Why is it that Steven Seagal always plays a rogue cop
who breaks the rules, assaults criminals, defies orders and makes B grade movies?. Sure
he’s no Tom Hanks, but you’d think after so many years of playing extremely
similar roles he’d try something a little fresher and more original. The last role he
played that I enjoyed was that of Colonel Austin Travis in Executive Decision , and
no it wasn’t because he was killed off halfway during the film :)
But obviously there is still a market out there for B grade action films with plenty of
dodgy stunts, gunfire, explosions, high baddie body count, lame script writing and Seagals
martial arts because Exit Wounds has the lot.
In Exit Wounds, Seagal plays Orin Boyd (What is it with these names?) a lone wolf cop
who, in the opening scene saves the Vice-President from an assassination attempt against
alot of very determined criminals armed with some serious automatic fire power. But alas
he gets transferred to the City’s worst beat and ultimately ends up directing traffic
in uniform because he disobeyed an order from the Secret Service who by the way were in
the process of getting massacred in the assassination attempt, to stay off the bridge
where the assassination attempt was taking place.
Upon going on the bridge he only manages to kill the vast majority of the baddies
seconds before the Vice-Pres was about to bite the big one. I mean come on the man
deserves the highest accolade possible not a dressing down and transfer by the hierarchy.
But anyway it obviously sets the scene that Seagal disobeys orders, is very efficient in
hand to hand combat and the use firearms.
So he therefore is transferred to the 15th Precinct whereby he meets the
attractive female Precinct Commander Carmine Mulcahy (Jill Hennessy – Law &
Order). She soon recognises that Boyd is a loose cannon and therefore sends him to
‘Anger Management’ therapy classes where he meets Henry Wayne, a TV presenter
who also suffers from rage and is played by Tom Arnold (True Lies).
However, in the usual typical cliché way it’s not long before you see that
Mulcahy is falling for the rogue Boyd including a dinner scene Mulcahy is having a
romantic candle lit dinner with her boyfriend in which Boyd storms in, tells him to get
lost , sits down and starts to eat his dinner, all the while with Mulcahy looking at him
as if she wants to have his love child, which led me to groan out a "Oh
Pleeeasse". This is the first time I have seen Hennessy prior to her TV series role
of Claire Kincaid and yes she still looks gorgeous.
It’s not long before Boyd realises that his fellow police officers at the Precinct
are up to no good and are corruptly entangled in a major heroin smuggling operation with
local criminal Latrell Walker (DMX). Boyd therefore sets out on a quest to reveal
all and take down the bad guys but he finds co-operation and trust in the least likely
places before the ultimate showdown against the corrupt police at his Precinct.
Exit Wounds is nothing that you haven’t seen before and I for one grow tired of
lame plots and script writing just so Seagal can use his martial arts, cool walk and tough
talking to beat the crap out of alot of unknown and hopeless criminals. But hey, I am only
one in a sea of the viewing public whose taste in films differ greatly. So if you love
these type of action films especially Seagal then no doubt you’ll enjoy this film.
Interesting enough during filming a stuntman was killed as I learned from the IMDB
(Internet Movie Data Base) which states..
During filming in Toronto, a van was being towed along a street upside-down as part
of a chase scene; stuntman Chris Lamon and another man were supposed to roll safely out,
but Lamon apparently struck his head, and died six days later. Todd Schroeder (II)
suffered a concussion in the same incident. The scene was reshot with the van moving
slower and the stuntmen placed differently
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