Marked for Death (1990)

(On TV, April 2020) In his third movie Marked for Death, Steven Seagal takes on Jamaican drug dealers because, hey, the endless body count has to come from somewhere, right? Dating from the time when Seagal’s films were still professionally made and theatrically released, this is still a somewhat average circa-1990 B-movie action thriller: don’t get your hopes when people will tell you that “it’s better than average Seagal” because the floor on those movies as a whole is incredibly low. Considering that the film takes on Jamaican voodoo-dealing criminal gangs shooting up an all-American city, it’s about as stereotypical as you can imagine, and occasionally even more so. Seagal eventually takes the fight back to the entire island of Jamaica for good measure. The Seagal persona is almost, but not completely solidified at this point of his career—although, amusingly, there’s a point when he gets in a tight spot and is still slim enough to slip through. It’s not all boring, but the rewards are rare and slight—the decent car chase midway through is notable largely because it’s a break from Seagal stone-facing his way through endless fights.