Driven to Kill

Directed by: Jeff King

Starring: Steven Seagal, Dmitry Chepovetsky,

Synopsis:

Ruslan Drachev (Seagal) is an ex-gangster who has left New York and the Old Life to become a crime-fiction writer in LA. Invited back by his ex-wife to attend his daughter’s wedding, Ruslan is perturbed to discover that Stephan, the groom-to-be, is the son of Mikhail, head of one of the Russian Families. This proves to be the least of his worries though as just hours before the wedding, his ex-wife is murdered and his daughter severely injured. Ruslan takes Stephan under his wing and gives him a hands-on lesson in taking revenge.



Review:

After years in the wilderness, Steven Seagal has of late produced some half-decent action movies, such as Urban Justice and Pistol Whipped. With Driven to Kill, Seagal has come up with his best-looking movie for a long time. Whilst he’s never likely to reach the heights of the Under Siege movies in terms of budget, director Jeff King has at least captured the look and feel of his earlier pictures such as Out for Justice and Marked for Death.

The graceful Aikido moves and the ponytail are both long gone, but Seagal’s characters are still the meanest, baddest people you don’t want to mess with, as two would-be thugs find out to their cost early on. Seagal uses short, sharp, economical moves to defeat his opponents rather than the wrist-locks and throw-downs of old. It’s actually quite comical to see these two tough guys almost poop themselves when they see Ruslan’s gangster tattoos up and down his fore-arms.

The script works well and has a lot of forward momentum. It’s pretty obvious early on who’s responsible but the motives come out in some nice exposition later on. The cast is uniformly very good, again a step up from previous productions with a lot of tv character actors filling out the co-star roles. Chepovetsky is a particular standout and has a complex character to play – a man being dragged into a violent world he was trying to avoid. Another light touch is the fact that while Stephan tries to convince Ruslan that he isn’t a gangster, Ruslan spends the movie teaching him how to be a tough guy – he knows that people will exploit Stephan and his daughter to gain leverage either with him or even Mikhail and needs to be assured that Stephan will be able to protect his daughter. Although she only has a small part, Inna Korobkina is excellent as Ruslan’s ex’-wife.

In the past Seagal’s movies have been way over-the-top in portraying how invulnerable he is, so much so that you wonder why the bad-guys even bother to show up (check out the scene in Under Siege 2, when the badguys find out who he is – “Oh No! Not Casey Ryback! We’re doomed!!”). With this film, it’s not so much that he’s invulnerable, it’s just that he’s a lot more experienced and more prepared than his adversaries. A good example of this is when he visits an arms dealer. The scene is pretty tense as the dealer and his men are naturally suspicious and get more and more nervous as the deal goes on. Ruslan is almost expecting it to go wrong and thanks to a miniature pistol hidden in a money clip, is ready for when it does.

The movie ends with a satisfying punch-up between Ruslan and Mikhail, which doesn’t feel too one-sided (another problem with some of Seagals previous movies) and ends with a particularly gory send-off.

Verdict:

Working with decent actors and a better budget Seagal has produced another entertaining action thriller. Fans of his early films should definitely check this out.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)