I may sound biased, but I don't like Steven Seagal(except for Under Siege and a couple of others) and most of the direct-to-video releases he's done. Today You Die is a pretty poor movie, however with stuff like Submerged and particularly Out for a Kill, Seagal has done worse. The photography and editing aren't as slipshod or as dull as they can be, Nick Mancuso is good and the final explosion is spectacular. Even Seagal is better than usual, however that doesn't necessarily mean he was good, in fact it was still a lazy performance but at least the lines were intelligible. The action didn't do much for me, because of the sluggish pace in general of the film, it felt unexciting, while the plot is derivative with too many plot holes to push a delivery truck through, Treech is very irritating, the script is really quite dumb in places and the soundtrack was not to my taste, too loud and overdone. All in all, a poor film but not among Seagal's worst. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The law of diminishing returns sees Steven Seagal's career sliding into oblivion, but I still manage to get a kick out of about half the straight-to-DVD movies he has coming out now. Unfortunately, TODAY YOU DIE isn't in that half: it's one of his worst films, an utterly low-budgeted, unoriginal attempt at an action thriller that rips footage from close to half a dozen other movies from the last ten years. Stuff from a Peter Weller film is in here, along with shots from Van Damme's THE ORDER, and you have to wonder just what the heck is going on when Seagal's using a body double for much of the running time.

Unsurprisingly, the film is packed with continuity errors and other assorted goofs. The plot is threadbare and tattered, another silly excuse just to have Seagal wandering around, shooting people and beating them up. He takes part in a couple of fight scenes, but the rest use a stuntman to double for him. The funniest bit was when one fight is shot from the neck down, just when you thought they couldn't make it any plainer that Seagal took no part in it. These fights scenes would be quite entertaining if it wasn't for the obvious doubling, so it's a shame they found it necessary to do it.

Elsewhere, the script is laughable and the film makes ANOTHER return to prison, where Seagal once again bonds with the black inmates and teams up with a black rapper-turned-wannabe-actor (sigh). Yet again he doesn't have to wear traditional prison garb although every other inmate does. The cast is an assorted mix of has-beens and wannabes, including a surgically altered TV actress, an almost unrecognisable returning actor from Seagal's glory days (Nick Mancuso from UNDER SIEGE I & II) and Robert Miano, a trash favourite. Seagal doesn't even try here and word has it that he often didn't bother turning up on set. The film as a result is an unwatchable mess, one to laugh at rather than enjoy. Director Don E. Fauntleroy's next collaboration with Seagal, MERCENARY FOR JUSTICE, turned out to be a lot better.

I have always had a mixed opinion about the action star, probably only because I haven't seen enough of his films to properly judge him, Under Siege is certainly good fun, so I decided to try and watch more of his stuff, starting with this straight to video film. Basically half good half bad, but mainly good thief Harlan Banks (Steven Seagal) has one many jobs, but from the urging of his girlfriend Jada (Mari Morrow) he pulls off what will be his last job, with some guys trying to steal $20,000,000. He is hired to drive the truck through las Vegas, and when the job goes wrong thanks to a double-crosser, he is held up by Bruno (Robert Miano) by force to drive away, until the guy gets out, and Harlan is arrested for the crime he didn't commit. Now in prison, Harlan is very eager to get revenge on the men who framed him, and in the meantime he makes a friend with fellow inmate Ice Kool (Anthony 'Treach' Criss),and they plan their escape. Before they do Harlan has a few interviews with Agent Rachel Knowles (Sarah Buxton) who is trying to recover the stolen money, but she may actually be some sort of accomplice, as she may believe he was indeed framed. So Harlan and Kool do escape in a helicopter landing near the prison, and they make their way around to find all those responsible for the framing. The hardest target is going to be the mastermind of the job, the supposedly dead but actually not Max Stevens (Escape to Witch Mountain's Kevin Tighe),and they also find out Agent Saunders (Nick Mancuso),Rachel's higher authority, is in on it too. In the end Max and Saunders do indeed both get their comeuppance, Harlan is allowed to go free and with Jada do his good work with whatever money he got to make a children's hospital. Also starring Jamie McShane as Vincent and Lawrence Turner as Garret. Seagal does make a not too bad double-edged anti-hero, the dialogue I will agree could be much improved, but as long as their were enough action, chase and explosive sequences you can't complain too much, an alright action drama. Okay!