It's amusing how the brutish titles of Steven Seagal films (Hard To Kill, On Deadly Ground, Marked for Death) fit both your viewing experience and the thespian's inexplicably prolific career. Never shirtless and a self-proclaimed martial-arts legend, Seagal has always been arrogant and wooden, but that's not to say he hasn't mellowed over the years and discovered a sense of humor. Here (with Ja Rule) and in Exit Wounds (with DMX) he's taken to ushering rappers onto the big screen and playing up the race/generational schism for easy laughs in what is otherwise dull thuggery.

In this latest regurgitation, which is written and directed by Don Michael Paul, the man plays Sascha Petrosevitch, an FBI agent who goes undercover by serving a prison term at Alcatraz. Yes, Alcatraz. Why Petrosevitch is there and how the storied institution got reopened is poorly explained. The mindless mayhem gets ignited when a squad of commandos drop in to free a death-row inmate -- not because he's a close friend but because he knows where $200 million in gold is stashed. Of course Petrosevitch is the fly in the ointment: he assembles a counter-force of ragtag prisoners, and from there the bullets and fisticuffs fly indiscriminately. Ja Rule passes muster as Petrosevitch's cellblock sidekick, and Morris Chestnut is commanding as the nefarious mastermind, but it's Nia Peeples who steals the show as the bad-ass, kung-fu-kicking vixen. At the Entertainment, Flagship, Holiday, Providence Place 16, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.