“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 Continue reading →
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