So, I wasn't holding my breath for a masterpiece when I picked up "Shadow Man"(its lame cover not easing my mind in the least). Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. The plot is ridiculously convoluted, but here is a vague outline of what happens: Lord Steven plays a billionaire businessman who was formerly a CIA agent. He's also a widower raising a young daughter. His father-in-law is still in the CIA and meets with the Lord and his daughter in Romania for a family trip. Pops secrectly slips the Lord some sort of high-tech nano-virus without Seagal's knowledge then gets promptly blown up by a car bomb. At the same time, the Lord's little girl gets kidnapped. The rest of the movie is doublecross upon doublecross and no one really has any motive save for Seagal, who is out to get his daughter back. Throw in some Russian gangsters(one of which who curiously looks like a mixture of Christopher Lloyd and Max Headroom)out to get the virus, shady government agents also looking for said virus, a femme fatale taxi driver, some excessive violence, and you get a quality Seagal feature. Firstly, let me say that for the first time since 'Belly Of The Beast' that one of Seagal's movies has a director that actually seemed to give a crap. Michael Keusch, a former German TV director, crafts a fine film with nice camera work, good dialogue, lots of action(mostly hand-to-hand with some nice akido showcased)...but the thing I really liked were the little details: the bad guy with syphilis and his creepy mask, some eyeball ripping, a few brutal gunshots to the face, and a funny cab driver who shows up for a few moments. Its nice, for once, to see a Seagal director take the time to go all out in everything from fight scenes to extraneous details. This is the first time in a while that I've felt like the makers of a Seagal opus actually tried to make it be a good film. Despite its silly opening scene(just watch for the watermelon and you'll know what I mean), 'Shadow Man' is easily Seagal's best film since 'Belly Of The Beast'. He looks decent, though still a bit pudgy, but better than he's looked in a while. There's some great fight scenes(the Lord's stuntdouble for once isn't quite so obvious), there's hardly any dubbing, and has quite a bit of excessive violence. All the actors are good(even a small role from Brit actress Imelda Staunton), the plot is interesting if overly ambitious, and Seagal seems into it for once. There's no cheese here, no filler at all. 'Shadow Man' is, by far, Seagal's leanest, meanest most action-filled flick in a while. Seagalogists won't be disappointed.