Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Maziun I don't think that Steven Seagal will be able to become once more a big action star , just like he was in 90's. He's destined now to straight-to-DVD movies . His last big solo movie that appeared in cinemas was "Exit wounds" (2001) , if I'm not mistaken (I'm not counting his episode in "Machete") .I have seen quite a lot of his "underground" (as I jokingly call them) movies . All I can say about them is they were F****** awful . Everything was awful in them . So , when this movie came in I wasn't exactly happy . I was mildly surprised in positive way.It's a not a really good movie for sure . Compared to straight to DVD flicks Seagal made before this is definitely a huge improvement . The writer was able to write some enjoyable dialogue and even a few good jokes . "Driven to kill" is good paced and has energy . Music is cool even if the upbeat Russian music is rather badly placed.The movie is obviously low budget . The action isn't impressive and the whole mystery is VERY EASY to figure out . Still , I want to thank people involved in this movie , because they did put some effort in "Driven to kill" . If you liked Seagal's early movies , you will be probably satisfied with this one. Hell , there is even one scene that reminded me of "Under siege".I give it 1/10. Oh , and the movie was originally titled "Ruslan".

swedzin Yes, this is another boring Steven Seagal film, with another dumb revenge plot, weak characters and other typical things in these straight to DVD films. Seagal is typical himself... with bad performance, slow, no emotions and other things. What is interesting here (in negative sense), Seagal plays a Russian. Wow! A Russian! Are you sure that you can trust Seagal to play a Russian. He didn't even sound like a Russian, he was just himself, but there was nothing that looks even closely Russian on him, he spoke Russian in some scenes, but he didn't even try to pronounce the Russian words more precisely, and when I remember... that Schwarzenegger put some effort in "Read Heat" and he sounded pretty good while speaking Russian, and he even tried as much as he can to have a Russian accent. And that's what I appreciate... But, Arnie is no actor too. Now, back to Ruslan... the fight scenes in this film are the only thing that justify everything else, meaning, the fight scenes were good and they are the only thing worth watching here, well on moments they looked funny, and they were filled with this Russian balalaika music, and that made scenes even more funny, I expected Seagal to stood up and dance to this music, having a good dancing rhythm, but not fighting rhythm. And it's also good that Seagal is using Aikido again... properly.

Paul Andrews Driven to Kill starts in California as ex-Russian mobster Ruslan (Steven Seagal) now works as a crime novelist, he gets a phone call from his ex-wife Catherine (Inna Korobkina) who informs him that their daughter Lanie (Laura Mennell) is engaged to be married & invites him to the wedding in New York. Ruslan is straight out there on the next plane, Ruslan meets his perspective son-in-law Stephen Abramov (Dmitry Chepovetsky) who happens to be the son of powerful Russian mobster Mikhail (Igor Jijikine). On the day of the wedding both Catherine & Lanie are attacked, Catherine is murdered & Lanie is left in a coma although the police & Ruslan feel it is better if it is reported she was also killed while they hunt for those responsible. The police have to go through official channels while Ruslan doesn't, Ruslan buy's himself a gun & sets about finding those responsible & dishing out some revenge...Also known under the title Ruslan (the version I saw had this title but the title Ruslan doesn't sound very exciting or action orientated unlike Driven to Kill) this American & Canadian co-production was directed by Jeff King & is yet another straight to video action thriller starring the prolific (if nothing else) Steven Seagal who seems to churn these things out by the dozen these days, while not as bad as some of his recent output Diven to Kill is hardly any sort of classic & just isn't that good. The script is your average uninspired stuff, you know the sort of thing where some hard as nails guy is wronged in some personal way & sets out to bash some heads in & break some arms in pursuit of revenge. The script is both lazy & poorly written, there are many questions that I felt were left unanswered & character motivation was left vague to say the least. Why did Stephen's father have Catherine & Lanie killed? Why did the killers take the wedding ring & then pawn it? Why were they described as bait? Why did those Doctor's barricade themselves in that room despite the fire alarm going off? Would a fire alarm going off not indicate that maybe the building was on fire & that hiding in a room in a building that might be on fire might not be a good idea? When Mikhail & his people at the end storm the hospital & start killing people would he not be seen on CCTV? Would he not then expose himself as killer? I don't understand how Mikhail thinks he will get away with going into a public place like a hospital & start killing Doctor's & patients & get away with it. The ending where Seagal talks to his comatose daughter Lanie for the first time during the entire film who then suddenly wakes up is bordering on the hilarious & is impossible to take seriously. There are other baffling aspects to the plot but I'm running out of space. At almost 100 minutes Driven to Kill has a decent enough pace but is maybe a little too long, the final twenty minutes or so is a shoot-out set inside a hospital that feels like a low budget homage to Hard Boiled (1992) although comes nowhere close in terms of excitement. The character's are pretty poor, the dialogue is inane & it's only the frequent fights & shoot-outs that save Driven to Kill from scoring a lowly one star out of ten.Surprisingly director King shuns the recent straight to video action film trend of shaky hand held camera-work & machine gun editing (blink & you'll miss it!) as the action scenes in Driven to Kill remain fairly coherent & you can generally tell what's going on & who's shooting who which helps, a little. The usual Seagal is on show here as he sadistically beats & kills his way through armies of bad guy's without getting hit or shot himself, arms are broken, necks are stabbed, guns are shoved into people's eyes & there's a fair amount of violence & blood on show. There's a also a scene set inside a strip club as Seagal gets a private lap dance so there's a bit of female nudity here as well. Although competently made nothing stands out that much, the colours are dull & the action a bit static at times.With a supposed budget of about $10,000,000 this was filmed in British Columbia in Canada. One major problem about Driven to Kill is Seagal's Russian accent which is terrible & seems to come & go at regular intervals, Seagal is also still far too fat & looks out of shape. In fact a lot of the thick Russian accents are awful & it's sometimes hard to understand what's being said.Driven to Kill is strictly average Seagal, it's poorly written, unimaginative action thriller fare with his usual sadistic violence thrown in. Not Seagal's worst but far from his best.

gangstahippie Driven to Kill(aka Ruslan) is the latest Steven Seagal film.Like all his other films for the past 7 years, this is once again a straight to DVD feature.Now by hearing this, you would not expect much after seeing that the majority of the newer Seagal films suck.However there are a few exceptions such as "Urban Justice", "Pistol Whipped" and this film, which in my opinion is not only his best straight to DVD film, but it ranks up there with his classics from the 90's.The acting is not all that great, and I did not find Seagal to be that bad of an actor back in his "Under Siege" days.Here, he sports a semi-Russian accent which is not very convincing.The acting from the others, especially the Russian mobster is fairly good though.The film is about a retired Russian mobster, who is now a novelist.After his wife is killed and his daughter is injured in an assassination of sorts, Seagal reverts back to his old ways and tries to find out who did this.The plot may not be the best but the most important thing about Seagal films is the action! In this category, it does not disappoint.I'm actually surprised it was Rated 14A in Canada because this is easily one of Seagal's bloodiest films.We also see Seagal use aikido again, as in we see him breaking people bones! Any fan of Seagal should check this movie out!