Ahh yes, this one was a memory jog. It all came rushing back.
I remember reading that Seagal INSISTED on the eco script and that it was basically "his movie", in the sense that it was something important to him. He was doing some virtue signalling green peace bullshit. I also remember reading that he was actively rejecting overly violent movies with no message in them. The eco stinker barely had any violence right? Or was grossly toned down I seem to remember that was something Seagal wanted as well, less emphasis on fucking people up for the sake of fucking them up.
That's great, but that wasn't the Seagal brand. I would guess his goal was to break out of a typecast.
He tried to appear too sophisticated too fast, and people stopped caring. A second chance, as you implied, was out of the question due to the waistline problem. In his blockbusters, he was this cut-from-steel tall dark man-- and that had gone wayward. Nobody was willing to invest in Kobayashi.
Appreciated the little time travel. I can't think of anything else and I think we hit it all on the head.
