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Okay so this is a Steven Seagal movie and at this point, we pretty much know what to expect from him. His last movie, Urban Justice was decent enough to watch all the way through. So when this one came out and I saw comments about how it was just as good as Urban Justice, I thought I would give it a shot. Well.....I could've put the time spent watching this movie to better use. I know this is a movie and not real life, but at least make it somewhat believable. There's a scene in the movie where Seagal's character shoots nails in half and lights matches by shooting the tips without breaking them. So that's supposed to show what a great shot he is. Well for the rest of the movie, he must shoot off at least another thousand rounds and doesn't manage to hit anything. How is that possible? I guess it's back to the same old Seagal movies now.

Actually, he is slimming down as we speak, and Steven Seagal is back on top form is this electrifying thriller from writer JD Zeik, the man who penned Frankenheimer's suspenseful DeNiro classic Ronin. I won't bother going into plot details, but this is, in all seriousness, a very enjoyable film, and a nice step up from Seagal's recent career, a million miles away from duds like Flight of Fury and the God-awful Attack Force, in which he sounded, for half the film, like he'd been dubbed by someone who usually voices tough, gruff martial arts masters in eastern releases. For once he's not the whiter-than-white superhero with a background in black ops/special forces/law enforcement/environmentalism/being a chef; this time he actually plays a flawed character(!), which is a huge improvement over every other film he's ever appeared in where he's the honourable and unbeatable master-operator. As the drink-sodden ex-crooked cop, Seagal is not exactly revelatory, but this is the first film where he's actually bothered attempting to do anything different from his standard formula which sometimes works (The Glimmer Man, Submerged, Into The Sun) and often doesn't (Attack Force, really, absolutely rotten to the core), so i do commend him on that, and also the fact that he has slimmed down considerably from the behemoth who was only filmed from the chest up in his more recent movies. Oh, and he even attempts a few kicks in this one, something we haven't seen since....hmmmm..... Seagal is supported by two people i never expected to see in one of his films, Paul Calderon, who'll be familiar to fans of King of New York and Pulp Fiction, and Mr Lance Henriksen, who sadly only appears in a few scenes. Both add an air of respectability to the proceedings. But this is a Seagal film, not Merchant Ivory, and it delivers well on the fighting/shooting/killing front. An enjoyable load of nonsense, but a bit of a comeback for Steven Seagal, hopefully it'll end the cycle of appearing is tatty East European-set trash. Also, please bear in mind that this rates an 8 out of 10 purely as compared against other Seagal vehicles, not The Godfather, for instance.

I have been loyal as a Steven Seagal fan. In high school Marked for Death and Out For Justice were Saturday movie regulars. Under Siege was an opening night event. I have reviewed most of the Seagal films on this website and have viewed them all multiple times. This past Saturday my wife and daughter left for the night...so I sat down armed with a 6 pack of Coors Light and Blast o' Butter popcorn and into my "PS3" I popped in "Pistol Whipped" with very low expectations. Was I pleasantly surprised! The film moves quickly. The director takes some great camera angles...great soundtrack (for a Seagal film...)...and seems to have a great sense of what older Seagal fans enjoyed so much about him as an action icon in the late 80's and 90's. The dialogue is on par with such Seagal classics as "The Glimmer Man" and "Out for Justice". Seagal seems to have found his charisma...with the exception of 2005's "Into the Sun" his last 8 or 9 DVD's have lacked that main charisma ingredient. The writers decided in this film to make Seagal's character vulnerable, mean, and lacking good judgement. Something Seagal hasn't been in character for quite some time. This film has a few technical problems...mainly the ending shootout could have used a little touch up in the editing room...Seagal seems to have sunglasses on and off in the same breath of dialogue??? A few stand in scenes (very brief)on long shots...but nothing like the crap we as Seagal fans have scene in recent efforts like "The Foreigner", "Attack Force", and "Flight of Fury". The akido scenes are great and well shot... I can only hope that Seagal has found his step again...I will still be reluctant to get excited as Seagal seems to hold a pattern...After 2005's acceptable "Into The Sun", we got "Submerged" which I thought was horrible. After 2006's "Shadow Man" (which I enjoyed) we got "Attack Force???" The formula for Seagal's success lies in his ability to work within the means of the "Direct to DVD" market and its meager budgets to produce films like this one which will secure his fan base to push him back into theatrical contention. Time is running out for the aging star...but I strongly suggest you watch this film.

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.

Compared to other recent Seagal films this one is OK, but it is nowhere near as good as his early movies (Under Siege, Above The Law, Hard To Kill, all of which have an honorary place in my DVD collection). On the plus side, they don't even bother hiding the fact that Steven has become old and fat. However, he doesn't take himself too serious, by playing a down-on-his-luck drunk. The film itself is alright. Roel Reiné, the Dutch director who recently stated that his goal to make Blade Runner-like movies in the future, made the best out of it he could. He pursued Seagal to do more of his own fighting, talking and... well everything (since he has stand-ins for almost everything in other recent movies, even stepping out of a car). The plot is decent and the camera work is entertaining. But then there's a protagonist who just doesn't want to be there. Sorry Steven, each time I try to like your films, but you just don't like making them anymore, and it shows. It is nice to see Steven do his own fighting again (or at least not with the obvious use of stunt doubles all the time), but a real comeback is still far, far away.

An unremarkable action thriller, but probably one of Steven Seagal's best films so far. This one has a plot that actually keeps your interest (even though the main "twist" is telegraphed ahead of time) by going beyond the simple "they killed his loved ones and now he wants revenge" scenario, without becoming a muddled mess like, say, "Mercenary For Justice". It also has a pretty slick look, and the action includes a well-filmed car chase climaxing with a spectacular car flip, and a John Woo - style graveyard shootout at the end. Seagal tries to play a morally ambivalent character, which he does up to a point, but the usual problems associated with his characters (the invulnerability and the vanity) are still present (wait till you hear a girl's remark about a certain body part of his). He is still overweight and most of the fight scenes are blink-and-you'll-miss-them, but at least he is there doing them, and doing them efficiently. The movie also benefits from a good supporting cast, though Lance Henriksen should have had more screen time. Renee Goldsberry is gorgeous & tough and earns "Pistol Whipped" a few more points. (**1/2)

Terrible script, I have no idea how anything like this gets taken seriously enough to go into development. I was once a big Seagal fan but these Direct-to-DVD movies from Sony are obviously taking their toll on the guy. He looks completely uninterested throughout the movie. I believe he's obliged to make a certain number of movies because of contract commitments (explains his 10 releases a year) and judging from his performance, he's not impressed by the work he's getting. Avoid it at all costs, even Seagal fans be warned, this is far from a return to form.

I am a huge Stevo fan and have seen nearly all of his films except the ones you just have to turn off after 20mins like Ticker and The Patriot so this rating is very subjective to Stevo films and shouldn't be taken seriously by a non-Stevo fan. I have given this the same as Shadow Man which isn't right really because its better; Let down by some incoherent editing (same with every Stevo film even his debut "Above the Law") this film actually has a decent story and the action scenes are good. There is a great climactic shootout in a cemetery at the end of the film which is really well shot, the music builds up the narrative really well unlike Urban Justice which has an awful "computer game" style sound track. I hope Stevo keeps it up because this is above average even for a non Stevo fan....... STEVO!

Pistol Whipped starts as ex cop & hard as nails Matt Conlin (producer Steven Seagal) is taken at gunpoint to meet a mysterious old man (Lance Henriksen) who has wiped out Matt's immense gambling debts & as a result wants Matt to work for him. Matt has little choice & soon finds out that Blue apparently works for some secret Government organisation that takes out criminals that are above or beyond the law. Matt is given a photo of someone & he has to kill them, simple. Matt know's his stuff & makes a good killer but when his latest target is his daughter's step-dad Steve Shacter (Mark Elliot Wilson) & police lieutenant Matt doesn't want to do it but Blue insists that he does... Directed by Roel Reiné this is yet another boring straight-to-video action film with a generic title that has nothing to do with the film itself (no-one is pistol whipped at any point) staring Steven Seagal & is pretty much as bad as his other's which means it's pretty damned bad. The script takes itself extremely seriously as it tries to mix heartfelt emotion & drama with violent action & predictable thriller narrative. The big plot twist that comes towards the end of Pistol Whipped is so obvious & predictable I had guessed within the first twenty minutes, seriously if you don't predict the way this is going to finish then you must be really slow or just so bored by the whole film that you don't care which would be completely understandable to be fair. Everything about the script for Pistol Whipped is terrible from the badly written scenes that are supposed to be emotional like the bits between Seagal & his daughter to the predictable plot to the boring action scenes to the pace which is so slow & lethargic that it would put most to sleep. The character's are awful, you don't care for anyone which makes the intended dramatic scenes painful to watch & the dialogue is just as bad, just check out the bit where Seagal chats up that ugly black bird in the bar for a touch of unintentional humour. The one thing I will say about Pistol Whipped apart from the fact it's total crap is that it looks quite nice, the crisp clean flowing photography is quite stylish & the use of slow-motion is alright too. The action scenes are poor, for the first hour & twenty odd minutes there's just a couple of standard Seagal fights & a few shoot-outs. Really dull stuff. Things improve a bit towards the end with a reasonable car chase & a decent shoot-out in a graveyard but it comes across as too little too late. The IMDb reckons this had a budget of about $10,000,000 which I find hard to believe, if so where did the money go? Pistol Whipped does have good production values & the look of the film deserves better than the terrible script & poor action that it captures. Apparently filmed in Connecticut. The acting is poor, Seagal has always been a poor actor & here where he actually tries he comes across as just plain terrible. He's still to fat as well. One of my favourite actors Lance Henriksen who gets about a minutes worth of screen time here deserves better than this. Pistol Whipped is bad, really bad. It's extremely predictable, it's extremely boring & badly written with embarrassing emotional drama bits that Seagal just can't make work. A half decent car chase & shoot-out at the end comes far too late in the game.

After the excellent URBAN JUSTICE, it seemed that Steven Seagal had his work cut out to keep making good movies. Let me tell you from the get-go, PISTOL WHIPPED is as equally good, with (despite it's lower budget) better production values (although i suspect Urban Justice was given a grittier, raw look on purpose?) Seagal plays Matt, a disgraced ex cop, who been sliding off the tracks, since his suspension. He's been gambling and hitting the bottle, and most importantly, ignoring his estranged wife and daughter. It seems that, despite his shortcomings, Matt is still a proficient bad-ass, but he's more of a bad guy, than he'd care to admit. Suddenly his gambling debts have caught up with him, in the shape of a shady businessman (great cameo by Lance Henrickson) who offers to clear the debts, if Matt will 'terminate with extreme prejudice' some wise-guy mafioso type. Being of dubious morals, Matt undertakes this job (fearing for the safety of his daughter) and in true Seagal-style, opens up the required whup-ass on said contract. But it doesn't end there......Matt's new mysterious employer wants more people 'taken care' of....including his ex-wife's new husband (a fellow cop, and one of Matts friends) But is his friend everything he seems? Seagal fans will enjoy this one, as it give the stout sensei a chance to relax, let it all hang out, and play (as in OUT FOR JUSTICE) a scummy anti-hero, who's far worse than the bad guys he's taking down. Yet there's a genuine warmth between Seagal and his on-screen daughter (proving he can be a good natural actor, when he drops his defences) Seagal plays the part perfectly (a crying shame he's been making duff movies in Romania) when PISTOL WHIPPED is one of the lowest budgets he's worked with. Director Roel Reine has a good visual eye, and if anything, it proves that Seagal can work in the confines of a low budget, provided (as we've always known) he ditches the 'wrong element' around him (the 'yes' men) These people have gladly cashed cheques as Seagal has been involved in some truly dire projects of recent. Good to see you back on track Steven....stick with directors/people that give a damn. All in all, PISTOL WHIPPED is a great Seagal (biff-em-up) thriller, with it's lead showing (as Stallone has done likewise) that age is nothing but a number (some of the fights here are extremely brutal) and Seagal has lost none of his trademark speed, or for that matter, wit (check out some of his dry dialogue....very funny for fans of the genre) and it's comforting to see Seagal playing a flawed (allbeit, still untouchable) character, who's not a straight-laced good guy. Once again, i have a SEAGAL movie, that survives repeated viewing, and one to show off to my mates. All in all, Big Lee gives this great movie 10 out of 10