Tagline:
His Rules. His Way. No Exceptions.
Review:
Jacob (Steven Seagal with a Southern accent) is a homicide detective with a troubled childhood who lets his fists do the talking. In the explosive opening scene he ejects a bomber out the window of a fourth story window and wisecracks over smooth blues guitar. His wisecracks are hard to hear as we are well into the Mumbling Seagal era, but you get the gist.
Meanwhile a psychotic serial killer is punishing then murdering prostitutes, as confirmed by coroner Isaac Hayes (a bizarre casting) and leaving ciphers of astrological symbols with the bodies. Jacob employs his patented interview style by first causing a prolonged and bloody bar fight. The action is unfortunately shaky and zoomed in to make the stunt double less obvious, given his wig is worse than Seagal's.
The FBI get involved in the case and Agent Frankie Miller (Holly Dignard) doesn't appreciate the way Jacob works. I mean the dude slap-fu's his way through innocent patrons at a nightclub to get to our perp at the other side, then shoots up everything in his path and he STILL gets away. The two do eventually combine forces when the case gets more complicated with perhaps more than one killer being involved.
I quite like this for the most part. The action is fast and violent (if too zoomed), even sadistic at times. Seagal might be stunt-doubled quite a bit but there at least looks like effort put in by all parties, and for Steve it's playing to his strengths of close combat. The way he takes out one guy with a hammer is pretty glorious. Add in some twists and you have a low rent but entertaining thriller that's more than just for Seagalogists only.
And this makes me consider some things.. are the best DTV Seagal films from the pre-Donut Beard era uniformly? 2012's Maximum Conviction marks the end of clean-shaven Seagal. 2013's Force of Execution ushers in the circular face fungus. Now I am not one to take IMDB ratings too literally, but the trend definitely kicks off there. For me personally, I start to enjoy the films less as "solid action film" and more "fun, despite Seagal, who makes it hilarious". Just some observations on a Sunday morning...
Image sources: IMDB
Trailer:
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