“Killing Salazar” (also known as “Cartels”) is another underwhelming action flick with Steven Seagal (“Hard To Kill”, “Marked For Death”) plastered all over the poster. It’s that usual combination of mediocre action sequences, a bland storyline, bad editing and dialog that could put you to sleep.

A drug lord (Florin Piersic Jr.) is captured and is being protected until he can testify against his criminal colleagues. A team of soldiers are tasked with keeping him safe at a hotel in Romania. However, somebody has been leaking information and now armed men are attacking the building. Who is the mole? What happened? We will find out answers to these questions in good time.

The real star of the movie is not Seagal but Luke Goss (“Tekken”, “Death Race 2”) as one of the soldiers guarding the drug lord. He’s like a cheap version of Jason Statham (“The Transporter”) and not remotely convincing. Maybe he should have stuck to his music career. Seagal does not get to do all that much. Most of the time, he is just sat behind a desk. The fight sequences are almost laughable as they frequently involve stunt doubles that are far slimmer than he has been for many years. The other characters are unimpressive and forgettable.

“Killing Salazar” features a lot of shootouts and fistfights but none of them are very good. It’s hard to make a film boring film when there is a lot of action happening but this movie manages to do just that. I just did not care about the plot at all so all the ‘revelations’ at the end did nothing for me. Neither Goss nor Seagal look believable as action stars here. This is an embarrassing action flick but I didn’t expect all that much from it. Just don’t bother with “Killing Salazar” or “Cartels” or whatever it’s called.