Coming relatively early on in Steven Seagal's career "Under Siege" is one of his better movies with its "Die Hard" style storyline. But whilst it is one of Seagal's better movies and to be honest it is entertaining to watch, in a no brainer way, it does end up feeling weak compared to similar movies which see a hero take on a group of terrorists single handedly. It delivers everything which you expect, some humour, plenty of action, over the top bad guys and a beautiful young woman to stop it from just being all men.

With the USS Missouri heading to be decommissioned it finds itself in trouble when Cmdr. Krill (Gary Busey - Point Break) sneaks aboard a group of terrorists who take control of the ship and plan to steal the nuclear missiles in order to sell them to the highest bidder. But what they didn't count on was ships cook Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal - The Glimmer Man) as unbeknown to everyone he is a Navy Seal serving out his time aboard the Missouri. Discovering that Krill and former special ops agent Stranix (Tommy Lee Jones - JFK) are running the ship, Ryback becomes a one man army as he tries to stop them from stealing the weapons.

The actual storyline to "Under Siege" has something very "Die Hard" about it as we are taken aboard the USS Missouri and introduced to the cook Casey Ryback who whilst popular with many of the crew does not see eye to eye with Cmdr. Krill. It's all very obvious and seriously telegraphed so before long the Missouri has been taken over by Krill and the dangerous Stranix meaning Ryback will have to save the day and the fact that he is a highly trained and decorated Navy Seal helps matters ever so slightly. Of course it's all very far fetched but also what you expect as we watch Ryback dispatch various terrorists be it through actually fighting them or doing a "MacGyver" and creating adhoc bombs such as one in a microwave.

And that is why "Under Siege" ends up being entertaining because it knows what it is, an action movie, and delivers one entertaining action scene after another. You don't care that it's all over the top and to be honest a lot of Macho B.S. because it is exciting when Ryback creatively sets up another adhoc bomb. And because it knows what it is it doesn't try to inflict to much back story on us, it fills in the gaps so we learn who is who, that Stranix is a special ops agent who has gone bad and so on but allows the action and occasional wise crack to entertain.

Talking of which the humour is also exactly what you expect from this sort of movie with witty one liners being dispatched when ever Ryback fights a bad guy. And if it's not Ryback delivering the comedy it is Tommy Lee Jones whose purposely over the top bad guy has an almost "Joker" element to him as he struts about in a deranged way. Add to that a topless Erika Eleniak who rather cheesily bursts out of an over sized cake and there is a strong stream of humour which flows through out "Under Siege". It's not as inspired as the humour in say a "Die Hard" movie but it works in tandem with all the action.

Now the ironic thing is that whilst "Under Siege" is one of Steven Seagal's better movies it is hard to say that his performance is that good. As Ryback, Seagal almost walks through the movie in an ultra cool, emotionless state never changing his expression or showing any emotion be it when he is dispatching a bad guy or making a wise crack. It's just very wrong and maybe Seagal wanted to make Ryback this ultra cool and in control hero but as a central character it is weak. Thankfully Gary Busey who plays Cmdr. Krill and Tommy Lee Jones who plays Stranix make up for what seems an emotionless performance from Seagal with plenty of over the top bad guy acting.

What this all boils down to is that "Under Siege" is an entertaining movie and one of the better movies which Steven Seagal has made. But when compared to similar movies which see one man saving the day against some terrorists it is weaker in almost every department, from the script through to the action. But it does work and you can easily watch "Under Siege" purely for the action which is both occasionally comical as well as brutal.