Pistol Whipped (2008)

An Exercise In Nonsense

Admirable film.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Steven Seagal has one of his more unflattering roles as an overweight, alcoholic ex cop, living a bleak existence where he owes mounting gambling debts, lost a beautiful wife to divorce, and is a bad father who can't even provide his girl one day a week without failing to make the grade. Hired as a contract killer, his gambling markers will be paid if he takes out specific targets arranged by an arcane benefactor(Lance Henriksen, often communicating from the shadows) with ambiguous, esoteric motives. Known as "The Old Man", Henriksen keeps Seagal's Matt Conlin honest by employing a mysterious gunsel to look after him, Blue(Paul Caldren), shadowing his every move, there in case a challenging situation develops, while also detailing the tasks he must perform. So Matt does so, eliminating two marks, but the third, his daughter's stepfather, detective Steve Shacter(Mark Elliot Wilson), will not be easy. Steve, it seems, is not the straight-arrow, virtuous cop Matt always thought so highly of, and his elimination will prove most difficult, particularly since his position has grown within the force. We see when Steve slits the throat of Matt's priest that he'll go to any lengths to keep his reputation inculpable. Renee Goldensberry is Matt's love interest, Drea, an actual member of The Old Man's entourage, herself a hit woman if needed. Decent actioner allows Seagal to knock some guys around while firing off rounds as well. The conclusion is a showdown between Matt, Drea, and Blue against Steve and his crooked police gang in a cemetery as headstones and bodies are torn apart by bullet-fire. The movie also provides a shootout as Steve and his cronies attempt to gun down Matt in the middle of a street with Blue coming to his aid, with an ensuing in a car chase resulting in vehicular damage. The director employs unnecessary camera techniques(..and he speeds up the film for no real reason whatsoever)and shoots at odd angles, sometimes ruining gun battles as they occur. As is often the case in these kinds of movies, Matt's daughter is used as leverage by Steve in the finale, her life in danger if he doesn't put down his weapon and surrender.

Although "Pistol Whipped" is mostly shot in broad daylight - in opposite to some of Seagal's recent "stumble around in the dark" flicks like "Attack Force" - it has much in common with a 1940s film noir. Seagal portrays a totally broken hero - losing lots of money when gambling, divorced from the mother of his daughter, fired from the police, drinking too much, and he can't even keep promises he gives his daughter. But the world around him is not easy to divide into good guys and bad guys. His former police colleagues are corrupt, he doesn't trust his new employer at all, and even his new girlfriend has something to hide. Many dark shades of gray, thus the story was better than I expected, definitely a good progress from Seagal's previous couple of movies.Nevertheless, "Pistol Whipped" couldn't avoid the ridiculous moments typical for a Seagal flick, for example when he observes somebody secretly in a bar, trying not to be noticed. Yeah, right, 10 feet tall and staring at the other bloke all the time, nobody will notice him. Ah, but wouldn't it be less fun without things like that?

I am a big Steven Seagal fan of his 90s movies but began to loose faith in him after Half Past Dead. That was a very impressive movie which did not deserve a rating of 3.9 out of 10. Plenty of action and humour, plus some great kicks from seagal. After his Straight-to-DVD features, i began to lose faith, his fights looked so fake because he had stunt doubles that looked nothing like him and his voice was dubbed pointlessly.Then came Renegade Justice (or Urban Justice as US calls it), it was a very decent action flick and made me see that he dozen't need to retire early. The fights were all done by seagal and dubbing was ignored. It was also a fun film to watch and a must-have for all seagal fans. What I mostly love about it is seeing seagal the way we use to know him in the 90s. Just no original plot.This film that I am talking about is the best seagal film I have ever seen. This is mainly because he isn't the hero in this film. There are no heroes in this film. He is an alcoholic ex-cop with a gambling problem, a huge debt and a neglectful father. It convinced me on what a depressing character he was.The soundtrack was brilliant. At the start, seeing Seagal shooting in a cemetery while there was emotional music playing in the background made me see the drama in this film. The second scene where seagal and the priest are talking really described his character as not being some "perfect hero" but a more realistic character. These problems that he has is also his fault.The action was also brilliant as well. There is still mindless violence in this movie but that won't spoil your fun as the fight scenes are still realistic but they are not the reason why this movie is so great. Seagal also shows talent and emotion in his acting which is very rare as he is mostly acting with his fists and guns.This is the best seagal DVD movie yet. Mainly because it is something a little different than his others and is the most unique out of all of the films he has been in.

Steven Seagall at one time was one of the best action actors around twenty years ago and by the turn of the next decade he would be a attraction to see on screen even if I never went to any of his films in the theatre. The last several years Steven seem to slow down a bit and he wasn't the same kick ass guy he once was but after watching Pistol Whipped. Steven still had it which hopefully it'll be an opportunity to be on screen again and perhaps appearing in a Quentin Taratino film may really boost a comeback for him teaming up Uma Thurman. I always liked Steven Seagall even though many critics don't take him as a serious actor but hopefully they'll praise his acolaides when they start to realize his talent.