The Film (3.5/5)

For decades now Steven Seagal, who once headlined blockbuster films such as Under Siege and Above the Law has been languishing in direct-to-video hell.  His last blockbuster was 1995's Under Siege 2, and since then he has churned out way more duds than good movies.  All of his excellent movies since 1995 can almost be counted on one hand.  Thankfully, Attrition falls into the really good category and is, in this reviewer's opinion, the best movie he has made since 2012's Maximum Conviction.

The story for Attrition is that Axe (Steven Seagal) was a special forces operative who has retired and renounced his violent ways.  Axe now lives as a healer in a small town in Asia.  However, this comes to an end when local crime-lord Qmum (Kang Yu) kidnaps Tara (Ting Sue), a young girl with mystical healing powers.  Caving into Tara's father, Axe comes out of retirement and calls up his old special forces unit for one last mission.

The formula for the movie will be familiar to long-time fans of Steven Seagal.  Steven Seagal clearly likes the ex-killer who has found world harmony but has to justify killing again to right a horrific wrong scenario.  However, the scenario fits him and let's face it if people only enjoyed action films that weren't formulaic, most of the action movies released each year wouldn't exist.

Attrition, unlike many of Steven Seagal's direct-to-video offerings, has a centralized story that makes sense from start to finish and doesn't feel like someone just cobbled together random footage in an attempt to create something that resembles a movie (Attack Force anyone?).  The movie is beautifully shot.  The movie features excellent use of color and set and location design.  Visually, Attrition is very impressive.  The movie features some nicely done martial arts sequences, although this shouldn't surprise anyone with cast members like Siu-Wong Fan.  There are also some well-done action sequences in the movie as well.

Fans of Steven Seagal who are still holding out for Under Siege 3 should give up; it isn't coming – ever.  Like many other stars from his time, Steven Seagal is now living permanently in direct-to-video offerings.  Fans of the action star, or his style of movie, should enjoy Attrition.  It is a solid direct-to-video actioner that delivers a good story, beautiful visuals, and some good martial arts sequences.

Audio/Video (5/5)

365Flix has done an excellent job with their limited collector's edition Blu-ray of Attrition.  Attrition was shot digitally and is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in 1080p.  The image quality is stunning and flawless with great looking colors and no noticeable blemishes.

365Flix has also done an exceptional job with the audio presentation for the movie.  There are two audio tracks available, an English and Mandarin Chinese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround track and an English and Mandarin Chinese Linear PCM 2.0 Stereo track.  Neither of the audio tracks exhibits any sound problems and the dialog in the movie is clear and easy to understand at all times.  There is also a slew of subtitle options for the movie.  There is an optional English subtitle option for the Mandarin Chinese portions of the movie only, French subtitles, Spanish subtitles, and English subtitles for the entire movie.

Extras (3.5/5)

365Flix has only included one extra for Attrition.  There is the 14-minute “Attrition: Behind the Scenes” featurette that features Steven Seagal, Mathieu Weschler, and many other cast and crew members talking about the creation of the movie.

Overall

Every time a new Steven Seagal movie gets announced, long-time fans wonder will this be the movie that restarts his career or will it be a muddled piece of crap.  The good news is that Steven Seagal's newest movie Attrition isn't a confusing piece of crap.  The bad news, Attrition won't be restarting Steven Seagal's career either.  Fans of Steven Seagal should enjoy this new movie of his as should newcomers to the martial arts actor.  Attrition is worth watching and is probably the best movie Steven Seagal has put out since Maximum Conviction.  365Flix has done an excellent job with their limited collector's edition Blu-ray with excellent audio and video quality.