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This is another Segal formula flick. Thankfully, unlike some of his more recent movies, he's in much better physical shape (i.e. he's not fat). Segal plays yet another former government operative, now a local police officer/detective, trying to live out his life out of the "business".

Shrouded in mystery and controversy, Segal, once again, become a one man wrecking crew taking out everyone and everything, while maintaining his clam, Buddhist/Art of War philosophies in the process.

Why on earth they dragged, Keenan Ivory Wayans into a Segal formula movie is beyond me. I mean not say I didn't like him in the flick, but why him? Better yet, why anyone? As far as I can tell Segal usually does his better movies running solo, as he is the bona fide martial artist. One would figure if you were going to pair him up with someone, make it another action hero or another martial artist.

Either way, if you're a Segal, action movie fan this movie is a good way to kill a couple of hours. If you're not into that, then skip this flick.

A thrilling Seagal entry in enough budget and the kind of movie he was making at the beginning of the decade. Here N.Y detective Jack Cole (Steven Seagal) wearing Nehru jackets and prayer beads is teamed with L.A. Police Det. Jim Campbell (Keenen Ivory Wayans) , but they are a little different . Seagal results to be an ex-CIA operative who has been convinced by a Buddhist monk to stop murdering enemies and along the way pursues a California serial killer called ¨The Family Man¨. As they investigate a series of ritualist crimes in which the victims are crucified against the walls of their houses . While Cole uses his special band of non-violence by slashing , chopping and impaling his way . Later on , they are aware the fact the Russian mafia has something to do with it all . After Cole's spouse is murdered , he is implicated and then somehow the mafia and Cia are blended into the mix .

The film displays several gunshots , struggles , bloody killing and lots of violence when the fights and killing happen . It's exciting and tense, at time passable action movie , but the fighting and gun-play are well done is this routine actioner ; in addition , introducing something new into the mix , self-mockery . Slick action movie from Seagal in which , both gained weight and lightened up , as he enjoys really and heads crack and bones rattle . Here Seagal stiffer and more humourless than ever but he finally wipes out enemies , while he cleanses his mind with Tibetan prayer beads . Despite the strained at buddy-buddy humor beween N.Y. Inspector Steven and the local homicide detective Wayans as mismatched colleagues , both of them play an attractive couple as two tough law enforcers . Wayans , clearly a better actor than this material suffers notably in action scenes and he plays a street-wise , fast-talking detective who cries over old movies as Casablanca. Our protagonists are accompanied by a good support cast , such as : an over-ripe Bob Gunton , John M. Jackson , Michelle Johnson , Stephen Tobolowsky , Ryan Cutrona , Richard Gant , Nikky Cox , Johnny Strong , Alex Panevega , Peter Jason , Wendy Robie , and Brian Cox who confirms his status as a great secondary of the 90s , among others .

The picture belongs to best period in Seagal hits including acceptable films as Hard to kill, Marked to death , Out of justice , Under siege , Undersiege : Dark territory , On deadly ground , Executive decision , Fire down below , The patriot . Following the last period of Seagal career, when he's doing middling and low budget films, lackluster , directly to video and many are deemed semi-turkeys stinkers , such as : The foreigner , Ticker , Half past dead and many others . Following the tendency to oriental action cinema, Seagal-also producer- hired Asian directors as Mink (Into the sun) , Leong (Out the reach),and Siu Tung Ching. These movies aren't on the level previous successful and big budget movies, such as Under siege I,II, Glimmer man, Exit wounds, Fire down below, Executive decision , among them. The film is produced by Julius Nasso , Michael Rachmil and Steven Seagal himself and his production called Seagal/Nasso Productions. Being professionally directed by John Gray , though it has some flaws and gaps . He was the youngest recipient ever of an American Film Institute Independant Filmmaker Grant . He is a writer, director and producer, known for Reckless (2014) White Irish Drinkers (2010),Born to Be Wild , Ghost Whisperer (2005), Haven , The Hunley (1999) Martin and Lewis, and Helter Skelter. The story is occasionally entertaining but only for the Steven Seagal fans. A decent Seagal action piece won't convert die-hard detractors and aficionados will not disappoint . A predictable movie when it is no being unbelievable .

Neatly crafted action thriller, with Seagal on top wrist-snapping form as a Buddhist cop from New York, with a shadowy past, teamed with Wayans' wisecracking LA cop to investigate the gruesome murders of a serial killer, known as the `Family Man'. The two leads work well together; in typical buddy cop fashion which provides the film with the comic relief it needs to give the audience a break from the serious themes involved.

The script is competently composed; trying to surprise us as best it can with several twists and turns, however, the story is so fully packed with things going on that it's easy for the audience to get lost along the way. However, that is not a problem as Seagal is on the case with his usual array of impressive martial arts and likeable personality, encased in an interesting character. To me, Seagal represents, in a way, a modern day John Wayne, always playing the same out for justice, good guy role and taking no crap from anyone along the way. He is a screen presence that can carry even the most brainless of films, but this film has both brains and brawn. Wayans does very well here too, managing to avoid the typical stereotype of the African-American cop who is simply there for laughs.

The direction is standard but competent in keeping a relaxed balance between the hectic action (entwined with the tense build-ups) and the comedic peace-time goings on. The gorier parts of the film, like the murders, are handled with skill and successfully manage to create an eerie atmosphere rather than simply a gory head-turning occasion.

The Glimmer Man is not a masterpiece by any means but it serves its purpose well as a tense action thriller. It tries hard to be more than it is, but its lack of originality is its biggest flaw but it gets top marks for trying. You can't take anything away with you afterwards, but you can enjoy yourself along the way.

in my opinion this is one of Steven Seagal's better films,due in large part to having Keenan Ivory Wayans as a co star.they have good chemistry together.it's also one of his darkest films,at least of those i have seen to date.but there some funny moments to balance things out,comic relief,if you will.the fighting scenes are pretty are good,and as brutal as usual for a Seagal flick.you won't really find much new here,but if you're a Seagal fan,or a fan of the genre,this should keep you satisfied for the most part.by now,with Steven Seagal,you know what you're getting,or at least you should know.i was entertained for around 90 minutes or so.for me,The Glimmer Man is a 7/10

A not so good action thriller because it unsuccessfully trends the same water as early Steven Seagal films because there is not a very good set piece. Steven Seagal plays the same kind of character that he has played since Above the Law. In my opinion the performance of Keenen Ivory Wayans is wasted in such an average film and belongs in a much better film. Bob Gunton is okay as the main heavy. The best acting in the entire film belongs to Brian Cox who is very frightening in the role of the murderer. My favorite scenes are the fight scenes with the Russian mafia. One of the film reasons to see The Glimmer Man(1996) is for the brief appearence of the beautiful and voluptupus Nikki Cox. Its too bad that there were not more scenes with her in them.

I know its easy to bash Steven Seagal for the absolute nutjob he seems to have become and for the multiple rubbish films that he has gone on to make.

BUT.

The Glimmer Man is a pretty good B movie. The story is standard detective/Cia/Mystery man going up against whatever he is going up against. It doesn't really matter. Its a pathway for the fight scenes.

The fights, although not numerous, are pretty enjoyable. The film also provides a few chuckles along the way.

I've watched it a few times over the years and have always been entertained by it. Not one of his best but a long way from his worst :)

Maybe it was the excessive weight gain Seagal had put on. Or maybe it was the horrible acting of Wayans in an action flick. Or was it the total lack of chemistry between the two leading characters? These and other considerations lead me to conclude that Seagal should have never made this acting nightmare. True, the story line was good. Yet, as an avid follower of Seagal's career and background, his physical appearance was inconsistent with his genre of clean, pure, healthy Zen Buddhist living, notably in his on screen discussions with Wayans. (Then again his real life affair with the "nanny" was inconsistent also!)

If Seagal wants to become a more diversified actor, then he should do what a fellow action figure did in "Kindergarten Cop"...put humorous material or situations in the script where the actor has no choice but to react in a comical way. Otherwise, leave the wise-cracks and the futile attempts at humor out of it while chasing a serial killer. Seagal is not a natural humor type of guy. It did not work.

"The Glimmer Man" is a strange cop movie. Not only is the plot very strange but the leading man...now he IS strange!

A bizarre serial killer has been loose in Los Angeles. He kills folks and then crucifies them, Jesus-style...all because God apparently tells him to do so! A New York cop, Detective Cole (Steven Segal), has experience with such matters, as he's a cop with a strange mystical background. Odder, he dresses anything but like a cop...with a golden Nehru-style dragon jacket in one part of the film and an American Indian style jacket in another. And, in true Segal fashion he mumbles a lot and kicks a lot of butt. However, he's not alone as he's been given a partner (Keenan Ivory Wayans)...and his partner seems really baffled at his odd-ball partner!

Through the course of the investigation, it slowly becomes apparent that there is a madman....and some mobsters are copying this style of killing as well. And, to try to throw Cole off the case, they kill the cop's ex-wife and husband...and plant evidence on the bodies to implicate Cole. This unleashes the maniac in Cole...and he is going to stop at nothing to bring everyone to justice.

While the script and Segal's character are both truly bizarre, the film has a lot going for it for action film fans. There are several scenes that are among the best action scenes you can find anywhere. The scene where Cole saves a suicidal man as well as the bar scene are simply genius in their execution. Segal, whether you like his acting or not, is incredible in these scenes earlier in his career...later, he just seemed more like a caricature in some of his films (and, strangely, has begun looking more and more like Bela Lugosi).

Overall, a film with some weird and dumb elements...but the action is so amazing that you can easily turn off your brain and just enjoy it for what it is. Great for Segal fans and still pretty good for everyone else.

It's all been said already... this is crud from start to finish. You get all the Seagalistic touchstones: the pudgy, stone-faced megalith with a Mysterious Past who's way smarter (in this movie, his character speaks Russian, Chinese, and Japanese) and more all-around-perfect than anyone else; the bad guys who can't fight their way out of a paper bag; the "This guy is really good" speech at the two-thirds point of the film; and a climactic fight that's just as one-sided as the ones that came before.

You get messages about Non-Violence and Inner Peace sandwiched between scenes of henchmen being impaled on construction equipment and having their gonads crushed and limbs broken. You get good actors (in this case, Brian Cox, Bob Gunton, and Stephen Toblowsky) phoning it in for a quick paycheck.

I did want to point something out that nobody's mentioned here. Halfway through, the cops come to believe that Seagal is the serial killer they're pursuing (which would have been a neat idea). He is subjected to a polygraph test, which he passes. Then we are subjected to another ego-stroking scene wherein the awed polygraph tech says something like, "Someone would have to have amazing reflexes and total control of their emotions to trick this machine."

Ya know, standard Seagal boilerplate. But of course, he isn't the killer, and he really was telling the truth... but I guess the point is that they stuck in a few extra lines of dialogue about how great/perfect/wonderful Seagal is anyway. Oy vey!

My other favorite scene: Deverall's son has accidentally overheard the details of his father's nefarious (if ill-explained) plan. Seagal & Wayans ask who his accomplice is. Deverall's son remembers that he's an older guy with a Texan accent, but can't remember his name. "Smith?" says Seagal. "Yeah, that's it!" exclaims the son. Come on, maybe if the guy's name was "Myxlplyzmyx" or "Huffuruhhurr" I could accept the kid having trouble remembering it, but "Smith"?

The only thing that could have saved this trash is if they'd been daring enough to make Seagal the killer after all. That would have been one hell of a third act: Seagal the Unstoppable Killing Machine, but this time he's the villain, and Wayans and the LAPD have a heck of a time bringing him down.

My advice: skip it in favor of any of Seagal's first four. They're just as bad, but they're more entertaining.

Truly my favorite Seagal movie. Akido, one liners, arrogance, and humor all provided by the action star the critics love to hate. The Lento's scene is probably the best of Seagal's troubled career and is sorely missed in his latest films. An action vehicle that played perfectly to his talents and probably the last of the finest when it comes to the Seagal collection with the exception of "Exit Wounds". Although unappreciated at the box office, this is what made Seagal "Seagal" and belongs in any Seagal fans DVD collection.

well i was over at a friend's house with some other folks and he gave us the choice to see a ninja movie, some sappy love story and glimmer man.

a good steven seagal comedy would do us all well.

and that's all it is. do NOT try and look for a plot. it's just a weak justification for some of the funniest action comedy around. most people (if they've seen will sasso's MADTV sketches of seagal) will know exactly what to expect from him in his "illegal justice" movies.

PURE COMEDY.

the "atomic slap" of the restaurant manager was pure gold. so if you're looking for some hilarious over the top action comedy (and it's even better cause a lot of the time you're pretty sure that seagal is trying to be serious) then really consider watching glimmer man.

A cop with an attitude is partnered up with a new-age cop with a shady past and amazing martial arts skills, to investigate a serial killer who crucifies his victims. Campbell sees it as a fairly straightforward case of a religious nut obeying orders from God; but Cole sees something else in some of the murders– a sense of purpose and order that hints at a bigger plot. Going back to his handler at the CIA gets him nowhere but brings him to the attention of Frank Deverell and the Russian mafia. With so many people gunning for them, can Campbell and Cole stay alive long enough to get to the bottom of it? Although any film that contains both Seagal and a Wayans brother will hardly be an easy sell to me, I still decided to give this film a stab because I do like a solid action movie every now and again. Plot wise this film is about as weak as I had expected with a messy narrative that never really convinces and just seems like a couple of half-baked ideas crammed into one story with little concern with logical linkage or development. The hope seems to have been that enough action and energy would stop us seeing the holes – sadly this doesn't work. The film has enough action to be worth watching but it isn't really anything special, although fans of Seagal will be used to this consistent standard.

The cast are just as average as you would expect. Seagal delivers everything with a total lack of emotion that is explained away by him being a totally calm Buddhist, as opposed to him just not being a very good actor. Physically he is pretty good here and his fight scenes do actually show a man with skill (as opposed to the out of shape man we have been shown almost waddling recently). Wayans tries to be a tough comic relief but his performances just reinforces the feeling of this being a formulaic mismatched cop movie; even if he is impressive in some of his action scenes as well. Neither of them are that good but they are certainly no worse than a lot of the reluctant buddy cops movies out there. The support cast should have been better but people like Gunton, Cox and Tobolowsky just sink into the mess rather than helping to raise it.

Overall this is a watchable "Friday night" style thriller that you will quite enjoy if all you want is watchable action surrounded by messy and clichéd plotting and delivery with "par for the course" acting. If you are after anything more than this then you'll be sorely disappointed as this is a weak film with an unimaginative plot, poor performances and only just enough action to be watchable if you're in an undemanding mood.

Typical Steven Seagal fare: that is, it's crap. The plot relies on a series of incredibly improbable coincidences; there's a hefty dose of conspiracy theory which would be much more palatable if we didn't know that Seagal takes it all literally; and once again, bad-movie multi-millionaire Seagal tells us all about the evils of The Rich.

Seagal's survival relies, as usual, on the fact that Bad Guys never fire their guns from out of arm's reach, and always like to give a little "I'm gonna kill you" speech before blowing a man's head off.

Watch this one right after the even-worse *Fire Down Below* and note how the carpet in Keenen Ivory Wayans's apartment is more flammable than a big puddle of gasoline.

Oh, and watch in the final fight scene for the Incredible Disappearing Forehead Wound, which is probably the most entertaining thing in the film.

Two L.A cops track down a serial killer nicknamed "The family man" who has wiped out whole families and when one of the police officer's wife takes the deep six, questions are raised and it turns out that a serial killer isn't responsible but rather mobsters. The idea of Seagal in a serial killer movie is an interesting concept, indeed one could see Seagal play a good serial killer however making him a cop who has a ridiculous penchant for prayer beads and razor sharp credit cards comes off more stupid than likably ridiculous. Also a running joke involves Wayon's enjoyment of eating powdered deer penis and well this raunchy material is utterly out of place. Not to mention the beginning of a school being taken hostage, due to a boy's breakup with his girlfriend. After Seagal neutralizes him, the girlfriend tells the young lad that she loves him. Now there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, if you want your girlfriend back, taking the school hostage may get you back on her good side. I myself would think flowers or the old fashioned phone call might work, then again though, i'm old fashioned. Besides who am I to put a damper on somebody else's brilliant reconciliation plan.

* out of 4-(Bad)

While "The Glimmer Man" isn't any outstanding action movie, I will say that it is still worth watching if you enjoy Steven Seagal movies. That being said, then it should also be said that it is a fairly average Seagal movie in every sense of the phrase. It is one of those mass produced action movies that most action stars tend to settle into doing, you know finding a formula that works and milking it beyond dry.

Story-wise then "The Glimmer Man" is your stereotypical Seagal movie. Yep, he is an ex-something-something now turned law man and taking on the seedy underworld singlehandedly.

You know what you get here; the usual Seagal martial arts, wits and punchlines. Yes, it is all here, and the obligatory broken arm as well. And true to most other Seagal movies he is untouchable, except for a single blow that gets through and strikes him. Indeed, business as usual.

Having Seagal act opposite Keenen Ivory Wayans, well I had some initial reservation to this, as I thought it would be comedy in the trademark Wayans fashion. But luckily Keenen proved to surprise and did actual acting and no do comedy.

"The Glimmer Man" is enjoyable enough for what it is, and bear in mind that it is a Seagal movie after all.

Seagal who had become famous as a one man wrecking crew teams up in this to do a two fisted action movie. If you liked 48 Hours or any of the Lethal Weapon movies this is for you. This is not some fruity drama or foreign romance…this is a fighting shooting DUDE movie.

The story is clean and full of action with clever bits of comedy and well placed explosions. This is a kind of movie that can be watched over and over again in the company of dudes who love dude movies. Seagal plays his Asian holy man role, that for peace and harmony likes to beat the living crap out of bad guys. For a partner there is the wise cracking Keenen Wayans who perfectly compliments Seagal. And there are plenty of smaller role bad guys that meet their demise. But the parts played by Brian Cox and John Jackson were great.

Well worth owning.