Steven Seagal has done some good, or at least watchable, films. Particularly 'Under Siege'. He has also done a lot of mediocre and less films, indicative of laziness and that Seagal was well past his sell by date, and a good deal of them are even very bad.

'The Asian Connection' for me is down there with Seagal's worst. Did not expect much, but watched it because Seagal has shown signs that he can be halfway decent and as said not all his films are bad. Also do appreciate the action genre and there are good films out there in the genre, classics even. 'The Asian Connection' is far from that, more closer to a waste of time that shows little signs of trying.

Seagal, in a role smaller than the advertising lets on, himself gives another lazy and wooden performance that shows that he was not interested and wanted to be somewhere else. His reading-from-an-autocue-like and robotic line delivery in particular betrays that. The rest of the cast are just as poor though in all fairness have little to work with and over-compensate.

The characters are ones we know very little about and don't care what happens to happen, so unengaging and one-dimensional they are. The dialogue is risible, with a lot of cheesiness, awkwardness and far too much talk delivered with little emotion or momentum and bordering on the near-incomprehensible.

Its excessively talky nature affects severely the pacing, which never comes to life. There is no urgency, let alone tension, intrigue or suspense. The action doesn't feature enough in comparison and suffer from pedestrian choreography and laughably bad editing. The story is by-the-numbers, dull and not always easy to follow.

Direction is flat and ill-at ease, while the sound/soundtrack are one-note and obvious as well as poorly recorded and the whole film looks cheap. And it's not just the editing, the slapdash effects and drab photography also. The only okay asset here is the backdrop sadly wasted by the rest of the production values being awful.

Overall, a mess. 1/10 Bethany Cox

THE ASIAN CONNECTION is yet another execrable Steven Seagal movie in which the actor barely appears aside from in a minor villain role. Most of the screen time is given over to young characters who have no charisma or presence, making it impossible for the viewer to care about their plight. It's yet another tale about a drug lord trying to get back some missing money, partially shot in Thailand. Michael Jai White is credited but only cameos, and Seagal delivers gruff, expletive-laden dialogue and barely fights. A dog, in other words.

This is another Seagal and Michael Jai White where there is little of either one.

Jack (John Edward Lee) has a Thai girlfriend Avalon (Pim Bubear) who works in a night club and a friend Sam (Byron Gibson) who doesn't like to be called stupid. They rob a bank in Cambodia and escape across the border. They ended up getting more money than they expected, What they don't know is that the money is marked and belongs to the lumbering crime boss Seagal. This then involves more robberies and a double cross.

This was basically a boring action/crime flick. Seagal has a fight scene in the beginning, but clearly he can't move anymore. John Edward Lee couldn't carry the film as his character was to play a straight man to everyone else, people who didn't have any decent lines.

This Seagal film was every bit as good as: "Sniper: Special Ops" for what its worth.

Guide: F-word. Rating claims "brief sexuality and nudity" I missed the nudity.