‘End of a Gun’ DVD Review
Stars: Steven Seagal, Jade Ewen, Florin Piersic Jr., Jacob Grodnik, Jonathan Rosenthal, Ovidiu Niculescu, Claudiu Bleont, Troy Miller, Alexandre Nguyen, Andrei Ciopec | Written by Chuck Hustmyre, Keoni Waxman | Directed by Keoni Waxman
When Decker (Seagal), a highly skilled ex-DEA agent, crosses paths with Lisa (Jade Ewen), she approaches him with a seductive proposition: help her steal two million dollars from a drug kingpin’s car, guarded by Parisian Police, and share in the bounty. But, even if they outrun the cops, can they outgun the hit squads sent by the furious, sadistic drug lord to reclaim the loot?
From a story written by a former federal agent, Chuck Hustmyre, End of a Gun is yet another collaboration between Seagal and director Keoni Waxman – who, it seems, has become Seagal’s go-to guy when it comes to capturing the movie hard man at his best. Well, unless you count the last effort from the duo, Contract to Kill… That film was one of the dullest Seagal films in years and marked a return to the mid-to-late 2000 era of Seagal’s DTV oeuvre (I’m talking the likes of 2004′s Out of Reach). However Contract to Kill was something of a blip in the pairs long-running partnership and I was hoping End of a Gun would be a return to form for Seagal and Waxman. And for the most part it is. Maybe because this time round Waxman only co-wrote, with Hustmyre, this Europacorp wannabe…
For that’s what End of a Gun feels like: a cast-off from Luc Besson’s studio that – had it been filmed by one of Besson’s cohorts, with a big name actor, would probably have made something of a splash on the big screen. Instead we get Seagal and a former Sugababe (apparently, co-star Jade Ewen replaced Keisha in the group. Who knew?), who spends most of her time wearing skimpy clevage-enhancing (ok, cleveage focused) dresses as the films stereotypical piece of eye-candy. But hey, at least we don’t get an extended love scene between Seagal and Ewen, unlike Contract to Kill, which REALLY upped the sleaze factor by having Seagal get all sexually creepy with his co-star in that film.
Like most of Waxman’s films, the action in End of a Gun is well-staged. There’s some seriously good gunplay and Seagal even gets to flex his Aikido skils one a number of occassions – though he’s still mostly the cross-armed mumbler we know and love! This time round Seagal gets a decent villainous foil in actor Florin Piersic Jr., who – surprise, surprise – also appeared in the Waxman/Seagal film Killing Salazar, as the titular Salazar. Even Ewen, eye candy for most of the movie, makes a decent character turn in the films final third that allows her to stretch her acting muscles and stand up to Seagal!
I’m not going to lie, End of a Gun is like pretty much every current Seagal DTV film. A mix of thriller, Seagal hitting on pretty women and some badass action – only this time it has a soundtrack that sounds like its stepped out of a 70s blaxploitation movie (or a Tarantino redux of one)! You know what you’re getting into with these films and as long as you do you won’t be disappointed.
End of a Gun is out on DVD now, courtesy of Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment.
