When you have action stars like Steven Segal and Steve Austin in a film together, it immediately gets my interest. Whether it’s Segal in films like “Under Seige” and “Machette:” or Austin as a wrestler and films like “The Expendables” and “The Condemned”, they’ve always grabbed my attention. This leads me to “Maximum Conviction”.
The film follows Steele (Steven Segal) and Manning (Steve Austin), two ex Special Forces soldiers turned security contractors. Their assignment was to clear a prison from a decommissioned military prison. It was supposed to be easy, until a coldblooded team of mercenaries hit the prison looking for the woman that has government secrets. If Steele and Manning’s problems weren’t any worse, they’ve let loose some of the most dangerous criminals out of their cells. Now Steele and Manning are in the fight of their lives to find the prisoner, as they’re caught in a dangerous fight between the prisoners and the people that are out to find her and take the secrets for themselves.
Film Review:
This film isn’t the best action film that I seen, but I enjoyed “Maximum Conviction for the most part. One of things that I liked about this was the film’s direction. Director Keoni Waxman does a good job making the action sequences work. The scenes were action packed, as they were engaging and intense. What make the scenes and sequences work was his ability to make them move at a fast pace. There really wasn’t a moment in the film, where I felt bored. If the scenes moved at a slow pace and had no intensity, then this would’ve been a different story. The other thing that he does well was the way that he handled both Segal and Austin’s performance. You know that you’re not going to get award winning performances from these action stars. But as long as you get the performances from them to fit the tone of the film, then the film would be fun. You get that here, as Waxman gets both Segal and Austin to make the scenes intense through the various action scenes. It makes you interested in the action scenes. That’s what you want with a film like this.
The screenplay written by Richard Beattie was weak for the most part. It lacks in story and development of the characters. He doesn’t do go job developing the back-story of the characters. You don’t get many back stories to the characters and that hurt it a little bit. I like my characters to have some sort of story, but you don’t get a sense of it here. The other thing that I didn’t like was the fact that the surprise was predictable. I won’t give it away, but I got the sense that something wasn’t right with a prisoner right away. It felt too predictable. When that happens and you turn out to be right, then it doesn’t feel important to the film.
Even though I didn’t like most of his screenplay, there was something that I liked that made me forgive these flaws. Beattie does a very good job giving his characters personality and some very cleaver lines, while writing very solid action sequences. It made the characters fun to watch and helped make the action scenes work and despite the screenplay’s flaws in the story. It ultimately made me enjoy this film, even though I had grips with it.
Blu-Ray Extras:
The first extra on the blu-ray is the film’s audio commentary track with executive producer/ director Keoni Waxman and co- executive producer Binh Dang. This was a good commentary track. The two of them did a good job taking about the production of the film. From the stories on the set to them talking about the cast, they give you information on the making of the film. I also liked how they went into screenplay. It provided an explanation to my grips about it, which made me understand why they did that. Overall, a good commentary track.
After that, the extras go downhill. The first featurette on the disc is the film’s behind the scenes featurette. It’s pretty much your typical ten minute featurette with interviews from the cast and filmmakers. It doesn’t go in-depth into the production process, as it’s your standard behind the scenes featurette. After that, there are two interviews with Steve Austin and Bree Forster. Both of the interviews clocked in less than two minutes. That’s a problem, as I want to hear their thoughts about their character and the filming of the film. Instead, it felt like the interview focused on them. It made the interviews boring to watch. The disc finally wraps up with “Icons”. This featurette goes into the two main stars of film. Like the interviews, this featurette is very brief and not good. Besides the good commentary track on the disc, the extras felt very lacking.
Final Summary:
Overall “Maximum Conviction” is an action packed film filled with good actions. Fans of Steven Segal and Steve Austin will enjoy this film, while others may or may enjoy this. It depends how much your into these types of films.
Review Rating: Three Stars
Blu-Ray Extras: Two Stars
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