By Geno McGahee
Steven Seagal had a great run in the 1980s with some quality films. He was taking the torch from guys like Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson and running with it. He was the new urban action star, bringing the grit that we had grown to love in the Dirty Harry and Death Wish movies, but the run wouldn’t last forever and the quality films are not coming like they used to.
In 2009, DRIVEN TO KILL was released. Seagal plays “Ruslan”, a former Russian mobster turned novelist. We begin with Ruslan speaking to a hot chick about 30 years younger and she is asking him to do some trick with a cup and a spike. If he gets it right, he can have a threesome with her and her friend. He, of course, gets it right and we are spared the sex scene.
Seagal (sorry, I cannot refer to him as ‘Ruslan’) gets a call from his ex-wife, Catherine (Inna Korobkina) and she tells him that their daughter, Lanie (Laura Mennell) is getting married. Seagal discovers that the groom to be, Stephen (Dmitriy Chepovetsky) is the son of a big time Russian mobster and his intentions may not be that good. Add in a jerk of a new stepfather, Terry Goldstein (Robert Wisden) and we are starting to look like TAKEN. Don’t worry TAKEN fans…that movie has nothing to worry about.
When Seagal goes out to get on some new threads for the wedding, goons break into the house and kill Catherine and severely injure Lanie. Lanie is presumed dead, but her dad has her hidden away at a hospital and now plans his revenge. Helping in the revenge is his ex-wife’s new husband, Terry, but his true colors shine through really quickly as he sets Seagal up. Now he’s on the shit list too and will have to run for his life before Seagal finds him and kicks his balls through his ass.
Despite some reservations, Seagal takes Stephen under his wing and the two connect. Seagal finds out that the apple fell far from the tree and that he really does love Lanie and wants to live a normal, Russian mob-free life. He gets rattled when his soon to be father-in-law batters a pawn shop owner. Well, next time that owner will break policy and tell Seagal exactly what he wants to hear.
The evil plan is uncovered, the bad guys are beaten, and Seagal accepts Stephen as a future son-in-law, giving him the advice to not be like him or his father. Be a good guy and forget the Russian mob evil ways.
Before I continue. Let me say that I am a Steven Seagal fan and I am willing to give him chance after chance and watch every movie that he puts out because I know that he will find that magic again…some day. Every action star has that one good film left in him. DRIVEN TO KILL was not that film. Not even close.
A few little things bugged me. Maybe I shouldn’t have allowed them to because they are really just so irrelevant, but I will mention them anyway. Seagal’s Russian accent is inconsistent and unconvincing. At times, he forgets that he’s Russian. He starts to think that he’s Steven Seagal again and that’s fine. Drop the accent and be Seagal! He is also a novelist and they show shots of him typing on a computer, but you can tell that he has no fucking clue how to do so and is just moving his fingers, hoping that it looks OK. The director probably just said: “Just push buttons…it will look great!” Well, it didn’t. I blame this more on the director, Jeff F. King, than Seagal. I guess I could blame the editor, Jamie Alain, too, for not using a more convincing shot.
Why can’t Seagal go to the same wig maker that John Travolta does? I mean, Travolta is just as bald as Seagal, but his fake hair is convincing. His hair in WILD HOGS was heavenly while Seagal has to deal with what looks like one of those bad Halloween Dracula wigs that you can buy for 3 dollars.
The character “Ruslan” is also unlikable and indestructible. In TAKEN, Liam Neeson was very likable because of his vulnerability and kind side. He took a lot of lumps to get to the resolution of his problem. Seagal is just a bad ass and a prick. At no time does he connect with the viewer with the possible exception of the very ending when he accepts Stephen. It was too little, too late.
I have taken points away from Seagal for effort or lack thereof in the past, but he did seem really up for this role. He was in better shape and seemed relatively focused minus the accent. Come on…does he really even look Russian? In OUT FOR JUSTICE he was playing Italian and he should have been an Italian guy adopted into the Russian mob…that would have made more sense. But, he did try very hard and you have to give him an A for effort, but he wasn’t working with much.
DRIVEN TO KILL is terrible. There really is nobody to root for in this and the dialogue is pretty weak. At Seagal’s age, I don’t expect the fight scenes to be that good, and I don’t take any points off for them, but if everything else sucks and then you hope for good fight scenes and they suck too, it’s hard to stick with it. I stuck with this all the way through because I have that hope that Seagal will find the magic again, but I was very disappointed with DRIVEN TO KILL and I went into it with low expectations.
You will have to be a Steven Seagal fan that gives him unconditional love to enjoy this one. I can’t recommend it.
Rating: 2/10 – Driven to shut off the DVD player
Is Steven Seagal really bald? I’ve met him twice back during the late eighties and early nineties and didn’t notice his loss of hair. Of course, he had a ponytail for the longest time.