The Movie
Bone snapping bad-boy Steven Seagal returns to his tough-guy roots, and his penchant for three-word titles (see On Deadly Ground, Out for Justice, Marked for Death, Hard to Kill, Above the Law. etc.) with his direct-to-video would-be actioner, Driven to Kill. I must confess to a grudging admiration for Seagal's unique brand of whoop-ass, as the bad guys in his movies are so obnoxious I'd like nothing better to slap them upside the head myself, and the bizarrely-coiffed Mr. S. seldom disappoints, tearing through small armies with serious aplomb. Not that it matters much, but here he plays a retired Russian mobster who travels from glamorous Los Angeles to slightly-less-glamorous Trenton, New Jersey for his daughter's wedding, only to find her brutally attacked, and his revenge will be sweeter than borscht.
The Picture
Shot on film, probably on an extremely modest budget, this is just an ugly movie to watch. The 1.85:1 image is soft and noisy. In fact, I felt compelled to double-check the file format to confirm it was indeed AVC-encoded, it's so far from what I would consider good HD. The average bitrate is respectable, but perhaps the compression onto a single layer took its toll on the quality. Backgrounds in particular are hazy, blacks are somewhat mushy, and the entire affair is mighty grainy. The film is largely low-lit and even the camerawork has a dirty, amateurish look.
The Sound
Surprisingly, the music exhibits a palpable bass kick. During the aforementioned attack scene however, and most of the "action" scenes, the music is really the only aspect of the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack that is amped up, not the usual audio accoutrements. There's a bit of a bass boost during the butt-kicking to be sure, a little more oomph when Seagal breaks some furnishings with a ne'er-do-well's cranium, but the gunplay for example is pretty standard fare, except maybe this crazy machine gun that rips through a hospital late in the movie. Dialogue is also frequently-out-of-synch.
The Extras
This disc includes no title-specific bonus content, just some trailers, many of them for other-direct-to-video releases.
Final Thoughts
This is definitely lesser Seagal, and a sub-par disc, but fans hungry to see him cracking a new crop of skulls, while mumbling his way through a pseudo-Russian accent (why does he feel this need to act?) might have some fun here.
Where to Buy:
Product Details
- Actors: Steven Seagal, Dmitry Chepovetsky, Igor Jijikine, Robert Wisden, Inna Korobkina, Zak Santiago, Alexander Rafalski, Eugene Lazarev, Laura Mennell, Aleks Paunovic, Ingrid Torrance, Sergei Nasibov, Mike Dopud, Crystal Lowe, Daniel Cudmore
- Director: Jeff F. King
- Audio Format/Languages: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (English)
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rating: R
- Studio: Fox
- Release Date: May 19, 2009
- Run Time: 98 minutes
- List Price: $29.99
