SEAGALOGY:
A STUDY OF THE ASS-KICKING FILMS OF STEVEN SEAGAL

Legendary Outlaw Film Critic VS. Ass-Kicking Auteur!

“We can't believe this actually exists, but the world is certainly a better place for it.” — New York Magazine

“Uproariously funny…the film book I never knew I always wanted to read”
– Nerve.com

THIS BOOK WILL SHAKE THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF FILM CRITICISM, BREAK THEIR WRISTS AND THEN THROW THEM THROUGH A WINDOW…

After more than five years in the making, Vern, the self-styled ‘outlaw film critic’ known to millions for his hilarious reviews on the Ain’t It Cool News website, presents SEAGALOGY [Titan Books, 23 May 2008, $14.95/CAN $19.95/£9.99], an in-depth study of the world's only aikido instructor turned movie star/director/writer/blues guitarist/energy drink inventor — the ass-kicking auteur, Steven Seagal.

Hilarious and astonishing, Vern takes readers on a journey of Seagalogical enlightenment through more than 30 films. From the gritty street violence of Above the Law to the crazed environmental epic On Deadly Ground, from the blockbuster Under Siege to bizarre direct-to-video efforts like Out for a Kill, the action movie icon’s entire career — including his Mountain Dew commercial, blues albums and memorable appearance on The Celebrity Guide to Wine — is examined in Vern’s inimitable style.

“Vern is a National Treasure!!!"
– Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy

"Just read one of [Vern’s] reviews, and you'll want to erase all your other bookmarks."
— Jeffrey M. Anderson, The San Francisco Examiner

As a frequent writer for Ain't It Cool News and winner of the 2001 Cinemarati award for Best Movie-Related Site, Vern has gained notoriety for his unorthodox reviewing style and his expertise in “the films of Badass Cinema”. His review of the slasher movie Chaos earned him a wrestling challenge from its director; his explosive essay on the PG-13 rating of Live Free Or Die Hard prompted Bruce Willis himself to walk barefoot across the broken glass of movie nerd message boards to respond. He’s been called everything from “a national treasure” (Guillermo Del Toro) to “a menace to society with a web page” (Jockey Slut magazine); as Crankleft.com put it: “If you haven’t heard of Vern, shame on you.”

Featuring an introduction from David Gordon Green, long-term Seagalogist and director of All The Real Girls and upcoming Seth Rogen comedy The Pineapple Express, Seagalogy is Vern’s magnum opus: audaciously sincere, truly fascinating and deeply funny.

SEAGALOGY: A STUDY OF THE ASS-KICKING FILMS OF STEVEN SEAGAL
Vern
TITAN BOOKS
23 May 2008 • Paperback • 416pp • $14.95/CAN $19.95/£9.99 • ISBN: 9781845769277

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd
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Registered office: 144 Southwark St, London, SE1 0UP

SEVEN SEAGALOGICAL FACTS

Some of Seagal's distinguished co-stars have included Academy Award® winners Tommy Lee Jones (Under Siege), Michael Caine (On Deadly Ground), Billy Bob Thornton (On Deadly Ground), and Halle Berry (Executive Decision), as well as Academy Award® nominees Sharon Stone (Above the Law), Gary Busey (Under Siege), Kris Kristofferson (Fire Down Below), Dennis Hopper (Ticker) and Imelda Staunton (Shadow Man). Even before acting he was a martial arts coordinator for Oscar® winner Sean Connery on Never Say Never Again, during which he is said to have broken Connery's wrist.

Throughout his films Seagal has made weapons of a skewer, sand, a microwave, a pylon, a table saw, a sausage, a bar towel, a pool cue, a pan, a rolling pin, a corkscrew, a decorative rope, a tusk, a tree, an empty 2-liter bottle, a helicopter blade, a pipe, a cable, concentrated coconut oil, lighter fluid, a flare gun, a credit card, a bulldozer blade, a telephone, some lumber, a wine glass, a kerosene lamp, a CD, a phonograph, a chair leg, a ceremonial wooden club, a barber's smock, chopsticks, a faucet, urinals, a metal pole, and a fork.

Most of Seagal's characters are cops, intelligence agents or soldiers. However, he has also played a doctor, a rogue corporate firefighter, an EPA agent, a thief, and a professor of Chinese archaeology at Yale.

Although Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme have never appeared in a film together, they have shared a stunt: the same shot of a stuntman rappelling was used as Van Damme in 2001's The Order and as Seagal in 2005's Today You Die.

One of Seagal's special talents is to injure someone's body part in such a way that they are forced to yell something about that body part. In Out For Justice in particular he causes people to yell "Motherfucker you knocked my teeth out!," "You took my leg!" and "My balls! My balls! Balls!"

Although Seagal is known for his environmentalism, he has only done two movies with an ecologically-themed plot (On Deadly Ground and Fire Down Below). The most common theme in his movies is corruption within intelligence and police agencies.

Seagal's movies are a boon to the sugar glass industry; in The Glimmer Man alone there are nine separate occurrences of characters jumping through or being thrown through windows.

Titan Books is a leading international publisher of licensed entertainment. The UK’s top publisher of graphic novels, Titan is also renowned for TV and movie tie-ins, including 24: The Official Companions, The Hammer Story and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Titan’s books on filmmakers include the New York Times bestselling My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, Bob Balaban’s Spielberg, Truffaut and Me: An Actor’s Diary and the acclaimed Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations.

SEAGALOGY: A STUDY OF THE ASS-KICKING FILMS OF STEVEN SEAGAL
Vern
TITAN BOOKS
23 May 2008 • Paperback • 416pp • $14.95/CAN $19.95/£9.99 • ISBN: 9781845769277