RR Shelf Help / Under Siege (Arrow Video 4K)

It's "Die Hard," on a boat with an asshole aka 'Under Siege' (d. Andrew Davis 1992). Arrow Video recently released (Jan. 6, 2026) a full on Atmos 4K of the 90's Seagal (April & general fool) actioner that's chock full of interviews, commentaries, and an introspective essay about on screen characters daily lives & final thoughts. Listening now is a good move.

Transcript

Intro

Whatcha Got?! (Under Siege - Arrow Video 4K)

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Outro

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Greetings and welcome, listener, to this edition of the Review Review Shelf Help. A corner of the Review Review Universe dedicated to assisting you in making your next physical media acquisition the right one for you and for the people that you care about. I'm co-host Paul. Hi, I'm Associate Bob. But that's not the movie we're talking about. With me is just me. I don't have a cat on my lap or anything. It's just me. And today I brought you Die Hard on a Boat with an Asshole Under Siege. This version of Under Siege is from Arrow Video. It is in 4K, and it is from 1992. It is 103 minutes long. It is directed by Andrew Davis, and it stars Steven Segal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, some recognizable character actors, especially actors based in Chicago that worked like jobs as cops and shit like that, appearing in this film. And it is written by J. F. Lawton. And you're maybe thinking to yourself, who is J. F. Lawton? Did he write that movie about that prostitute that was so dark or whatever originally that then became Pretty Woman? Yes, that is it. J. F. Lawton, writer-producer of this movie, but also writer famously of Pretty Woman. I'm gonna tell you just a little bit about Under Siege. I'm gonna read you a little piece of the back of the jacket. These are like uh like taglines or whatever from the poster. It's so good. In 1992, a battleship's been sabotaged by nuclear pirates out to steal its warheads. Now surrounded by terrorists, a lone man stands with a deadly plan of attack. And I don't know if he as much has a plan of attack as he's a fly in the ointment, Hans. Just a fly in the ointment, more than anything else. That's that. Me in terms of under siege, I know I owned this on DVD at a point in life. Now I have this arrow video 4K. And my originally with this movie, it was like I had these people that let's say I babysat them more so, named Ramon and Carrie. And boy, they were so adamant for me to see so many movies that I maybe should have not been viewing at such a 10D age, or what age was it? Oh, the Ravages. It depends on the week of the day how that breaks down. Watching Under Siege at a point where it's definitely questionable, but it's a movie that I've just kind of always, always loved. And as soon as I saw that this was coming out on January 6th, I think by no mistake, a real shot across the bow on Aero Video 4K, I had to snag it. And this movie famously is Steven Segal is a cook on the USS Missouri, and we have a bunch of real footage of the USS Missouri and used for different purposes in the movie, as well as the USS Alabama, as well as sets, as well. I mean, the movie's edited fantastically. This cook or yeoman, because that's all he can be, is the fly in the ointment when Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Beusey are going to get all these tomahawk nuclear warheads off of a ship and ultimately sell them to arms dealers. But there's all these various layers that are happening through this with kind of a very small amount of exposition. Not that I don't love Tommy Lee Jones or Gary Beusey exposition, but a lot of the exposition from the good guy side is lacking. But that might be for the best when we consider all sorts of things. So it kind of takes a diehard premise, like every trapped in a room and ups the stakes in a huge way in terms of like millions of people could die as a result of this. So it takes this uh idea of small space, one potential hero, can I keep that ends up becoming a group? There are things that differentiate this from diehard, but like, is it a diehard clone? Is it diehard on a boat with an asshole? Yeah, absolutely. Is it followed up by the asshole from the boat becoming a dick on a train or a dick as a train or a train as a dick or whatever? Yeah, it definitely does that. Some cool things about this movie on the Aero Video 4K. I mean, you get the basic kind of like cardboard slip cover that's just repeated on the case itself and the insert, you know, of the case, but it is a really, really nice option in terms of if you like these updated covers and cover art from Aero Video or Kino Lorber or Vinegos Vinegar Syndrome. Under Siege has some cool, like very kind of propaganda poster-inspired ones that really, really work. You're gonna hear me snap this open. Don't you love that? That's why we're here to celebrate the beauty of physical media. This does only come with a 4K disc. There is no Blu-ray, there is no download option, there's clearly no DVD, any of that stuff. But it does have this great booklet that has that kind of like propaganda-inspired art, and it breaks down not only who's in the cast, but like a small essay about it. It's got this great serial fiction by uh Martin Pedler, where everyone who dies in Under Siege, uh that you're gonna get their their thoughts. And when I say their thoughts, I don't mean the thoughts of the character, I mean what Martin puts on the character, what the character might be thinking, or what their life might have been. Uh, and it has like to the minute and second, and it shows like the image of these characters uh that have very deep thoughts by Jack Candy, I assume, as they're dying, their dying moment, breath. It's really, really cool and goes in depth into some of the symbolism or things that aren't plainly just said in the movie. In terms of the special features on the disc, it's got a bunch of great interviews with the filmmakers with the cast, clearly not with the lawman himself. He is busy playing blues guitar somewhere in Georgia or Russia or one of those countries. Uh, in eastern in in that part of the world, that's where he is. But you get interviews with director Andrew Davis and the original commentary from oh boy, when was it? Probably the 2000s, with Andrew Davis and J. F. Lawton kind of going over daily stuff and especially breaking down how they were able to get the feel of the ship and Andrew Davis pulling no punches at a couple points, talking about Steven Segal. Erica Leniac uh has a great interview there, Damian Choppa, some of the folks who worked on the special effects. So it's got a bunch of really great in-depth filmmaking points to it. That is for certain. And it does have a nice original 90s poster look, too, not just the propaganda thing. So again, looks nice on your shelf, has that nice arrow video logo if you're familiar, that just kind of arrow point inside of the A and like the rainbow uh band on the bottom and everything. Again, not as austere as a like a Kino Lorber as we've discussed before, but definitely uh a Cinephile's, a collector's, a movie fans target. It'll hit that target, which is what we want to do more than anything else, right? And I did have a chance to re-watch this, and the 4K restoration is amazing. One of the really great things in this movie is the lighting, not just when they light Steven Segal caked with Miller paint on his face, and like making that work again. If you could please one person, a lot of just the framing in this movie and the violence that occurs in it, and this does happen with Steven Segal movies a lot, but you can feel that this movie has a different kind of budget, a different kind of approach. This is a Warner Brothers movie originally. It's a less than a$40 million movie, and boy, it feels like it is every penny that and more, which is a cool thing. Absolutely a testament to director Andrew Davis, who achieved this same feat on the Fugitive, not but what, like a year or so later, and the audio and video presentation on this Aero Video 4K was supervised and approved by Andrew Davis. So you know we're looking good in the neighborhood. In terms of the packaging, I like it. Classic kind of arrow packaging with the slip cover. Got a nice booklet that fits in the cover, not any of this big cumbersome packaging or anything like that that doesn't look as pretty on the shelf or whatever it might be, or whatever that might bug you. As we've discussed, I enjoy the uniformity of a thing like Aquino Lorber. I rate the movie a three and a half, a pretty strong three and a half. It's one of my favorite diehard clones. This is a movie that can be rewatched over and over and over. Busy and Tommy Lee Jones are especially great in it. Erica Leniac is really solid in it. Steven Segal has some moments. It's one of his most likable, if not guaranteed, most likable, performance. It's all downhill from here, baby, because he starts directing, not just producing. And we're we're on deadly ground with that. It's a slippery, slippery slope. The arrow release, I'm gonna give like a four and a half. This is also like this is so subjective, but it's really up my alley. Lots of filmmaking stuff, really nice presentation in terms of the movie. It has an atmosmaster, it has a great 5.1 master. I think the overall kind of depth that they go into in terms of making this movie and how deeply the filmmakers cared. That's one of the big things with this being one of the really great diehard knockoffs, is everybody really gave a shit. And you know, equally in terms of the Arrow 4K, the people at Arrow Video gave a shit, and you can see it and feel it. They went for it. Mission accomplished. So three and a half on the movie, four and a half on the Aero Video release. Well done. As to kind of be expected from Arrow Video, as you'll find out as you continue to listen to Shelf Help from the Review Review. This episode of the Review Review Shelf Help is brought to you by the Review Review Podcast. Our book and themes are by Jamie Henwood. You can follow the review review on Insta, Flashes, and Blue Sky at Review X2 Podcast. And you can follow me if you want. I'm on Letterboxd at Paul ActsBadly. The review review is available almost everywhere, including Buzz Sprout and Good Pods. Vroom vroom.