against a wall for telling a joke. Hell, cast, crew, and viewers of “Saturday Night Live” consider him one of, if not, the worst hosts in the 50-year history of the show. However, every once in a while, he does get his comeuppance. Look up the story between him and “Judo” Gene Lebelle. I could go on for days, but we have a movie to cover.

“Maximum Conviction” takes place in a prison waiting to be decommissioned. Both Steves are there, as Seagal works there as part of the security. We are also told more than once by people that he is a tactical genius because of course he is. And SCSA is there as part of a team to help transport the prisoners since they are some bad hombres. We see how bad they are in a scene where a Bob Sapp lookalike easily dismantles a guard. So do we get some sort of awesome fight scene where the Steves, Austin and Seagal, team up. Does SCSA drop a Stunner and the birds? Of course not, silly. Seagal goes in there and easily dismantles Not Sapp with his famous phantom ninja slaps. I audibly groaned as I watched this. Remember guys, Seagal can’t look weak in his movies, ever.

Anyway, even though this prison is being decommissioned, they get the arrival of two female prisoners. We see Austin getting ready to go out and get drinks with his team since there is nothing for them to do until the next day. However, the warden stops him and tells him that since the prison took these females in, they are not decommissioned yet, so he is stuck there until the women leave. So Seagal does the manly thing and leaves him to take the men out for a drink. A great way for him to leave for most of the movie. Thanks, Steve!

There is something I do need to touch on briefly for a second. I do understand that at the filming of this SCSA was in his early 50’s with Segal about 12 years older. Even with suspending your disbelief, there still has to be a bit of realism in action movies, particularly in the fights. To this day, Austin is still in great shape, so it did look more realistic when he did his action scenes, you could buy it. Seagal was the complete opposite. If he was in the shape he was in, in say “Hard to Kill”, I could buy it. But he is so far gone from that era, it looks awful. And when he does fight, he gives absolutely no effort, taking you out of it.

Anyway, back to the topic again. We get a couple of federal agents coming to the gate who are obviously just the villains in disguise. I did get excited when I saw the head villain as he is played by Michael Pare. Pare was not only the protagonist in my all-time fave movie “Streets of Fire” and also in the very underrated “Eddie and the Cruisers”. So the bad guys are able to infiltrate the prison from the front and a contingent of bad guys come in through a shipping area. And this is where the meat of the action kicks in.

Austin does so well here. The action scenes with him were a fun, good mix of melee and shootouts. He comes across as someone who has done this all his life. Unlike the other Steve in this movie, he isn’t afraid to take a lick in a fight, even from a woman. Oh, I forgot, the maguffin the villains are coming for was sewn inside of one of the female prisoners? The other? She is one of the bad guys. The scene where they discover what the villains are after makes it so obvious she is bad. All she was missing was the mustache to twirl.

So after Austin is able to hold off the bad guys for a while, Seagal and the rest of the team comes back and the action amps up into the climax. Great shootout action. And Seagal does what Seagal does…the bare minimum. But there is one moment that became my fave part of the movie and it comes from one of Austin’s fire team, played by an actor named Bren Foster

So Bren Foster is not only and actor and voice actor (who played the titular Mad Max in the underrated video game), he is an acclaimed martial artist with a black belt in four different styles. With the fire team pinned down, he is able to flank the bad guy cannon fodder and engages in a fight scene that was way more badass than I ever expected. I am not sure if he choreographed it or not, but it was easily the best part of the movie. One of the better fight scenes I have seen in a while. Seek it out on the internet and thank me later.

Anyway, it comes down to Pare and Seagal in the climactic fight scene, because of course, Seagal has to be in the final fight scene. Now I do have some weapons training from my time in the military, but I may be wrong since I did not train with a shotgun, so correct me if I am wrong. Seagal has one of those full auto shotguns with a drum, similar to what Terry Crews had in “The Expendables”. Now, if he is aiming down the sights and is going full send, wouldn’t the recoils just wreck his face? Anywho, the fight goes as expected, Seagal wins with nary a scratch and tries to get philosophical before killing the bad guy and walks away after killing him.

So all the good guys celebrate outside after the events of the movie. They tease a maybe sequel that thankfully never happens and we fade to black.

In all honestly, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I went in expecting to not like it, and ended up not hating it. Was it laden with tropes and everything you expect to see from action movies of this level? Yes. But as I explained in my review of “Mr. Nanny”, sometimes that is a good thing. And to be honest, the lack of Segal is what I enjoyed most. He is ok in very small doses and I got the maximum adult dose here. If you are looking for an ‘empty’ calorie action movie, this is worth a shot.

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