Over the years Seagal has been churning out the action flicks straight to home release, but as of late he seems to be bringing along some bigger casts with him. That doesn’t always mean better film, but at least they are feeling like something more than he did for years. Now his latest Cartels is teaming him up with Luke Goss and UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, but does it offer up the action fans want or will it be a mission no one will care about?

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Cartels follows U.S. forces against an international drug cartel. When crime boss Salazar turns informant, U.S. Marshal Jensen and his team must guard their luxury-hotel safehouse. But as cartel underboss Sinclaire and his hit squads descend to murder Salazar, the situation explodes. Enraged, agent Harrison will stop at nothing to root out the mole that compromised the operation. Like a lot of these movies that come along despite being advertised as a Seagal film it is actually a Luke Goss film with Seagal in a more supporting role. Sure he gets a couple of action moments, but for most of the film he is just interrogating someone. Over the years Seagal has starting whispering and mumbling through his dialogu a lot more making it near impossible to hear anything he is saying while everyone around him is speaking at a normal octave. They shifted back to a lot of the cut away action sequences that completely take away from everyone’s effectiveness in the fight sequences.

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The film is a pretty generic action flick with some decent action sequences as well as some that fall pretty flat. The story is very generic and predictable offering very little that you haven’t seen before. There are some strange performances here from the supporting cast that sadly come off as laughable and confusing. While this is not near as bad as some this is yet another step backwards in the Seagal filmography, but of course being a Goss film may not even be counted as that. Goss can carry an action film given the right part, but here it was just another one that will likely get lost on the rental shelf.

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If you are a hardcore Seagal fan like myself then decide for yourself and join the mission with Cartels available now on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD), DVD, and Digital HD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.