Yes, this is another boring Steven Seagal film, with another dumb revenge plot, weak characters and other typical things in these straight to DVD films. Seagal is typical himself... with bad performance, slow, no emotions and other things. What is interesting here (in negative sense), Seagal plays a Russian. Wow! A Russian! Are you sure that you can trust Seagal to play a Russian. He didn't even sound like a Russian, he was just himself, but there was nothing that looks even closely Russian on him, he spoke Russian in some scenes, but he didn't even try to pronounce the Russian words more precisely, and when I remember... that Schwarzenegger put some effort in "Read Heat" and he sounded pretty good while speaking Russian, and he even tried as much as he can to have a Russian accent. And that's what I appreciate... But, Arnie is no actor too. Now, back to Ruslan... the fight scenes in this film are the only thing that justify everything else, meaning, the fight scenes were good and they are the only thing worth watching here, well on moments they looked funny, and they were filled with this Russian balalaika music, and that made scenes even more funny, I expected Seagal to stood up and dance to this music, having a good dancing rhythm, but not fighting rhythm. And it's also good that Seagal is using Aikido again... properly.
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swedzin22 October 2012
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So about a year ago I set out on a fallacy-ridden quest to watch every movie that Seagal has ever made, and while this has not exactly made for much high-quality entertainment, it has definitely given me a unique perspective on the evolution of Seagal's storied career. Although one of the first of Seagal's new generation of films that I watched was Urban Justice, which showed an aging and widening Seagal lurking around Los Angeles seeking a two- dimensional revenge for his son's murder, and Driven to Kill, as indicated by the title, is pretty much about exactly the same thing. Except this time the son is a daughter. Oh and he's a NOVELIST. Did I mention that? Did Stephen King write this thing?
My initial response to learning that Seagal plays a successful novelist was shock that they actually took my advice and tried to top Against the Dark for stupid story ideas, but it actually turned out to be one of the best things in the movie. The funniest things, anyway. Don't get me wrong, I have much more respect for Seagal than most people do. I have always been a fan of his films ever since I was a kid and he was making hardened action movies and I even still enjoy them now that they are growing less and less distinguishable from each other. But seeing Seagal's considerable mass parked in front of a computer while his meaty hands prance across the keys was quite a spectacle indeed. I would venture to guess that Seagal has never sat in front of a keyboard in his life!
Sure this is a digression, but it calls into question his logical thinking in the movie's opening scene. He is sitting with his daughter, to whom he is still the greatest man on earth, and she asks him to explain how he does that old trick with the three upside down paper cups, one of which has a metal spike in it. She moves the cups around with all possible slowness, challenging him to lose track of it, and then he slams his hand down on one of the cups, which smashes harmlessly. "How do you do it?" she asks incredulously. "The trick," he says, "is to just not give a f#%k."
Or, more likely, the trick is to not understand that one false move and your writing career will be in grave danger because your sluggish typing will now have to be done with one hand.
The plot from Hard to Kill is recycled into this one. Seagal plays a former Russian mobster named Ruslan, and when an attack leaves his daughter barely clinging to life, he insists that her attackers can't know she's dead in order to aid his revenge plot, which takes up the rest of the movie. Complicating matters is the fact that her daughter is set to marry the son of Ruslan's former gangster arch-enemy, who may have been behind the attack in the first place. Ruslan is torn from a charming life of living in his sun-drenched beach-house and meandering his fingers across his keyboard and back into a life of crime.
Seagal's performance is uninspired at best, but he has made a career out of uninspired performances. Or at least his career has fizzled out into one uninspired performances. Van Damme has done the same thing, but he changed everything in the outstanding 2008 film JCVD. This is what Seagal needs to do now to win back his respect as an actor, make something real and quit pumping out the lumpy, direct-to-DVD cheeseballs.
The rest of the actors are beside the point, they run distant second billing to an actor who passed his prime nearly 15 years ago (it happened in 1996, in case you're wondering), and so don't really merit being mentioned here. But a bigger problem is that the movie does that maddening thing where there are foreign characters, Russian, in this case, who switch back and forth at random between speaking Russian and speaking bad English. If you're going to make a movie with foreign characters, just start it out in their language and then casually switch to English for the rest of the movie, like in The Hunt For Red October, or just have them speak their own language for the entire movie and subtitle it. Switching back and forth just calls attention to it.
More importantly, the action is badly screwed up. There is nothing quite so boring as these stupid shoot-outs where a lot of guys take turns spraying machine gun fire at each other, taking turns pumping all their bullets into the walls and then hiding so the other guy can shoot his gun equally harmlessly. It's like a road where every single car is blowing it's horn. No one really pays attention anymore, it just becomes noise.
But if nothing else, you gotta watch the movie for the scene in a strip club. Seagal and the bad guy's son go to a strip club and go to a private room together with a stripper, and you should see how uncomfortable Seagal looks it is HILARIOUS! -
MrOllie30 July 2012I thought that this was an OK film with the usual violence and action which accompanies all Steven Seagal films. In this one Steve is a former Russian Mafia villain who comes back into town after being invited by his ex-wife to see his daughter get married. However, his return into town is not met with approval from the local Russian Mafia boss whose son is in fact the guy who will be marrying Steve's daughter. Steve's ex-wife is then murdered and his daughter is badly hurt which is the cue for our hero to seek revenge. Fist fights, knife fights and shootings are a plenty as Steve rips apart the bad guys. Although Seagal films are not expensive glossy productions action fans should enjoy this one.
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face_of_terror30 April 2009Seriously. If you are an American who knows Russian, you will probably have mixed feelings after watching this. If you are Russian, and you happen to know English, do yourself a favor and watch this in English. You'll probably end up on the floor laughing.
Steven is absolutely hilarious in this one. No, i am not talking about his Russian yet. First of all we actually get to see him RUN...yes, he does run for like 10 seconds or so, himself, so try to imagine that. Yes, he looks old, even wider than in Urban Justice. Fights are... well in KillSwitch we actually see Steven fight through fast cuts...in here we don't even get that.
After watching this i understand why they dub Seagal's voice... in this movie he isn't dubbed - he talks with his own voice the whole time...which is the problem - you sometimes simply cant understand what the .... is he saying! The absolute finish is the Russian language in this film. This is supposed to be Russian mafia....not gangsters. Whoever was a technical adviser for this movie - you failed miserably. I am talking about Russian language only, people don't talk like that, and especially former Russian mafia. For God's sake they don't say "Do Svidania" to their family or brothers! They don't talk in English between themselves if they speak Russian fluently.
As for the film itself - shaky camera work, strange mix of music (which starts to frustrate the more you watch), stupid subtitles (why did not they use subtitles every time someone speaks in Russian??? instead they use it only 2 times throughout the whole film, and the rest remains untranslated)...
To sum it up - this is slightly better (funnier) than Attack Force, and a lot worse than Urban Justice and KillSwitch. -
Bob_the_Hobo29 November 2012Former Russian diplomat and assassin Ruslan (Steven Seagal) is forced to reimmerse himself in the gang culture he thought he left behind when his family is attacked by his old cohorts at his daughter's wedding.
One of the first scenes of the film finds Steven Seagal seated across a table from a gorgeous babe (of course). Babe asks Steven to close his eyes. It's not as if you'd be able to tell, Seagal's face is constantly in a contorted squint. He doesn't seem to ever actually pronounce a line, just whisper his way through the film. Perhaps he thinks a Russian accent is a whisper?
"Driven to Kill" is not a driven film. For instance, why that title? Is Ruslan driven? It doesn't seem so. No one in the film seems to know exactly what it going on, not excepting the star. It is an uninspired, lackadaisical, but certainly not lazy film that makes an bizarre addition to the revenge genre.
All of the characters confuse themselves for each other until the film starts to resemble particularly runny porridge. Seagal's ex-wife and his daughter look the exact same age. The villains are all similar and none too smart but at least aren't all named "Ivan". The detectives are excruciatingly bad actors that make Steven Seagal look like Marlon Brando.
The cinematography is surprisingly decent. Overall the film doesn't outwardly look like a low-budget flick. It was surely filmed on the cheap in Canada and made to look like the United States. The action and fighting isn't terrible and kept me interested to see how our aging hero would take down the next baddie.
"Driven to Kill" is the epitome of a low-budget, fairly intriguing action movie ideal for late night viewing and late night reviewing. If you're a fan of Seagal or a fan of cheese, add it to your queue. -
tarbosh2200027 January 2014Ruslan (Seagal) is a writer and three-cup-monte enthusiast who uses his experiences as a former mobster for his books. While living in L.A., he gets word that his daughter is getting married so he travels to New Jersey. While there, he discovers the family she is marrying into also has Russian mob connections. After some of those baddies put her in the hospital and murder some family members, Ruslan reverts back to his old persona and he goes after the people responsible. Will he get revenge? It's best to go into these newer Seagals not expecting much. It truly is a case of managing your expectations. But Driven To Kill is just dour, bleak and boring. Compare it to the fun of Urban Justice (2007) and you can see the contrast right away. One of the main problems is Ruslan is not a hero, not even an anti-hero, he's just a brutal, amoral, amazingly unlikable monster. You don't root for him to succeed; in fact, you end up rooting for the people he's (usually unnecessarily) viciously murdering. Considering he tortures, kills and impales people with the slightest provocation, Ruslan is more like Jason from the Friday the 13th series than an action hero.
But because this movie in general, and Seagal in particular, is so humorless and self-serious, some entertainment can be gleaned from that. Also his voice is funny, as usual - instead of an absurd Cajun accent, now whoever is doing his ADR is trying his hand at an absurd Russian accent. He's (and by He's we mean the anonymous voice actor reading Seagal's lines) is really stretching his acting range. And because his voice is so soft, you need subtitles once again.
Looking at Seagal's triangle of Eddie Munster hair, we realized he's just the modern-day equivalent of Jalal Merhi: An unlikable, overweight actor/Martial Artist of limited ability. But Seagal continues to put out product, and Merhi doesn't. That's the only difference really. As for Driven To Kill, you don't really care about the characters, especially Ruslan (unless you feel bad for all the basically innocent people Ruslan has mercilessly slaughtered), and at 97 minutes, it truly stretches your patience. That's a long time to spend with Ruslan, a guy you wouldn't want to spend 3 minutes with in real life. Add to that some CGI gunfights (complete with CGI muzzle flashes, CGI bullet hits and CGI smoke), some knockoff of a Powerman 5000 song, and some filler, and you'll be wishing for the days of Seagal's "Patty Cake" Martial Arts style.
As the latter-day, Direct-To-DVD Seagal output goes, certainly some are better than others, but Driven To Kill represents a low point in this phase of the man's career. -
rockdalecop28 May 2009Not been able to see a preview before I saw this made me a little worried, but I thought, what the hell? Seagal rules. I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. The only flaw was that at times I couldn't understand Seagal. It also appeared as if he did most/all of his fighting and that was nice. It was a pretty good story. It's was your standard revenge flick. It's nice to see Seagal go after bad guys that messed with his family. It was like Urban Justice in a way. I was glad it wasn't that European package crap or conspiracy from the early 90's or 2000's. This was way better than Kill Switch and of course that vampire crap. But not as good as Pistol Whipped.
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Leofwine_draca11 March 2011It's fair to say that Seagal has been making some mixed films as of late, and quality by now isn't exactly important when it comes to churning out film after film. But DRIVEN TO KILL is definitely one of the worst I've seen of his lately, a film that's ruined by one sole factor: the music. Seagal fans invariably watch his movies for the action sequences, yet every fight scene in this one is accompanied by some absolutely ridiculous musical accompaniment that ruins any enjoyment. The ludicrous decision to play some upbeat, jaunty, East European accordion folk music while Seagal beats the hell out of his enemies has to be one of the most criminal mistakes in B-movie action history.
Otherwise, the film is bland with little to differentiate it from a dozen others these past few years, with Seagal going after the Russian gangsters who attacked his family. He spots one hell of a fake tan (and fake accent) here, and looks pretty bored with the proceedings. The action could have been good without that music – and things do pick up for one extended showdown at a hospital that reminded me a little of HARD-BOILED – but in the end this film's a non-starter, one destined for the bargain bin. -
This is easily one of Seagal's better DTV efforts. Its on a par with Urban Justice but not as good as Belly of the Beast. To compare it to his earlier movies would be unfair as he makes much smaller budget movies these days. First off if you are a veteran of Seagal films of the last ten or so years you can tell if he cares about the movie or not and he certainly seems to be putting a bit of effort into this one. No body doubles of bad dubbing in this which is good. The story is very generic, a basic revenge movie. Not unlike the movies Charles Bronson made when he was a similar age to Seagal now. The action scenes are well done with some good shoot outs and fist and knife fights. The acting is a little hit and miss although the bad guy who will be familiar to people who seen the awful Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was very good. So worth a rent on a Friday night but i really wish Hollywood would give Seagal another big budget action movie. Hell lets get another Under Siege movie out before its too late.
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poolandrews14 January 2011Driven to Kill starts in California as ex-Russian mobster Ruslan (Steven Seagal) now works as a crime novelist, he gets a phone call from his ex-wife Catherine (Inna Korobkina) who informs him that their daughter Lanie (Laura Mennell) is engaged to be married & invites him to the wedding in New York. Ruslan is straight out there on the next plane, Ruslan meets his perspective son-in-law Stephen Abramov (Dmitry Chepovetsky) who happens to be the son of powerful Russian mobster Mikhail (Igor Jijikine). On the day of the wedding both Catherine & Lanie are attacked, Catherine is murdered & Lanie is left in a coma although the police & Ruslan feel it is better if it is reported she was also killed while they hunt for those responsible. The police have to go through official channels while Ruslan doesn't, Ruslan buy's himself a gun & sets about finding those responsible & dishing out some revenge...
Also known under the title Ruslan (the version I saw had this title but the title Ruslan doesn't sound very exciting or action orientated unlike Driven to Kill) this American & Canadian co-production was directed by Jeff King & is yet another straight to video action thriller starring the prolific (if nothing else) Steven Seagal who seems to churn these things out by the dozen these days, while not as bad as some of his recent output Diven to Kill is hardly any sort of classic & just isn't that good. The script is your average uninspired stuff, you know the sort of thing where some hard as nails guy is wronged in some personal way & sets out to bash some heads in & break some arms in pursuit of revenge. The script is both lazy & poorly written, there are many questions that I felt were left unanswered & character motivation was left vague to say the least. Why did Stephen's father have Catherine & Lanie killed? Why did the killers take the wedding ring & then pawn it? Why were they described as bait? Why did those Doctor's barricade themselves in that room despite the fire alarm going off? Would a fire alarm going off not indicate that maybe the building was on fire & that hiding in a room in a building that might be on fire might not be a good idea? When Mikhail & his people at the end storm the hospital & start killing people would he not be seen on CCTV? Would he not then expose himself as killer? I don't understand how Mikhail thinks he will get away with going into a public place like a hospital & start killing Doctor's & patients & get away with it. The ending where Seagal talks to his comatose daughter Lanie for the first time during the entire film who then suddenly wakes up is bordering on the hilarious & is impossible to take seriously. There are other baffling aspects to the plot but I'm running out of space. At almost 100 minutes Driven to Kill has a decent enough pace but is maybe a little too long, the final twenty minutes or so is a shoot-out set inside a hospital that feels like a low budget homage to Hard Boiled (1992) although comes nowhere close in terms of excitement. The character's are pretty poor, the dialogue is inane & it's only the frequent fights & shoot-outs that save Driven to Kill from scoring a lowly one star out of ten.
Surprisingly director King shuns the recent straight to video action film trend of shaky hand held camera-work & machine gun editing (blink & you'll miss it!) as the action scenes in Driven to Kill remain fairly coherent & you can generally tell what's going on & who's shooting who which helps, a little. The usual Seagal is on show here as he sadistically beats & kills his way through armies of bad guy's without getting hit or shot himself, arms are broken, necks are stabbed, guns are shoved into people's eyes & there's a fair amount of violence & blood on show. There's a also a scene set inside a strip club as Seagal gets a private lap dance so there's a bit of female nudity here as well. Although competently made nothing stands out that much, the colours are dull & the action a bit static at times.
With a supposed budget of about $10,000,000 this was filmed in British Columbia in Canada. One major problem about Driven to Kill is Seagal's Russian accent which is terrible & seems to come & go at regular intervals, Seagal is also still far too fat & looks out of shape. In fact a lot of the thick Russian accents are awful & it's sometimes hard to understand what's being said.
Driven to Kill is strictly average Seagal, it's poorly written, unimaginative action thriller fare with his usual sadistic violence thrown in. Not Seagal's worst but far from his best. -
curtis-83 May 2009"Driven to Kill" (originally, and more appropriately, titled "Ruslan") is one of the best Steven Seagal flicks in a long time. Now, after total crap like "Kill Switch" and "Against the Dark," almost anything in focus would seem good. But D2K actually has a lot to recommend it--it has a strong, engaged bada$$ performance by Seagal, one with no obvious body/stunt doubles or voice dubbing, a straightforward story, and the kind of action you'd expect. The direction, while not splashy, is competent (a rarity for recent Seagal flicks).
Now, to be honest, it would take a few more million dollars, a lot of retakes, some recasting of supporting roles, and a car chase or two to make this into a theatrical action-exploitation flick along the lines of "Taken." But for a DTV movie Driven to Kill is actually quite exceptional. And for a Seagal DTV this is up there near the top of the heap with Urban Justice and better than Pistol Whipped. It reminds me of a Charles Bronson low budget mid-80s movie like Murphy's Law. However, the shortcomings that affect all direct to video movies with their short shooting schedules and low budgets also brings D2K down a bit as well. The biggest problem is that about half of the supporting performances are embarrassingly lame--the female police officer and the oily lawyer in particular. And there were also some really strange choices made for the film's score. Upbeat Russian folk music during dramatic and violent beatdowns? Seems odd to me. In fact, sometimes the music behind the action is so ill-fitting that it seems like we're listening to a placeholder score that the filmmakers intended to replace. They might as well have said "hey, get that old polka album--we'll use that music for the part where Ruslan cracks the guy's neck!"
But, despite these flaws, I really enjoyed D2K. It has a small scale old school action vibe that I could get into and little to none of the unintentionally comedic incompetence we have come to expect from Seagal's output over the past decade. -
BenBabou31 May 2009Forget is enormous shape, the man can still kick your ass. Yes, he could afford loosing weights, I will give you that it would make him more credible. Other then that, Seagal is offering good fight scenes. Plus for once, he is not using any double to cover his own stunts. He demonstrated martial arts skills. Not sure why using the Russian background for the story but it is good to see him not done!!!
The movie is good entertainment, nothing more, nothing less but looking at his past few awful movies, he definitely deserves a 10!! No more cliché then the usual, Seagal is in control. This is best JOB since ''Urban Justice''. Hopefully, the next movie will be at least as good as this. -
Your-Mum-135795 September 2016As you would expect from a straight-to-DVD effort, there is little in Driven to Kill to lift it from the cesspit. There are however two factors that make this movie unintentionally hilarious:
1. Segal does a Russian accent. It's terrible. And very, very funny. 2. Segal's character Ruslan is supposed to be a novelist. It's hard enough believing this meat-fisted lunk can read, let alone write, but Segal has been detached from reality for some time now.
As pointed out by one of the previous reviewers, Segal's computer keyboard control is astonishing - and even more impressive than the death-by-gun-barrel-in-the-eye sequence.
Is this enough to make the movie good? Hell no, it has Steven Segal in it for a start. But if you've got nothing (and I mean *nothing*) better to do for 90 minutes, this may just about fit the bill. -
tjordan4530 May 2009He breaks arms, fights with knives, finds interesting ways to send shrapnel into people, and now he comes with his very own accent! If you're looking for a good action movie, look somewhere else. If you just wanna see Seagal hurt some mobsters, queue this one on your netflix.
I spent the first 20 minutes trying to figure out what accent he was going for. and since the rest of the actors have varying accents, you have to follow the (and I use this term very loosely) story to figure out it's supposed to be Russian. After you finally start breaking through the horrid accents to figure out they're speaking English, you still have to ignore the awful music that seemed to be composed entirely by an accordion.
The story itself wasn't terrible, but the whole revenge plot seems a bit over done. The little tweaks it got to add flavor just seemed weird. For instance: a frag grenade which he uses toward the end is made to kill with shrapnel which is made when it explodes and bursts the casing. But the writer felt the need to have him add more metal objects on top of the grenade to send them into the victim. I also didn't see why he would waste a grenade when he has a ton of guns, unlimited ammo (as usual) and the guy's attention was on the tape recorder so he could have used a knife. And what police dept doesn't check fingerprints? He dropped the M-4 in the hallway of the apartment building where they killed the first thug. It might not have been enough for a conviction, but they would have mentioned it.
When it's all added up, I don't see me recommending this to anyone ever for any reason. There are just too many other movies out there that are less bad than this one. -
Wizard-811 February 2010Recently, I was reading a review of another Steven Seagal movie, and in it the reviewer commented to the effect that it was just the same as his other movies. Watching "Driven To Kill", I got the same feeling. Oh sure, there are a few minor changes, like making Seagal a Russian (which leads to some unintentional hilarity, hearing Seagal's wheezy and pause-filled whisper doing a bogus accent.) But with the rest of the movie, you will see nothing new. Seagal is still fat, and he continues to wear heavy coats to mask his weight, and is mostly filmed from the chest up. (There is a very funny moment when we see him run for several seconds - he can barely do it.) It should probably come as no surprise that there aren't that many martial arts moments here compared to his early films, and they are rapidly edited and filled with shots of what appear to be doubles doing his work. The gun battle scenes are also equally hard to make out as well. The general production values (cinematography, set decoration, etc.) are passable, and that's about all that's positive I can say about this.
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Driven to Kill: 3 out of 10: I have no hope of ever being Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian no matter how much I work out; And no amount of dedication will ever give me the moves of a Chuck Norris or a Bruce Lee. But Steven Segal??? I can do that. Find me an all you can eat buffet next to a tanning salon and I will be in Segal shape in no time.
Whether it is Liam Neeson rescuing his daughter in Taken or Harrison Ford taking on the bank robbers in Firewall or those geriatrics in Lethal Weapon 4 there is plenty of room for action heroes that are more AARP than Tai Kwan Do.
So I am not going to harp on the fact that Stephen Segal’s film reminds one of an alternate past where Orson Wells had starred in Good Guys wear Black. Nor will I point out that his hand eye coordination is so out of whack he can’t even type at a keyboard convincingly on camera. Heck I won’t even mention his Costner-esquire* mastery of a Russian Accent.
I want to know why this is considered a return to form for Segal by some critics. (Segal is back and he is hungrier than ever crows one.) The revenge plot so simple Charles Bronson would have blushed. The movies idea of a plot twist is a character who practically wears a t-shirt that says I’m a bad guy ask me how... turns out to be “gasp” a bad guy. The fist fights remind me of Blazing Saddles (You Brute You Brute) and the gun fights are right out of Top Secret (Two guys five feet from each other hiding behind crates.)
I could go on but good lord this film is cheap. Throw in some CGI gargoyles and this wouldn’t be out of place on the Sci-fi Channel. The actress that plays Segal’s ex-wife (Inna Korobkina) is a year younger than the actress that plays his daughter (Laura Mennell). They put an old lady wig on her and hopped no-one would notice. (On another strange side note IMDb also has Ed Anders as thug #3 and Mike Desabrais as thug #5 but no word on the fate or identity of thugs 1, 2 and 4.)
I admit I have liked some Segal films in the past such as Under Siege and have found others unintentional laugh riots (On Deadly Ground is one of the funniest most entertaining bad films I have ever scene.) Driven to Kill is unfortunately not bad enough to be entertaining and lord knows it certainly isn’t good enough either.
*Kevin Costner in Robin Hood set the standard for the disappearing reappearing never right in the first place accent. -
anduriled455312 March 2013This film is not your time. It's not even good as a time-waster. Segal really phones it in, or not, I can't even tell. At times it is so very over-the-top Segal, but painfully so. If someone dies, they have to die in the most stupid way imaginable. The main bad guy is killed by a gun through the eye, not a bullet, but a Ruger Mk. III in his eye-socket. A Ruger Mk. III with at least 4 bullets remaining in the magazine. A Ruger Mk. III that magically replaces the much higher calibered Makarov pistol that the big bad Russian boss carries in the beginning of the final battle. It's not a good film, but if you have low standards and some time to waste, go for it!
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bastos24 August 2020After some very mediocre work in features and STV crap I wasn't expecting anything but horror from this flick. It turns out that there is nothing like a good old violent revenge movie to get some life out of Steven Segal. This is not an amazing movie as it still has a very low budget and Segal still can't act, but at least in this one it seems as it's actually him throwing the punches and shooting the guns, which is a step up from some of his previous work. Not amazing but an entertaining ride for Segal fans.
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Samiam37 May 2010I can't say I wasn't somewhat interested in Driven to Kill. Is this the first time Seagal has played a non-American? If not well I'm pretty sure it is the first time he tries a foreign accent. It's not bad, but again he doesn't quite suspend your disbelief. In terms of acting ability, this is still the same Steven Seagal who first appeared on the big screen twenty years ago, only he is fifty pounds heavier and he doesn't fight as well. In the end, Driven to Kill is pretty boring.
Seagal is a former Russian mobster, now an author in California. He flies over to the east coast to attend his daughter's wedding, but someone takes a knife to her before she can leave all dressed in white to be married. Miraculously she is unconscious but not dead, Seagal teams up with his son-in-law (whose father is head of the local Russian mob) to get revenge in kick-ass fashion.
There is too much gun play and not enough martial arts. The fights in Driven to Kill are very uninventive, except maybe one, where Seagal has a 5-1 knife fight. Personally I'd like to see him Kick-butt, not shoot it. He isn't that exciting with a gun. The climax is a typical case of an amateurishly, thrill- ridden hail of gunfire, which may put you to sleep. The only thing less impressive than Seagal's body is his mouth. The guy really needs to speak up, you can barely hear a word he says now, and I don't think it has to do with the semi-Russian accent.
Enough said, I would skip this one. -
kairingler7 July 2013there's a pattern starting to emerge here. follow me his direct to DVD movies are getting better and better, yea sure there were many clunkers like attack force.. just a horrible film,, but they are getting better,, Belly of the Best , and Pistol Whipped come to mind,, in this one he plays a retired Russian Mobster, turned novelist,, his wife is dead,, and his daughter is either killed or kidnapped not sure.. so he goes after the bad guys in typical Seagal fashion, lot's of Aikido in this one,, his skills are mind numbing what he can do with his hands.. kinda wish you would see his movies in the theatre again,, like Rambo and Rocky revivals of sorts. I didn't care for all of the lousy dubbing again,, accents are way off of the mark,,i think Seagal has found something here and is on the track to regaining credibility in the acting world again very soon. not a bad picture at all.
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nogodnomasters3 August 2018Ruslan (Steven Seagal) is an ex-Russian mobster living on the west coast. When his daughter (Laura Mennell) in Trenton wants to get married, Ruslan goes there against the wishes of former acquaintances. When his ex-wife (Inna Korobkina) is killed and daughter is left for dead, Ruslan goes after the Russian florists who did the hit.
The film is straight forward Seagal. There are no twists, no surprise endings. If this film, Seagal had not yet perfected the duck, then one knock out punch move as he does in his later offerings. The film takes about 30 minutes to introduce characters before Seagal goes after the bad guys. Average Seagal Flick.
Parental Guide (extended and uncut version): F-bomb, no sex. Stripper nudity -
gangstahippie1 November 2009Driven to Kill(aka Ruslan) is the latest Steven Seagal film.Like all his other films for the past 7 years, this is once again a straight to DVD feature.Now by hearing this, you would not expect much after seeing that the majority of the newer Seagal films suck.However there are a few exceptions such as "Urban Justice", "Pistol Whipped" and this film, which in my opinion is not only his best straight to DVD film, but it ranks up there with his classics from the 90's.The acting is not all that great, and I did not find Seagal to be that bad of an actor back in his "Under Siege" days.Here, he sports a semi-Russian accent which is not very convincing.The acting from the others, especially the Russian mobster is fairly good though.The film is about a retired Russian mobster, who is now a novelist.After his wife is killed and his daughter is injured in an assassination of sorts, Seagal reverts back to his old ways and tries to find out who did this.The plot may not be the best but the most important thing about Seagal films is the action! In this category, it does not disappoint.I'm actually surprised it was Rated 14A in Canada because this is easily one of Seagal's bloodiest films.We also see Seagal use aikido again, as in we see him breaking people bones! Any fan of Seagal should check this movie out!
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ejderkelebek11 May 2009Well ; as an aikido instructor from Turkey, like any one practicing Aikido a lot of people like Segal. We want more and more aikido from him. Nothing happened since Under Siege series which I wish was not his top point.
Again well, by this film, he actually got something. While watching Segal after Under Siege series I tell myself, something please not to turn of or not to forward to fighting scenes. As we all know he is really a good fight actor.
This film in that sense is I think the first watchable film of Segal after quite time. He at last make a watchable film. Good music in some instances. And at last he is not a cop :) Of course after that handy cam film of Zombies.. I told myself I can shoot better of Segal..:) Also the Russian thing reminded me of some little eastern promises. which was a quite good film. Anyway, a good film to enjoy and also last wishes More aikido segal please mooooreeee... -
shakercoola17 September 2018An American action film; A story about a former Russian mobster turned author of hardboiled pulp fiction novels. He returns home for his daughter's wedding but, shortly before the ceremony, she is assaulted by his arch-enemy, prompting him to join forces with her fiance and set off in pursuit of her attackers. A far-fetched, poorly written action thriller, gratuitously brutal and occasionally barbaric. Steven Seagal doesn't commit fully to his Russian character. Usually he is a man of few words but this time round due to poor sound mixing he is of even fewer. While there's plenty of action, the story is unconvincing and quite flat, and tension leaks out of the prolonged finale.
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SnoopyStyle28 March 2020Mysterious Russian Ruslan (Steven Seagal) is an L.A. crime novelist. His ex-wife Catherine calls. He returns to New York to meet his daughter Lanie's fiancée, Stephan Abramov, who turns out to be the son of a Russian mob kingpin. Gunmen kills Catherine and brutalizes Lanie. He goes on a revenge rampage taking along Stephan with him.
I don't like Seagal anymore and that's very fitting for this character. He's not a nice guy and that's fine. He's a borderline bad guy taking out even worst guys. This should be easy but the movie tries to make it hard. While I like Goldstein's reveal, the rest is a bit too messy. I'm not sure that Lanie could be doing what she is secretly doing. There seems to be a conflict of interest which would make her job impossible. Also, life insurance is one of the first things that cops would check for. It's a ball of yarn that could unravel if a loose thread is pulled. The non-stop shooting may help to distract from asking too many questions.