Customer Reviews

Driven to Kill

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Forget that Kill Switch and Against the Dark ever happened - it's just not worth remembering those two catastrophes when you can group together the overall string of recent victories for Steven Seagal's DTV career that are Urban Justice, Pistol Whipped, and now "Driven to Kill". Wait, don't get your hopes too high: it's not quite as good as either of the two, but is nonetheless one of the best things that Seagal's done in the last half-decade.

The story: Ruslan Drachev (Seagal) is a former member of the Russian mob and current novelist whose daughter Lanie (Laura Mennell, Watchmen) is set to marry the son of his arch nemesis, the mafia kingpin Mikhail (Igor Jijikine, Indiana Jones 4). However, before the wedding can take place, his daughter is attacked and left in critical condition; Ruslan suspects Mikhail and sets out on a trek of vengeance with the aid of Mikhail's son and his daughter's fiancé Stephan (Dmitry Chepovetsky, ReGenesis).

The pressing questions that make or break a Seagal film... 1) is the storyline coherent, 2) how obvious is Steven's stunt double, and 3) how much of his voice is dubbed? I'm happy to say that in the case of all three, Seagal has improved: the story is straight-forward with virtually no subplots, Steven's voice is not dubbed at all as far as I can tell, and his ever-consistent stand-in Dian Hristov is not even listed in the credits. There aren't a lot of instances in the film where it seems to indicate that it's someone other than Seagal doing his own work to begin with, so if he is using a stunt double, it's not very often and it's been covered up very well.

Yes, Seagal is sticking to his higher standards. He seems more alert and in better physical shape, his character is fairly intriguing this time around, and his fight scenes are well-choreographed and surprisingly vicious. He has seven of these: four shootouts and three hand-to-hand fights. The gunfights are largely old hat (save for the machinegun battle at the end, which is mildly awesome), but when he's using his fists (and feet - he actually kicks above his head once), Steven is formidable once again: he stabs a guy in the face with broken glass, literally beats a fellow to tears, cuts a man to ribbons in a very bloody knifefight, impales a man's head on a spike, stabs a mercenary in the neck and forces him to bleed to death, and stabs/shoots his final opponent through the eye. This older, more sadistic Steven is loads more fun to watch than the supplier of endless "pattycake battles", even though he uses next to no martial arts. There is some unnecessary and unwanted quick-cut editing to these fights, but the fact that it's clearly Seagal doing his own work saves them from being any less impressive.

There are some silly editing techniques used in other parts of the movie to kill time, but the important scenes remain untainted. The supporting cast works well: Jijikine as the head villain, Robert Wisden ("Da Vinci's Inquest") as the two-faced husband of Ruslan's ex, and Chepovetsky as Ruslan's quasi-sidekick all do good jobs as immediate co-stars, while ex-wife Inna Korobkina, daughter Laura Mennell, policewoman Ingrid Torrance, and mercenary Aleks Paunovic all make up a good supporting base. The casting of actual Russians helps a lot in setting an atmosphere for the film, since there's a lot of Russian being spoken and it all sounds authentic. Seagal does his best with his own version of a Russian accent, and while it's nice to see him make an effort the second time around (see Half Past Dead), it's far from passable and he drops it every now and then.

There's some definite ego masturbation for Seagal and I wish there had been more fistfights and/or some innovation of the gun battles, but regardless of these qualms, the film is proof that Steven Seagal is not done being a force in the action realm. It's not quite as no-nonsense as "Urban Justice" or as sophisticated as "Pistol Whipped", so it just misses a four-star rating...but only just. Distancing himself from Sony has paid off for Seagal, and fans ought to take notice ASAP.

My customers keep hoping for Seagal to return to his glory days, but unfortunately the last few films have made it to where people will not even rent his stuff now. This one won't necessarily help, but it doesn't hurt his chances too much either.

Standard story: He is retired from being a mean guy, something bad happens to someone he cares about, the close up of his eyes becoming angry, then lots of bad guys meet their end. To be clear, this had the most gratuitous close-up of his face I have ever seen - it scared me. What bothered me the most is he seems tired. Not sure how else to word it, I don't think his heart is in these.

The Blu quality was below average. Plenty of grain, focus issues and other tech problems. I love DTS, but this wasn't mixed well. The fake sounds of Seagal beatings detracted from trying to watch. No special features to speak of. Can not recommend this as a Blu purchase over the DVD quality.

Seagal plays Ruslan, a former Russian gangster who's now a successful crime novelist. He goes to attend his daughter's wedding and finds out her fiancë is the son of his arch enemy, a crime boss. The young man, Stephan, does not want to be a gangster and is not on good terms with his father. When Ruslan's ex-wife and daughter are attacked, he wants to find those responsible, and enlists the help of Stephan, who believes the daughter/fiancé to be dead.

The quality of Seagal's direct-to-DVD movies have been uneven. This time he teams up again with director Jeff King, who directed "Kill Switch", which was one of the better of his recent movies. And "Ruslan", aka. "Driven to Kill" is also a very watchable movie, though not without flaws. Recommended to fans of Seagal and direct-to-DVD action movies. Let's hope his films keep improving and that we won't have to suffer through more movies like "The Foreigner" or "Mercenary for Justice".

watching seagal movies forever i have noticed you cant really have high hopes for oscar like acting and script. what you can do is prey that he is on par with his aikido skills and his gun and knife play. in past movies cant remember what ones but i have niticed him using a stunt double for fight scenes and that realy took away from his movies. i want steven seagal. but ok enough's enough. Steven seagal say what you will the guy can act and he can fight and can lead a sub par movie. but this is not a sub par movie. with better budget i would have like to see this in the theatre it could have brought the man back. he did his own fights, and his accent was not bad, i thought for a second that he was russian. this was a good movie, and actually worth the money.. for some not for others.

In "Driven to Kill" Steven Seagal is a former Russian mafia turned popular crime novelist Ruslan Drachev. This is a typical revenge story involving his lovely daughter who is getting married, and her fiancé Stephan (Dmitry Chepovetsky) who happens to be a son of a Russian mobster Mikhail (Igor Jijikine, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"). The story is serviceable and some of the supporting actors playing the baddies turned in solid acting.

As a straight-to-DVD flick, the film's actions are OK. There are several shoot-outs and they are decent, if not outstanding. There is no originality, to be sure, all run-of-the-mill type of gun actions, but they are not that awful. As to the martial arts scenes, it is nothing great. Quick cuts and shaky camera can hardly cover up the fact that Mr. Seagal can't move like he used to do (and sadly we all know that). One surprise is that it seems he did most of the stunts himself. They didn't even dub his voice, but as he mumbles in a Russian accent, sometimes it is hard to understand what he is saying.

This is not totally abysmal, far better than his previous work "Against the Dark" and on par with his 2007 "Urban Justice."

Driven to Kill should have been released to the Theatres.Seagal plays Ruslan who is seeking vengeance on the men who killed his wife and hospitalized his daughter.The action is so good the fight scenes are amazing and the overkill is what i love most like only Seagal can do! I loved everything about this movie and i think his fans will as well-give it a shot its that good! Non stop action with a good plot.

Honor must be earned. Bullets, blood, bodies. International action superstar Steven Seagal is back...with a vengeance. DRIVEN TO KILL is a riveting action-packed crime sage that pits Seagal's lethal skills against a notorious criminal syndicate. Ruslan Drachev (Seagal) is a highly respected former enforcer in the New York-based Russian Mob who abandoned the gangland lifestyle years ago to pursue a peaceful career as a novelist. But after a brutal attack on his daughter-who was engaged to the son of a ruthful Russian nemesis-Ruslan must return to the sinister underbelly of his past and dole out his own merciless brand of justice.

Driven to Kill [Blu-ray]
Steven Seagal's new film "Driven To Kill", is a satisfying action film returning to the quality of the blockbuster films of his early career.
Camera work is clean; very little of the special effects clutter in action scenes common to his films from 2003 to now. Stand ins do appear to be performing the strenuous activity in the fight scenes, so Seagal may not be in prime physical shape.
Seagal portrays a Russian father returning to town to be present at his daughter's wedding. When she is attacked, he hunts her attackers.
His performance is forceful, believable, strong -- reminiscent of his Casey Ryback character in Under Siege.

SPOILER ALERT: I give away a few "plot points" in my review, so please take that into consideration if you haven't seen the film.

OK, this is another Steven Seagal Direct-To-DVD film from 2009. And in order to adequately enjoy it as a three-star movie, we need to play the glass half full, glass half empty game.

1). GLASS HALF EMPTY: Steven may be a master of martial arts, but dialects? Fuggedaboudit! In this film he's a former Russian mobster, now writing pulp fiction thrillers, who sets out to avenge the murder of is ex-wife and attempted murder of his daughter, on the even of the daughter's wedding.

2). GLASS HALF FULL: The overwhelming majority of Steven Seagal films are placeholders for the Seagal formula. He has to be "someone"...anyone, it doesn't matter. Sometimes an enemy returns from the past (as in this film), or he goes after "Mr. Big" in some nefarious crime organization. But whether Seagal is a former Russian mobster writing trashy novels or a cab driver in Philly, it really doesn't matter. He just needs to be "somewhere" so that the action can revolve around him.

3). GLASS HALF EMPTY: Whether he is a master of martial arts or not, he can't stop a bullet, and the various bad guys in the movie only had about a zillion opportunities to prove that.

4). GLASS HALF FULL: It's like all of those "Halloween" knockoffs in which the teens walk outside the house (or go in the house) when they shouldn't, because the killer is waiting for them. If you spend too much time thinking while watching a Steven Seagal movie, you are watching the wrong movie.

5). GLASS HALF EMPTY: Seagal movies lean heavily on "stunt kills," just like the Friday the 13th movies in which the whole point of the film is to see Jason Voorhees commit 13 murders in "creative" ways.

6). GLASS HALF FULL: Seagal is the master of over-the-top "stunt kills." If that's not your cup of tea, I believe Amazon sells some fine DVDs featuring Kenneth Branagh performing some of Shakespeare's finest works. This ain't Shakespeare, dude. This is...as John Candy and Joe Flaherty used to say in SCTV's "Farm Film Report," this is a movie where things blow up real good.

So what have we learned from this review? Steven Seagal stars in an implausible role, spoken in an almost embarrassing Russian dialect, things blow up all over the place, lots of bad guys try to kill Seagal but end up gettin' kilt themselves in the process, and...

...and there is no "and." It is what it is. Another 3-star, direct-to-DVD Seagal flick, and a lot of fun if that's what you're in the mood for. During the recent (2011) Thanksgiving holiday, Spike TV ran a marathon of Seagal films. It was a hoot. So is this film. It is what it is, and as long as you approach it with realistic expectations, you will be entertained.

Driven to Kill is another so so release from Seagal's library of DTV movies. Better than some and not nearly a good as say The Keeper or Belly of the Beast. I know it's difficult with so many movies being made these days that coming up with an original script is not easy. Guess was hoping for some more originality but all in all worth at least one viewing.

Peter J. Miller
Traverse City, MI
peterjoemiller@gmail.com