The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Two ex-Special Forces soldiers, Cross (Seagal) and Manning (Austin), who are "The Best" (obviously), are assigned to go into a prison and lead two female prisoners, Charlotte and Samantha (O'Brien and Song), who clearly were arrested for their appearances in Sex and the City, out of the building to safety. Trouble arises in the form of Blake (Pare), a super-evil baddie who wants the prisoners for his own reasons, which are not very clearly delineated. So Blake sends teams of his goons to go after Cross and Manning. As the four of them try to exit the building, the "secret identities" of the mysterious women slowly come out into the open. Meanwhile our two heroes have to use their training to fend off many attacks from the goons. Will they all make it out alive? The good: it was interesting that Steve n' Steve (as their team-up should invariably be called) weren't at odds and didn't bicker the whole time. They were on the same side, which was nice. Stone Cold certainly looks intimidating, which goes a long way, and kind of counterbalances Seagal's painted-on, Eddie Munster hair and the silliness that arises from the fact that because the movie is so dark (apparently the budget couldn't include ever turning on the lights - yes, it's one of those) - and Seagal wears loose, flowing black clothing, so he just looks like a floating head a lot of the time. That of course when he's not wearing a backwards baseball cap and sunglasses, in a patently absurd Mountain Dew-slamming attempt to look "young". And when you distill it all down, there's a few minutes worth of decent material, most of it coming from Austin and Pare.The bad news: Steven Seagal plays yet another unlikable mush-mouth who beats and mangles his fellow human beings with unnecessary cruelty and a marked lack of fun. He actually has an unlikable fighting style, if that makes any sense. Ostensibly it's Aikido, but thanks to Seagal's weight, his proclivity for slapping people, and the fact that he thinks he's Asian, he truly is America's E. Honda. But Honda was never a sadistic torturer like Seagal seems to have become in his more recent DTV efforts. We certainly don't want to pile on Seagal for his weight issues, on the contrary, this movie seems to be spinning his girth for the positive. For example, there are a few obvious shots of his double chin, and the character of Cross always seems to know what's going on, regardless of his location in the movie. So perhaps, as Spider Man has his "spidey sense", Cross has some sort of "double chin sense" that helps him.But as for the movie itself, besides the aforementioned lack of lighting, a horrible trend in movie-making we hope goes away soon, there are lots of gimmicky editing tricks, which don't need to be there and seem like an attempt to be "cool". There are CGI bullet hits, among other CGI stupidity, and the whole outing gets off to a slow start, a lot of the beginning portion could have been trimmed down. Pare is good, and we're glad he was involved, but we would have liked if his character had more dimension. He pretty much just says "get to the extraction point" numerous times and does a generic bad guy thing. If his character, not to mention all the other characters, had just a tad bit more depth, the movie would have been a lot better overall and you'd really care. But as it stands, its budgetary limitations show due to the fact that it was all shot in one location, in Canada no less - but the real problem is that this movie is, sadly, a product of the modern-day times. Baddies have iPads and the whole thing is just heartless and soulless.Despite a couple of little things going for it, the overall joylessness sinks Maximum Conviction.

When Cross (Steven Seagal) and Manning (Steve Austin) are tasked with the routine decommissioning of a top secret C.I.A prison facility, everything initially goes smoothly until the arrival of two mysterious female prisoners who are to be moved on the next day. However, when the prison comes under attack from a group of mercenaries, led by the brutal Blake (Michael Pare), who demand the handover of the new arrivals, only Cross and Manning can stop them.It's fair to say that the premise of Maximum Conviction is absolutely nothing new. Borrowing heavily from the plots of Die Hard, Assault on Precinct 13 and Seagal's own Half Past Dead, originality is certainly not on the menu. What is on the menu for viewers however, is a fast paced, brutal and highly enjoyable 98 minutes of mayhem.Seagal's fight sequences are the best he's delivered in a number of years. He's certainly beginning to show his age, but the choreography is spare, violent, simple and snappily edited, giving Seagal a chance to shine. From what I can make out, the use of stunt doubles is minimal. Steve Austin casts his considerable frame over proceedings, with his fight scenes being especially brutal. Whatever opinions people have of Austin's admittedly limited acting range, he is a heavyweight screen presence, a presence utilised to great effect here. A small criticism is that the pair don't nearly share enough screen time together.Michael Pare, an actor seemingly always more effective as the villain of the piece, is also on top form. Refreshingly, he plays his role not for villainous laughs, as happens so often in these kind of movies, but instead portrays callousness and sheer nastiness.It's worth noting that Seagal, after working with director Keoni Waxman in this movie and also the preceding The Keeper and A Dangerous Man, has continued to work with him for two more movies. Waxman, while not the greatest director, seems to be helping Seagal achieve some of the best work he has done in a long time, going a long way to exorcising the memory of some of Seagal's truly execrable misfires of the mid 2000's, such as Shadow Man, Attack Force and Flight of Fury. Waxman's style is direct, straightforward, free of flashy gimmicks and all about the action. Scenes featuring simply dialogue are somewhat rushed, but you forget that when the action is as entertaining and exciting as on offer here. The fights are well choreographed, plus the shootouts are tense, imaginative and highly effective. The movie barely pauses for breath thanks to it's simple and straightforward set up.Admittedly, Maximum Conviction is unlikely to win Steven Seagal (or indeed Steve Austin) many new fans, mostly due to the movie's unimaginative plot and bone crunching brutality. However, the high quality of action on display may go a long way to bringing some of Seagal's lapsed fans back to enjoying his movies again. As for loyal, existing fans of the two big guys, Maximum Conviction is absolutely essential viewing.

You wanna know the sad thing? I was actually a tad excited for this movie. I'm a Seagal fan when he's motivated, and Stone Cold Steve Austin is my favorite wrestler of all time. Seagal has never been a great actor, nor has Austin, but when they are on their games, their presences are very much welcomed, as is the charisma they possess. I should have known better to expect anything less then awful from Seagal, because that's exactly what this movie is. There isn't much action in this movie, and when fights do commence, they are either very short lived, or quite unexciting. The best fight doesn't even involve Seagal or Austin. It actually involves a woman and a huge black prisoner (!) When you're upstaged by a woman, and a big black guy, you know things are bad. The prison actually made for an interesting setting, but the chap budget, and the dull nature really hampers any chances of this movie being remotely entertaining. Steven Seagal does Steven Seagal. He's overweight as usual, looks like he'd rather be elsewhere, does some uninspired Akidio, and delivers some truly terrible dialogue. Here are a couple examples for you. "I got a better idea. Why don't you "F" your momma with your pet poodles" (Seagal breaking somebody's arm) "Does that hurt, you f**@king pussy?" He does the same lethargic BS that he's done for many years now. He's better than this; it's just that he doesn't give a damn. Nobody can criticize him of showing no emotion in this movie, though. He laughs once in the beginning…. Stone Cold fares a bit better. His character disappears a bit too often for my liking, and Seagal isn't interesting enough these days to pick up the slack. Steve actually has a couple of nifty one-liners, and actually tries, unlike Seagal. I've said this so many times. Austin is extremely charismatic. If they give him a decent script to work with, like The Condemned, he proves he can carry a movie. Those hoping for plenty of screen time of Seagal & Austin together will be exasperated when they see that they don't have as much screen time as you'd expect. Michael Pare is actually OK as the villain. Final Thoughts: Its overly talky, really boring, and it doesn't deliver any thrills. I should really give up on Seagal movies, but I'm actually a fan of his. He's becoming the action equivalent of Adam Sandler with his comedy movies. That's not a compliment… Don't get excited over the thought of Seagal & Austin teaming together, or you'll be greatly disappointed2.5/10

I would have given this one also a 7 1/2 rating as well. It is good to see Seagal getting back into action in a decent B-action movie. Especially after all the crap he's been making over the last couple of years. But it is hard not to see that the years of good living, eating and drinking have taken their toll on Seagal, he really looks old and out of shape, and no matter what they try to do with long and wide clothes, it is pretty clear the guy is fat. None the less this movie is exactly delivering what you're expecting, action, funny one-liners and huge amount of martial arts scenes, and some decent hand to hand combat scenes from Austin, and even a new upcoming guy is allowed to show off his kicks and punches. Bren Foster actually reminded me of the protégé of Van Damme , named Scott Adkins, and I hope we will get some movies off this guy coming out soon. So if you like this kind of movie, you wanna see some decent action sequences and you don't mind the gaps in the script, then is a must see for you, otherwise, stay away from it.