Review of Pistol Whipped

"Pistol Whipped" is definitely an odd one out in Seagal's filmography, because this is one of the few movies in which he really tries to act. When you consider the guy has been phoning it in for most of his career, it's a breath of fresh air to actually see him try (though often fail) to emote. He's also helped by the screenplay, which actually gives him a vulnerable character to play this time. It's not the usual implausibly perfect (ex-)CIA guy schtick, he's an alcoholic, a bad father, he's not very intelligent (he sees none of the twists coming) AND he even gets shot! I thought I'd never see the day when Seagal would try to play someone resembling a human being. That doesn't mean the movie's perfect though, far from it. It's one of those typical crime thrillers by a guy who's seen too many Tarantino movies. All of it bathes in a faux-cool atmosphere, complete with pointless slow-motion and sped-up footage: it tries to go for visual flair I guess, but actually comes of as an over-enthusiastic hobbyist who's just found a new button on his camera. It's very watchable though, which I can't say about many other straight-to-DVD releases by Seagal (and I've seen way too many).

By the way: even though Seagal's character is far from perfect here, I'm pretty sure the man got to write one bit of dialogue himself. "Drea:And after, like, a bunch of years I finally realized what I really needed to do was grow a dick. Matt:Well, probably I would like you a lot less if you had a dick. Especially if it was bigger than mine, you know what I mean? Drea:I don't think that's possible." Not making this up, that's really in the movie.