Half Past Dead

Audience Reviews

View More (386)

Ola G In San Francisco, FBI agent Sasha Petrosevitch (Steven Seagal) goes undercover as a Russian car thief and is brought in by criminal Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) to work for crime boss Sonny Eckvall, who apparently shot and killed Sasha's wife. After some time, FBI Special Agent Ellen Williams and her team show up to nail Nick, but things go wrong, and Sasha gets shot. After eight months of recovery following his brief bout of being clinically dead from the shooting, Sasha is incarcerated along with Nick in the newly reopened Alcatraz prison. Run by the charismatic warden, Juan Ruiz "El Fuego" Escarzaga, the place is known for its new state of the art death chamber where the condemned can choose from five different ways to die: lethal injection, gas chamber, hanging, firing squad, or electric chair. Lester McKenna (Bruce Weitz) is the first death row prisoner brought to the new Alcatraz and also the first prisoner scheduled to be executed. An older man, he stole $200,000,000 worth of gold bricks in a heist that resulted in five deaths and hid the loot at an unknown location. Federal Bureau of Prisons head Frank Hubbard and Supreme Court Justice Jane McPherson have arrived to witness the execution, which is a result of Jane sentencing Lester. But she's not the only one interested in Lester. A small but well-equipped team of terrorists who call themselves the "49ers" have parachuted onto the Alcatraz island and gained control of it. Led by 49er One, a.k.a. Hubbard's assistant Donny Johnson (Morris Chestnut), and 49er Six (Nia Peeples), the team finds Lester, and they want him to give up the location of his hidden stash of gold... Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads: "Seagal is now too bulky to make a convincing action hero, and Half Past Dead is too silly and incoherent to deliver any visceral kicks." It was ranked number 61 in a Rotten Tomatoes editorial on the 100 worst movies of all time. Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Half Past Dead is like an alarm that goes off with nobody in the room. It does its job, stops, and nobody cares." Seagal was nominated for Worst Actor at the 2002 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards and the 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards. (Via Wikipedia) It's no big secret that Steven Seagal´s heydays are over a long time ago. The last movie he made that actually was worth watching was "Exit Wounds" from 2001. Which was the final film under his exclusive contract with Warner Bros. "Half Past Dead" came out the year after and what a piece of garbage it is. The film was panned by critics, and only grossed $19 million worldwide against its $25 million production budget. "Half Past Dead" was Steven Seagal's last widely released film before he shifted to several direct-to-video films which is what he still does. The storyline in "Half Past Dead" is beyond silly in many ways and at this point Seagal had clearly gotten out of shape and I guess that is why there's some many extreme close ups of him. In his bandana.... The action is generic and truly stupid/not believable and so is the dialogue. The pairing of Seagal and Ja Rule is not working at all and this "chemistry" contains of several cringe worthy scenes. The cinematography is cheap and it´s clear the budget didn't allow to create a film of a higher standard within this genre. The only treat in this failure is Nia Peeples as 49er Six. She carries her role and is believable in her action sequences. Like her looks with the black outfit and this baby blueish eyeshadow. That makes her stand out. The rest has to go to the garbage bin. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/31/25 Full Review David W I love a good action movie but hate a bad one... Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 08/09/25 Full Review Cinder S Top 10 movie of all time Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/06/25 Full Review Christopher J if you like tons of action and guns blazing this is the movie for you Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/20/24 Full Review John K Ugh. Beginning of the end of Seagal's career. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 12/26/23 Full Review William D One of the worst movies I have ever seen. Do not watch this movie. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 11/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Half Past Dead

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Most Popular at Home Now