A Good Man | |
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Directed by | Keoni Waxman |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Nathan Wilson |
Edited by | Trevor Mirosh |
Music by | Brian Jackson Harris Justin Raines Michael Wickstrom |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Lionsgate Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 mins |
Country |
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Language | English |
Budget | $7,000,000 |
A Good Man is a 2014 American action crime film directed by Keoni Waxman and starring Steven Seagal, Victor Webster, Tzi Ma, Iulia Verdes, and Claudiu Bleont. The film is a prequel to Force of Execution , and is the fifth collaboration between Steven Seagal and director Keoni Waxman. A Good Man was followed by a sequel, Absolution , in 2015.
Alexander (Steven Seagal) is the leader of a covert operation on the border of Dagestan. The primary target is Islamic terrorist Abu Alwaki, whereas the secondary target is Mr. Chen (Tzi Ma). Mr. Chen is an Islamic fundamentalist arms dealer who is financing terrorism. The operation fails, resulting in the death of Alexander's entire team and Mr. Chen's escape.
Long after the disastrous operation in Dagestan, Alexander has relocated to Romania. He starts to bond with his neighbor Lena (Iulia Verdes), and her younger sister Mya (Sofia Nicolaescu). Lena and Mya's older brother Sasha (Victor Webster) collects protection money for the Mafia, in order to pay off his father's debt and protect his younger sisters from any danger.
Lena works in a club that happens to be owned by mafia boss Vladimir (Claudiu Bleont), and Alexander drops by to have a chat. Vladimir notices the two of them bonding, and has his men to warn Alexander to stay away from Lena. Alexander refuses, and an ensuing fight results in death of three of Vladimir's men. After killing Vladimir's men, Alexander takes a bag containing $300,000 from the club. The $300,000 belongs to arms-dealer Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen was using Vladimir's club to launder money on behalf of one of his buyers. Mr. Chen gives Vlad 24 hours to retrieve the money; otherwise he will take Lena to compensate for the missing $300,000.
Afterwards, Sasha is suspected of stealing Vladimir's money. Because of this, Vladimir sends a team of hit-men to kill Sasha. Assuming that Sasha is now dead, Vladimir goes to Lena's flat to prepare her for Mr. Chen, but after noticing Lena's considerably younger sister Mya, he decides to take her instead. Mr. Chen's buyer has a particular taste for young women, and according to Mr. Chen, “the younger the better”.
Sasha goes to Vladimir's club, and Vladimir is surprised that he is still alive. Although Vladimir tried to have him killed, Sasha asks for more time to get Vladimir his money back. After beating up Vladimir's men in a fistfight, Sasha is given more time to recover the money. Vladimir tells Sasha that as long as he gets his money back in 14 hours, he will give Mya back to him in one piece.
To try to find out the location of Mya, Alexander kidnaps Vladimir. After being tortured, Vladimir discloses the location of where Mr. Chen is holding Mya. Alexander then attends a meeting with Mr. Chen, and offers to give Mr. Chen his $300,000 - in exchange for Mya's safe return. After initially accepting Alexander's offer, Mr. Chen soon double crosses him on the deal. A bloody shootout then ensues, and after killing all of Mr. Chen's men, Alexander finally kills Mr. Chen in a sword-fight. He then takes Mya safely home to her brother Sasha and sister Lena.
The movie was shot over a period of three weeks. [1] While filming in Bucharest, Steven Seagal adopted a seven-month-old puppy. He adopted the puppy to raise awareness of “stray dogs” that have been viewed as a major nuisance in the “formerly communist country (Romania)” for many years. In September 2013, Romania's parliament passed a law that allowed Bucharest's 64,000 street dogs to be euthanized, despite the objections of animal rights activists. [2]
The movie was released by Lionsgate Entertainment on August 19, 2014.
There are currently no reviews for the movie on Rotten Tomatoes. [3]
The movie has received mixed reviews from film critics. One film critic said that A Good Man is "not a good movie" and only has a "basic story of vigilantism". [4]
In January 2015, the law firm 'Nicoletti Law PLC' filed a suit against 12 residents of West Michigan on behalf of the copyright holders of the movie. Attorney Paul Nicoletti has stated in court documents that “IP address holders found to have downloaded or distributed” copyright material could be subject to “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in fines. The movies copyright holders have maintained that piracy is hurting them financially, and because of this, they have had to step up "their efforts” to seek financial compensation. Since November 2014, 127 lawsuits have been filed against alleged copyright violators throughout the United States. [5] A number of other lawsuits have also been filed throughout the states of Michigan (as a whole) and Colorado. A Good Man marks at least the second time a Seagal picture has been placed into mass copyright litigation, following Maximum Conviction in 2013. [6]
Seagal reprised his role as Alexander, and Keoni Waxman returned to direct the movie. [7] The sequel is called Absolution . [8]
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan where he became the first American to teach in an aikido dojo. He later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences.
Out for Justice is a 1991 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by John Flynn and co-produced by and starring Steven Seagal as Gino Felino, a veteran police detective who sets out to avenge his partner Bobby's murder by killing Richie, the trigger-happy, drug-addicted mafioso culprit. The film was released theatrically on April 12, 1991.
On Deadly Ground is a 1994 American environmental action adventure film directed, co-produced by, and starring Steven Seagal, and co-starring Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley and R. Lee Ermey. As of 2024, it is Seagal's only directorial effort and features a minor appearance by Billy Bob Thornton in one of his early roles. Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert firefighter who chooses to fight back against the environmental destruction caused by his ruthless former employer (Caine). On Deadly Ground was theatrically released in the United States on February 18, 1994, by Warner Bros. It garnered negative reviews from critics and grossed $78.1 million worldwide on a $50 million production budget.
Exit Wounds is a 2001 American action comedy film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, produced by Joel Silver, and starring Steven Seagal, DMX, Isaiah Washington, Anthony Anderson, Michael Jai White, Bill Duke, Tom Arnold and Jill Hennessy. Seagal plays Orin Boyd, a Detroit police detective notorious for pushing the limits of the law in his quest for justice. The screenplay is based on a novel of the same name by John Westermann.
Half Past Dead is a 2002 American action film written and directed by Don Michael Paul in his directorial debut. The film was produced by Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens, and Steven Seagal, who also starred in the lead role. The film co-stars Morris Chestnut, Ja Rule, Tony Plana, Kurupt, and Nia Peeples. It tells the story of a criminal who infiltrates a prison to interrogate a prisoner about the location of a fortune in gold while an undercover FBI agent has to stop him. Distribution and copyrights were held by Columbia Pictures. Half Past Dead was released in the United States on November 15, 2002, by Screen Gems. The film garnered negative reviews from critics, and only grossed $19 million worldwide against its $25 million production budget. Half Past Dead was Steven Seagal's last widely released film before he shifted to several direct-to-video films in many years until 2010.
Joanna Pacuła is a Polish actress and model. Born in Tomaszów Lubelski and immigrating to the United States in the early 1980s, she first gained prominence through her modeling work for Vogue. Her breakthrough performance in the 1983 film Gorky Park earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. In the years since, she established herself as a character actress, appearing in numerous high-profile films and television series.
The Foreigner is a 2003 American action thriller film starring Steven Seagal. The film was shot entirely in Warsaw, Poland, and was the first of a long string of direct-to-video films released starring Seagal from 2003 to 2009. The film recouped its budget from the US home video market alone.
Dwight Hubbard Little is an American film and television director, known for directing the films Marked for Death, Rapid Fire, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Murder at 1600 and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. He has also directed several episodes of acclaimed television series such as 24, Prison Break, Dollhouse, Bones and Nikita. Little was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied film at USC.
Out for a Kill is a 2003 straight-to-video action film directed by Michael Oblowitz. It stars Steven Seagal.
Ron Balicki is an American actor, martial artist and stuntman for various films and television series. He is also a well known martial arts practitioner, teacher, and author. He is a student of and son-in-law to Dan Inosanto.
A Dangerous Man is a 2009 American direct-to-DVD crime action film directed by Keoni Waxman. It stars Steven Seagal as an ex soldier released from prison after spending six years locked up for a crime he did not commit.
Born to Raise Hell is a 2010 American action film directed by Lauro Chartrand, and written and produced by Steven Seagal, who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Dan Bădărău and Darren Shahlavi. The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on April 19, 2011.
Hunt to Kill is a 2010 Canadian-American direct-to-video action film starring Steve Austin, Gil Bellows, and Eric Roberts.
Maximum Conviction is a 2012 action thriller starring Steven Seagal and Steve Austin and directed by Keoni Waxman. The film follows a former black ops operative and his partner decommissioning an old prison, but are soon dealing with mercenaries going after two female prisoners.
Force of Execution is a 2013 direct-to-video action crime film directed by Keoni Waxman, written by Richard Beattie and Michael Black, and starring Steven Seagal, Ving Rhames, and Danny Trejo. The film marked the fourth collaboration between Seagal and Waxman, and the fourth collaboration between Steven Seagal and executive producer Binh Dang. The film is set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Voltage Pictures is an American film production and distribution company founded by Nicolas Chartier in 2005. It has assembled over 180 motion pictures, earning the company a total of two Golden Globe Awards and nine Academy Awards.
Absolution is a 2015 English-language Romanian action thriller film directed by Keoni Waxman and starring Steven Seagal, Vinnie Jones, and Byron Mann. The film is a sequel to A Good Man, and is the sixth collaboration between Steven Seagal and director Waxman. The film also marks the third collaboration between Seagal and Jones, and between Seagal and Mann.
Keoni Waxman is an American film director best known for his work with Steven Seagal since 2009 with the film The Keeper.
End of a Gun is a 2016 American action film directed by Keoni Waxman, starring Steven Seagal in the lead role.
Attrition, also known as Final Mission, is a 2018 American Wing Chun film directed by Mathieu Weschler and produced by Saradan Media based on a screenplay by Steven Seagal. Starring Seagal, Siu-Wong Fan, and Yu Kang, the film revolves around an ex-special forces operative who comes out of retirement to rescue a Thai girl. Attrition was released direct-to-DVD on September 24, 2018.