Review of Pistol Whipped (2008) by Timothy S — 09 Dec 2011

The twilight of Steven Seagal's career hasn't been kind to him, but it's even worse for his former fans who now, for some reason, are obliged to sit through all of the incredibly inferior product he has released over the past decade. "Pistol Whipped" is his latest in a seemingly unending line of made-for-video crap, and it's amazingly embarrassing. It's even more embarrassing for those of us who remember Seagal's heyday.

His performance here shows a once talented performer (a martial artist, not an actor) at rock bottom, who mumbles his line and speaks in such a soft monotone you cab barely hear him. And then there's his fighting ability, which has lost considerable punch since Seagal's shocking weight gain. He's not the same badass we loved in "Above the Law".

And as paper-thin as the plots were in his earlier films, they weren't the masterwork of complexity that this film is. There's enough plot here for two crappy Seagal movies, and after a while I just gave up on it. Part of the running time was spent trying to figure out just what exactly the title meant and I never came up with anything. I was excited to see Lance Henriksen, but he gives beyond a cameo here in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him performance. He winds up with just a few minutes of screen time in this dud, which will probably wind up being more beneficial to his lagging career than a bigger part.

This movie just lies there like a lead baloon, but Seagal's tender scenes with his young daughter are laughable. His golden years probably won't yield another "Under Siege", but "Pistol Whipped" goes in the opposite direction at light speed. His career has reached a new low point, and I believe he's started to dig himself now.