Fire Down Below

Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Fire Down Below follows EPA agent Jack Taggert (Steven Seagal) as he’s sent into the Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky to investigate the dumping of toxic materials into abandoned mines. It’s an unexpected premise that’s generally employed to better-than-anticipated effect by Alcalá, as the filmmaker, armed with a script by Jeb Stuart and Phillip Morton, delivers a mostly watchable thriller that’s elevated considerably by Seagal’s engaging and surprisingly charismatic turn as the uncompromising central character – with the actor’s strong efforts here matched by an eclectic roster of periphery performers that includes Harry Dean Stanton, Stephen Lang, and Kris Kristofferson. (The latter’s fantastic work as the picture’s smug villain remains a highlight, to be sure.) And although Alcalá has peppered the narrative with a handful of compelling, exciting fights and action sequences, including a surprisingly electrifying chase involving a pickup truck and a tractor trailer, Fire Down Below suffers from an erratically-paced midsection that isn’t helped in the slightest by a palpably overlong running time and emphasis on questionable subplots – with such deficiencies ultimately rendered moot by the movie’s violent, satisfying third act. The end result is a just-good-enough entry within Seagal’s exceedingly hit-and-miss body of work, which is no small feat, certainly, given the ridiculousness of the setup and the sporadically didactic bent of the screenplay.

**1/2 out of ****