Martial arts personality and actor Steven Seagal has been laying waste to bad guys on screen for well over thirty years now and, while his more modern movies don't get much positive attention from critics (if any at all), his numerous entries into the pantheon of machismo action movies have proven to be quite significant.
With such a long career made up of so many movies, fans can be left wondering which entries are considered to be the best. So, with this mind, let's take a look at the 10 highest-rated Steven Seagal movies according to review aggregate site Metacritic to paint a clearer picture of the actor's filmography.
Out for Justice (38)
Seagal plays New York detective Gino Felino in this revenge movie about an enraged Felino hunting down the unhinged criminal who murdered his partner.
Featuring some Seagal's most brutal fight scenes, Out for Justice may not be one of the most loved of Segal's earlier movies but remains one of the most remembered amongst fans.
Exit Wounds (39)
A decade after Out for Justice, Seagal returned as a hard-nosed detective in this adaptation of John Westermann's novel of the same name.
Whilst still being a thorough Steven Seagal movie, Exit Wounds was a reunion for actors Anthony Anderson, DMX, and Isiah Washington with Polish director Andrzej Bartkowiak after their similarly martial-arts-themed movie Romeo Must Die but was not as big a hit with fans, critics or general audiences.
Fire Down Below (40)
An interesting change of pace to the usually city-dwelling cops of Seagal's filmography, Fire Down Below sees the action star play an Environmental Protection Agency investigator looking into illegal toxic waste dumping in the Appalachian mines of Kentucky.
Along the way, Seagal's character helps the locals rediscover their dignity and woos Marg Helgenberger's local outcast.
Hard to Kill (41)
Seagal plays top cop Mason Storm who's put into a coma after a failed assassination attempt that claims the life of his wife. Awaking seven years later, he heads out to bring the perpetrators to justice.
As only Seagal's second movie, Hard to Kill was still figuring out how to best portray Seagal and his fighting style on screen but the movie had a lot of fun doing it and delivered some of the actor's most memorably ridiculous machismo lines.
Above the Law (45)
Seagal's first movie puts him in the lead role as a Chicago police officer and former CIA martial arts expert who investigates corrupt dealings of government-grade explosives.
It's easy to see from that description alone that Above the Law would inform the vast majority of the stories in Seagal's future movies and it does indeed create a clear roadmap for the rest of the actor's career in movies.
Marked for Death (49)
Released the same year as Hard to Kill, Marked for Death is the most critically well-received movie of the earliest part of Seagal's acting career when audiences were just becoming acquainted with him and his style.
The movie no doubt earned extra points for being perhaps the closest that a Seagal movie has ever come to portraying the lead hero as vulnerable. It isn't much but that, in conjunction with Basil Wallace's memorable villain, helps it to stand out.
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (52)
The only sequel to Seagal's smash-hit success Under Siege, Dark Territory moves the action from a boat to a train in this formulaic but fun take on the Die Hard clone subgenre.
Actor Eric Bogosian also adds a lot to the movie as the story's Hans Gruber-ish mastermind and, whilst not the success of the first movie, critics seem to agree that it's one of Seagal's more well-accomplished movies overall.
Under Siege (58)
Though not the highest-ranking movie on this list, Under Siege is the highest-ranking movie on this list in which Seagal plays the main character and it's still considered as the actor's best cinematic outing so far.
Seagal plays a Navy-SEAL-turned-chef on a hijacked battleship who has to retake control of the vessel and save the day when Tommy Lee Jones' villain attempts to steal valuable weapons.
Machete (60)
Seagal makes a rare villain turn in Robert Rodrguez's Mex-ploitation comedy adapted from a fake trailer for his double-bill project, Grindhouse, with Quentin Tarantino.
He plays a criminal kingpin who wrongs the titular Federale at the beginning of the movie and sets up their violent revenge throughout the story.
Executive Decision (62)
Seagal is featured even less in this movie yet makes his biggest impact in a mainstream movie outside of Under Siege in a rare role where it's his character's absence that makes him so prominent within the story.
Seagal plays a Lt. Colonel in charge of leading a rescue team to infiltrate and retake a hijacked commercial airplane mid-flight but is forced to sacrifice himself at the beginning of the mission to ensure its success, raising the stakes for the remaining team immeasurably.