There's a moment in Howard Hawks' congenial Western, "Rio Bravo," in which some bad guys have captured Wayne and are forcing him to trick a deputy into releasing a prisoner. Wayne, in his John Wayneness, has previously rid the world of a passel of evildoers. As they ready themselves, Wayne mutters something expressive of reluctance, and one of the bad guys says, "If it had been up to me, you'd have never got up off the floor. Some of those you killed were friends of mine."

None of that sentimental crap here. None of the dozen or more heavies is friends with any of the others. Instead, they slap each other around, issue orders, leave each other to bleed out, curse one another, and sacrifice each other without blinking an eye. In one case, I think, they sacrifice one of their own simply because leaving him behind the train would seem untidy.

And the villains are -- or should be -- the best part of a cartoon movie like this. They LOOK fine, for heavies. They're ugly and/or sinister and all are brutish, though, at times, Steven Seagal dispatches them with such alacrity that we can't register which is which. They're just bodies slumping bloodied to the floor of the speeding train or acrobatically tumbling off a high span bridge. It doesn't matter. They all look as if they should have been strangled with their own placentas. Except for Peter Greene as a subordinate villain. He not only looks the part; he can act too. (Catch him in "The Usual Suspects.")

Maybe I should mention the plot. Sure, why not? Eric Bogosian is a computer genius who has commandeered a secret satellite that can virtually destroy anything on earth. It can cause subterranean earthquakes or shoot down airplanes or whatever else is required to make the brass at the Pentagon tremble. He wants a billion dollars not to trash the Pentagon -- and he gets it. Oh, and he makes a hundred million on the side by destroying the unpleasant wife of some rich guy. Steven Seagal -- surprise! -- foils the plan and kills all the evildoers.

Hundreds of people are held hostage aboard the train. Seagal saves them all, except a young couple from the Pentagon who give Bogosian the required passwords rather than have their eyeballs coagulated by a red-hot needle. Besides, they were fornicating, so they deserve being thrown to their deaths, such fraternization being against Pentagon policy.

I don't know why the other passengers are allowed to survive. Okay, maybe they weren't having unmarried sex with one another. Not as far as we know anyway. But none of them can act. Appearing in an important role, as Katherine Heigl does, and being bereft of talent is a worse sin than fornication in my book. She's young and tender but she looks sassy enough, and she's supposed to be Seagal's niece, so I suppose they let her survive with the others.

In the Pentagon group -- those guys sweating it out and trying to figure out how to stop Bogosian from destroying the world -- Kurtwood Smith is his reliable self and so is Dale Dye, looking abominably fit in his Navy captain's uniform.

The direction follows the simplicity of the story. Multiple close ups almost burst out of the screen. For important or unusually witty wisecracks, EXTREME close ups are used. Eric Bogosian never looks at a camera or a computer monitor without the exposure of every pore of his face. You can almost see his pupils dilate when the lights go off at the end of a take.

Of Steven Seagal, what is left to be said? Mano a mano with skilled martial arts experts leaves him unscathed -- not even breathless -- while his opponent fights dirty, curses violently, and invariably loses and winds up covered with blood. Seagal doesn't even have one of those trickles of blood from the corner of his lips. He can't. He's superhuman, supernatural. When his train crashes head on into another, he can outrun the impact and throw himself onto a helicopter ladder. Yet, I'm not sure he's that bright. There is a CD ROM that makes it possible for Bogosian to control the satellite. Seagal and a sidekick manage to steal it and leave the train. A land pursuit follows because the terrorists need the CD and want it back. Why doesn't Seagal just throw the CD irretrievably into the canyon? Did Superman ever take an IQ test? Inquiring minds want to know.

Under Siege was a highly entertaining movie and Steven Seagal's best film by quite a wide margin. This sequel is disappointing in comparison, but is a major step-up from the derivative, shoddily made and poorly paced and scripted DTV movies he churned out over the years. The film looks fairly reasonable, yes with the need of some tighter editing but the photography and locations are good. Seagal is not great by all means, but he does try his best with the thoroughly decent action and set pieces. The soundtrack is energetic and driven, and I did like the train setting. However, the script is clichéd and weak, the story is unevenly paced(with a good beginning and end but sloppy middle section) and derivative, the direction is adequate at best, the (seemingly essential) sidekicks are clichéd and annoying and Eric Bogosian is pretty naff as the villain of the piece. Overall, disappointing but not a bad movie as such. 5/10 Bethany Cox

In 1992, there came a film which popularised a new action superstar to the world. That film was UNDER SIEGE, and that man was Steven Seagal. Three years later, the inevitable sequel arrived, and it was a flop. In fact, it went straight to video in this country. The law of diminishing returns simply meant that it just wouldn't hold up to the original film. But then I found out something strange. It did. And, in fact, it's better than the original classic, which was pretty darned good as well. Perhaps it's the pacing, the setting, or the creative force behind the film which makes it work, or perhaps it's simply the sight of Seagal beating up bad guys once again. I don't know, but I love this film.

The use of a train as a setting is a neat idea, and the scenes are all played very well. Every inch of the train is used for action and stalking sequences, and Seagal even gets off the train at one point, only to board it (by jumping from a speeding car) later on. It's fantastically unrealistic, but it's still hugely enjoyable. Seagal hides in the toilet, in the cold storage, everywhere really, and as it's a double decker train, there are always enough places to hide in.

Although there's been an obvious weight gain since UNDER SIEGE, Seagal is still on top form, using a wide variety of weaponry against the many bad guys he kills in this film. He throws knives, shoots different guns, stabs, breaks wrists and necks, burns, throws people from trains (and under trains),punches, kicks, and even practises martial arts on the baddies, so that the death scenes are never boring, just very creative. The claret is on full flow in this film too, with all of the wrist-snapping neck-cracking bone-breaking bloody action that we have come to expect from a Seagal movie. Seagal confessed that he was down while making the film due to a split up with his wife, but don't worry, it doesn't show. In fact he doesn't need to show much expression, as he's simply a quick, agile, intelligent killing machine with literally hundreds of tricks up his sleeve.

Eric Bogosian hams it up deliciously as the over the top villain, and he's memorable for it; hardly threatening though, and more like a computer geek. The brawn is supplied in the hefty form of Everett McGill, a guy who uses pepper spray as mouth wash and who cuts an imposing presence on screen. The final showdown between himself and Seagal is superb, probably the best fight ever, and it lasts for a while as well (something of a change in a Seagal film). I loved it. The rest of the cast support the main actors well, with an unwilling accomplice, a young tough teenage girl facing certain death, Brenda Bakke as the glamour interest, two military guys returning from Under Siege and memorable screen villain Kurtwood Smith as a stuffy officer.

If you're interested in DIE HARD rip-offs, then this really is one of the best. It has it all, a brilliant explosive climax where Seagal outruns a moving train wreck, gun play, gore, violence, suspense, everything. In fact, it's one of my favourite films of all time, and along with UNDER SIEGE, is one of the very best films in Seagal's filmography. I really can't think of a way to make it better or make my enjoyment of it greater.