Driven to Kill (2009) Review

“Driven to Kill” Japanese DVD Cover

Director: Jeff King
Cast: Steven Seagal, Mike Dopud, Igor Zhizhikin, Robert Wisden, Inna Korobkina, Zak Santiago, Andrew Rasputin, Evgeniy Lazarev, Laura Mennell
Running Time: 98 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Before Steven Seagal was awarded the Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin in 2023. Before he became the Special Representative for Russia & U.S. cultural links in 2018. Even before he attained Russian citizenship in 2016. Before all of that, there was 2009’s Driven to Kill, which sees Seagal playing former Russian mafia member turned crime fiction writer Ruslan (pen name: Jim Vincent). Expect intermittent attempts at a Russian accent, random outbursts in Russian (none of which apparently needed subtitles), and mumbly references to time spent in the gulag.

Seagal’s career was like an out-of-control train barely hanging onto the tracks during the 2000’s. After dipping into environmentally themed DTV actioners during the late 90’s, in the early years of the millennium he made a theatrical comeback by teaming up with hip-hop stars from the era. First there was DMX with Exit Wounds, then came Ja Rule in Half Past Dead. However the mid-2000’s was populated by some of the worst of the worst of Seagal’s career, with DTV titles like Out of Reach, The Foreigner, and its sequel Black Dawn defined by the heavy use of a body double (even for non-action scenes!) and being dubbed by a laughable sound-a-like. Thankfully in the last part of the decade he made a sort of semi-respectable DTV comeback, with Urban Justice and Pistol Whipped seeing the aikido master play the kind of no-nonsense character that made his big budget releases from the previous decade so successful.

Driven to Kill was one of four movies Seagal made to close out the 2000’s before transitioning into the orange sunglasses and bandana era of the 2010’s, and maintains a certain level of DTV respectability. Opening with Seagal on a date with a lady half his age, a nonsensical conversation plays out in which we assume he must be a connoisseur of playing 3-cup monte – presented here as a game in which 3 upside down paper cups are placed in front of the player, who then has to choose which one to forcibly flatten with their palm, hoping to avoid impaling their hand on the one hiding a long spike. His date begs him to tell her the secret of how he always avoids the one with the spike, even hinting at a threesome if he reveals all, before he confidently flattens one of the cups in front of him. “The trick is to just not give a fuck” he calmly mumbles (in a non-Russian accent), which is also a good attitude to go into Driven to Kill with.

Not surprisingly the scene has no relation to the rest of the movie, which sees Seagal’s former gangster receive a call from his ex-wife to tell him his daughter is getting married, so he heads back to New Jersey from his Californian abode to attend the wedding. As the audience we learn that he left his old life there on the condition of never coming back, so certain factions of the Russian mob aren’t too pleased to see his return (despite his explanation that he’s only “back on personal business, family business”), and nor is he when he finds out his prosecutor daughter is marrying the son of a rival Russian mob boss. When the wedding day preparations are interrupted by a home invasion that leaves his ex-wife dead and daughter in critical condition, Seagal becomes a one-man wrecking ball, telling his daughter that “Those who did this to you will cry tears of blood. This I promise you”.

Driven to Kill isn’t on the same DTV level as the likes of Urban Justice and Pistol Whipped, but it’s not far off. Seagal is as invested as he could be at this point in his career with little to no doubling, and I think I only heard 1 or 2 instances of ADR that sounded like someone trying to imitate Seagal with a Russian accent. Another bonus is that the Canadian shooting locations offer up a certain authentic feel that harks back to his 90’s output, one that’s a world away from the low budget Eastern European locations that Seagal was starting to increasingly shoot in during the 2000’s. While location shooting is hardly a reason to call a movie a good one, in the years since Driven to Kill the use of green screen has become an affordable option for many filmmakers, which has led to many DTV productions coming to rely on it for backdrops which never quite get it right (check out Pound of Flesh and Assassin Club for prime examples).

Helmed by Jeff King, Driven to Kill marked his sophomore feature length production after debuting with the lamentable Seagal entry Kill Switch the year prior (and notably only directing one other movie in the form of the Steve Austin actioner Damage). King isn’t going to win any awards for his directing style, but he’s competent enough, and like any DTV Seagal flick there are certain unexpected quirks which keep things entertaining. For example it seems like every character carries around a pen and pocketful’s of scrunched-up paper. When Seagal is leaving the hospital he randomly takes out a piece of scrunched-up paper and gives it to the nurse, telling her to contact him if there’s any change. In another scene a lackey of an illegal arms trader Seagal is dealing with receives a call, and the moment it wraps he has a scrunched-up piece of paper ready to give to his boss. Scrunched-up paper, don’t leave home without it.

My personal favorite moment though goes to a shot of Seagal strolling down a street towards the camera. You know the type – the kind that fades in and out, and with each one he’s closer to the camera, only here it’s literally a looped shot that just plays over and over again, essentially trapping Seagal in a 2-second wormhole where he’s forever walking towards the camera, but never getting any closer. Of course nobody is clocking in to a Seagal flick to watch him walk down the street, we’re here for the aikido beatdowns, and Driven to Kill has enough of them to qualify as a legitimate dose of DTV action. Since his character is still somewhat of a thug at heart, for additional entertainment his beatdowns aren’t only limited to the bad guys, such as when he visits a pawn shop owner seeking information. Refusing to talk for fear of the repercussions, Seagal punches him in the face before putting his head through a glass cabinet. Brutal!

Unfortunately it’s clear that King has no idea how to film action scenes, and so as much as it’s a rare late 00’s opportunity to see Seagal performing his own fight scenes, they’re shot horrendously, lacking the basic understanding that a martial art such as aikido needs to be filmed wide to fully appreciate its movements. The result is a lot of chaotic shots capturing partly framed bodies being thrown around, and of course some split-second editing of Seagal’s flapping arms style of exchanging blows. There’s a knife fight that follows Seagal and his (almost) son-in-law having a heart to heart in the private room of a strip club (complete with a listless stripper gyrating in front of them) that begs to have been shot differently, as there’s some good stuff on display, but sadly it’s a mess of quick cut shaky cam incoherence.

The biggest issue with Driven to Kill though is the truly bizarre soundtrack choices. Some of Seagal’s beatdowns are accompanied by an accordion chirpily playing over them, likely for the Russian connection, but choosing an accordion to score a fight scene simply wasn’t a good idea. The rest of the soundtrack consists of throbbing electric guitar riffs, which while arguably more appropriate for an action flick, tend to come in at the most inappropriate of moments. One scene sees a pair of characters solemnly catching up in a car directly following a funeral they’ve just attended, and out of nowhere someone starts thrashing away on an electric guitar. To think that someone must have watched what would become the final cut and thought “that fits this scene perfectly” is frankly insane.

Despite the weirdness, or perhaps because if it, Driven to Kill for the most part entertains. We get an abundance of talk on what it means to be a man, Seagal legitimately partaking in a foot chase, and possibly the most unconvincing crime novelist every committed to screen. As for if Seagal is able to make good on his promise to make those that hurt his daughter “cry tears of blood”, the answer is a resounding yes, offering up a satisfyingly gory finish to round things off. Driven to Kill may not be classic Seagal, but it has enough echoes from his glory days to make it a serviceable slice of late 2000’s DTV action.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10