It's a well-established tradition that Steven Seagal never breaks sweat when breaking people's bones. In this asinine action movie, though, he plays an ex-CIA mercenary who's so dispassionate that he could be auditioning for a role in one of George A Romero's zombie films. The overly convoluted plot shifts from a war-torn African island and on to American soil, then to a bank robbery and prison break in Cape Town, as Seagal searches for the elusive CIA villain (Luke Goss) who's betrayed him. Despite the high-tech heist scenes and globetrotting backdrop this is a tatty affair, with the military sequences looking like they were shot on a blank-firing army training exercise. Even Seagal's hand-to-hand fighting features several glaringly obvious pulled punches. It's a sad day when even the fight choreographer has thrown in the towel.

Mercenary John Seeger is one of the best in the business. John and his crew battle some soldiers on Galmoral Island in Southern Africa as they're trying to rescue the French Ambassador -- there's a coup going on. Some of John's soldiers unload their machine guns into the Ambassador and his family, blowing the mission and getting his best friend Radio Jones killed. He heads back to the US and visits Radio's wife Shondra to tells her the news, and then promises that he'll take care of her and her son Eddie. But shortly after he makes that vow, Shondra and Eddie get kidnapped.