Driven to Kill |  | Director: Jeff King
Actors: Steven Seagal, Dmitry Chepovetsky, Igor Jijikine, Robert Wisden, Inna Korobkina
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $3.41
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Seller: goHastings
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 16008
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 024543594499
UPC: 024543594499
EAN: 0024543594499
ASIN: B001VFM0YC
Release Date: May 19, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A former Russian mobster seeks vengeance after finding his daughter brutally attacked the day she was to wed the son of his past arch-rival.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
 Ms. Daisy vs. The Russian Mob February 13, 2010
Julian Kennedy (St Pete Florida)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Driven to Kill: 3 out of 10: I have no hope of ever being Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian no matter how much I work out; and no amount of dedication will ever give me the moves of a Chuck Norris or a Bruce Lee, but Steven Seagal? I can do that. Find me an all you can eat buffet next to a tanning salon and I will be in Seagal shape in no time.
Whether it is Liam Neeson rescuing his daughter in Taken, Harrison Ford taking on the bank robbers in Firewall or those geriatrics in Lethal Weapon 4 there is plenty of room for action heroes that are more AARP than Tai Kwan Do.
So I am not going to harp on the fact that Stephen Seagal's film reminds one of an alternate past where Orson Wells had starred in Good Guys Wear Black. Nor will I point out that his hand eye coordination is so out of whack he cannot even type at a keyboard convincingly on camera. Heck I will not even mention his Costner-esque* mastery of a Russian Accent.
What I do want to know why this is considered a return to form for Seagal by some critics. (Seagal is back and he is hungrier than ever crows one.) With a revenge plot so simple Charles Bronson would have blushed Driven to Kill is the geriatic revenge plot boiled down to a simplistic outline. The movies idea of a plot twist is a character, who practically wears a t-shirt that says I'm a bad guy ask me how, turns out to be "gasp" a bad guy. The fist fights remind me of Blazing Saddles (You Brute You Brute) and the gun fights are right out of Top Secret (Two guys five feet from each other hiding behind crates.)
Throw in some CGI gargoyles and this wouldn't be out of place on the SyFy Channel. The obvious fact that the actress that plays Seagal's ex-wife (Inna Korobkina) is a year younger than the actress that plays his daughter (Laura Mennell). They put an old lady wig on Korobkina and hoped no-one would notice. (On another strange side note IMDB also has Ed Anders as thug #3 and Mike Desabrais as thug #5 but no word on the fate or identity of thugs 1, 2 and 4.)
I have liked some Seagal films in the past such as Under Siege and its sequel. In addition I have found other Seagal films very entertaining albeit unintentional laugh riots (On Deadly Ground is one of the funniest most entertaining bad films I have ever scene.)
Driven to Kill is unfortunately not bad enough to be entertaining and lord knows it certainly isn't good enough either.
*Kevin Costner in Robin Hood set the standard for the disappearing reappearing never right in the first place accent.
 Driven to Kill February 11, 2010
James E. Condon (Central NY state)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Awesome movie w/o any over dubs that have been present in more recent movies.It's
Steven Seagal very typical of all his lastest movies.Blue Ray is excellent.
 Steven back in form. February 4, 2010
J. Noble (Crescent City, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
watching seagal movies forever i have noticed you cant really have high hopes for oscar like acting and script. what you can do is prey that he is on par with his aikido skills and his gun and knife play. in past movies cant remember what ones but i have niticed him using a stunt double for fight scenes and that realy took away from his movies. i want steven seagal. but ok enough's enough. Steven seagal say what you will the guy can act and he can fight and can lead a sub par movie. but this is not a sub par movie. with better budget i would have like to see this in the theatre it could have brought the man back. he did his own fights, and his accent was not bad, i thought for a second that he was russian. this was a good movie, and actually worth the money.. for some not for others.
 (2.5 STARS) Typical Straight-to-DVD Action Flick February 4, 2010
Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan)
In "Driven to Kill" Steven Seagal is a former Russian mafia turned popular crime novelist Ruslan Drachev. This is a typical revenge story involving his lovely daughter who is getting married, and her fiancé Stephan (Dmitry Chepovetsky) who happens to be a son of a Russian mobster Mikhail (Igor Jijikine, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"). The story is serviceable and some of the supporting actors playing the baddies turned in solid acting.
As a straight-to-DVD flick, the film's actions are OK. There are several shoot-outs and they are decent, if not outstanding. There is no originality, to be sure, all run-of-the-mill type of gun actions, but they are not that awful. As to the martial arts scenes, it is nothing great. Quick cuts and shaky camera can hardly cover up the fact that Mr. Seagal can't move like he used to do (and sadly we all know that). One surprise is that it seems he did most of the stunts himself. They didn't even dub his voice, but as he mumbles in a Russian accent, sometimes it is hard to understand what he is saying.
This is not totally abysmal, far better than his previous work "Against the Dark" and on par with his 2007 "Urban Justice."
a major russian affair . . . December 25, 2009
trebe
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In recent years, Steven Seagal has been cranking out a prodigious number of films for the direct to video market. While the number generally regarded as good, has been in the minority, Driven To Kill (2009) is a step in the right direction, and can be added to the list of decent efforts in this period. This film has an East coast vibe, with a very heavy Russian flavor, with lots of foreigner actors who look the part, Russian language spoken, and Russian music part of the soundtrack.
Seagal is Ruslan Drachev, an ex-ganster turned author, who returns to his old stomping grounds in New Jersey, to attend the wedding of his daughter Lanie (Laura Mennell). Drachev's ex-wife Katya (Inna Korobkina) has remarried, and her husband Terry Goldstein (Robert Wisden), is a lawyer whose clients often include criminals. Mikhail Abramov (Igor Jijikine, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) a mob leader, is the father of Lanie's fiance, Stephan (Dmitry Chepovetsky), who is not in the mob. Just before the wedding, assassins strike, killing Katya, and severely wounding Lanie.
Seeking revenge and to protect his daughter, Ruslan enlists Stephan, and sets out to track down the killers in the seedy underbelly of town, pawn shops, strip clubs, and rundown apartments. Ruslan discovers who is behind it all, but his daughter recovering in the hospital remains in danger.
Seagal seems to be in better physical condition, and appears to be actually performing a majority of the fight scenes. Sure, the film is still sped up to make him look faster, but the fights are shot mostly without the irritating quick cutting, that only gives an illusion of the continuity of movement. An overused technique that has plagued his recent films. Drachev engages in some flashy knife fighting, and executes a few baddies up close and personal. Lively Russian music plays during his extended fight scenes, giving things a festive atmosphere. Most movie gunfights are usually unrealistic, and while that is much the case here, there are a few moments with some realistic tension.
Up until the action shifts to the hospital, the film is quite tight and gritty, except for the police being completely inept. Drachev has his cowboy moments, but at least goes through the motions of doing some detective work. Things do fall apart at the hospital, with an unrealistic assault, and some terrible acting by the hospital staff in hiding. Drachev's fight with Abramov ends in eye popping fashion, concluding what is a better than usual effort for Steven Seagal. There are more than a few problems with the script, but things don't completely unravel until near the end, which while not optimal, is still a positive given some of his recent films. There are a few bad performances, but overall the acting is decent. The fighting and action scenes are an improvement, helping to make director Jeff King's second collaboration with Seagal, mildly recommended viewing for crime and action fans.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
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