Shadow Man * (2006, Steven Seagal, Eva Pope, Imelda Staunton) – Classic Movie Review 12,977

Director Michael Keusch’s mediocre 2006 American action thriller spy movie Shadow Man is written and produced by Steven Seagal, who also stars with English actress Eva Pope, English actress and singer Dame Imelda Staunton, British actor Vincent Riotta, Welsh actor Michael Elwyn, British-Canadian actor Garrick Hagon, and Scottish actor Alex Ferns.

Seagal plays a former CIA agent who goes in search of his missing daughter. The film is set in Bucharest, Romania, where it was filmed in 49 days from 13 July 2005 to 31 August 2005.

It is tolerable routine later Seagal, with no surprises or delights in its regulation story and usual mix of action and martial arts fights, the excitement enhanced by stunt doubles and blue screen. But there is one unpredictable twist to the story. It’s shock to find Steven Seagal and Imelda Staunton appearing together in Shadow Man.

Imelda Staunton plays American Ambassador Cochran. She has admitted she did the film for money and to try out an American accent. She filmed for two days, but Seagal did not film any reverse scenes with her, so instead she performed all her scenes with Seagal’s stand-in and a Romanian film student, who read Seagal’s dialogue off camera.

But it didn’t go well. It wasn’t a marriage made in heaven, just in Bucharest, and more of a brief encounter than a marriage, and a fumbling one at that. Imelda says: ‘I wouldn’t work with Steven Seagal again. It was a sub-James Bond in Romania and I played the US ambassador. Before I left England the producer said “I just want to tell you Steven does not do reverse scenes”, which means he doesn’t do a scene unless the camera is on him.’

So in every shot where Imelda is speaking and you only see the back of Seagal’s head, it is actually a “slightly cross-eyed” stand-in, while a Romanian film student and set assistant are reading out his lines.

Imelda recalls: ‘He kept calling my character “Darling” when I was supposed to be the US ambassador! It took me all my strength not to get up and say ‘This is not what I do”.’

I have to say Imelda only has herself to blame, and it might have been more polite to draw a veil over the whole thing, and have maintained a dignified silence later.

The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the US on 6 June 2006 and on Region 2 in the UK on 30 October 2006 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The cast are Steven Seagal as Jack Foster, Eva Pope as Anya, Imelda Staunton as Ambassador Cochran, Vincent Riotta as Harry, Michael Elwyn as George, Skye Bennett as Amanda Foster, Garrick Hagon as Agent Waters, and Alex Ferns as Schmitt.

Seagal was born on April 10, 1952, in Lansing, Michigan. He made his acting debut in Above the Law in 1988 and has appeared in more than 50 films. He is a supporter of Vladimir Putin, calling him ‘one of the great living world leaders’. Seagal was granted both Russian and Serbian citizenship in 2016, and he was appointed Russia’s special envoy to the US in 2018.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,977

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