End of a Gun

Where did the star of "Above The Law" go? Where is that svelte, femur snapping dude who had us waiting for the next villain to tell him to go to hell? Well, long gone, I guess. An overweight caricature of Steven Segal appears to be starring in a genre where he is no longer in his element. The whispering, slang using ladies man, who could kick the eyes out of a snake at sixty paces, is no more. Instead, we're faced with something we cannot recognize, a man who is attempting to woo us with action hero status, but not quite getting there. His "gangsta" lingo and attitude with the French police (who do not have French accents, curiously) who are investigating his killing of a mobster in a parking lot, just isn't making the grade. We see something that looks so ridiculous and out of place, it causes us to allow the story-line to wisp about in thin air, and we cannot seem to catch it. With a twenty-something cutie (he's rescued from a violent boyfriend) coming on to a bloated, sixty-four year old in Segal, its difficult for any viewer to believe in the story, even those of us who are rooting for the old "Nikko" to jump out at any time. Even in the over- choreographed and under-whelming fight scenes, which quite frankly, have us scratching our heads in disbelief, we come to realize how bad this film is, and how much we long for the Steven Segal of old.

If you're wanting to see sensei in a brand new role or character this ain't it. It's the same voice, same flippy flip wrist throw garbage and same old constipational look you have grown up with. Man this was not good... we all expect his movies to be oscar caliber but this one fell just a tick short. Every time he's on the screen It's like he's trying to push a turd out or something I don't know. I don't know why I keep watching his movies but I do. I was once a huge fan but I think that ship has sailed. Cmon sensei try a comedy or a western. But no more of this stuff please... time to do a space movie maybe. Yeah how about a retired covert cia agent that goes rogue and goes to space and becomes a cowboy. Yeah that's the ticket...

There was a time when Steven Seagal could set the box-office on fire & leave the action-movie fans to ripples. I was & still remain a fan of this man, despite his career having declined & his appearances strictly seen on direct-to-DVD films.

And 'End of a Gun', his 5th film in this busy year, is a mediocre film, that doesn't even improve as it progresses. Its got a fairly decent plot, but it makes almost nothing out of it.

'End of a Gun' Synopsis: A former federal agent crosses paths with a drug kingpin's enforcer after he saves a woman from danger.

Keoni Waxman's Writing & Direction disappoints. Waxman has made many movies with Seagal, but this time he stumbles. Of the cast, Seagal delivers adequately. Jade Ewen looks hot & performs ordinarily. But its Ovidiu Niculescu, who's splendid as Seagal's old friend & is easily the best thing about the film.

On the whole, 'End of a Gun' is a missed opportunity.

Aging is part of everyone, gray hair, a bit of weight gain and so on, but Steven instead of embracing it simply dies is hair black and is awful fu Manchu beard black.

This is what makes me laugh the most and keep me coming back for is movies but now i have learned i only watch the trailer.

I used to be so excited back in the days when a Siegel or Van damme movie came out because they where good movies.

But now its always the same thing, Ex special this ex special that, the guy is almost 70y old and still playing the total bad a$$ in is movie a role that he is long done for.

I can understand that everyone as to make a living, but this is ridiculous at best.

This movie is no different then the ones he been make for the last 10 15 years he is an ex military that save a women, and she cons him into stealing money from bad people, then the bad people comeback to get the money WOW what a borefest.

Steven Seagal has done some good, or at least watchable, films. Particularly 'Under Siege'. He has also done a lot of mediocre and less films, indicative of laziness and that Seagal was well past his sell by date, and a good deal of them are even very bad.

'End of a Gun' is one of the very bad ones, though not 'Contract to Kill' awful, almost anything is better than that. It is not one of Seagal's worst, the scenery has some atmosphere but that's hardly an endorsement. Did not expect much, but watched it because Seagal has shown signs that he can be halfway decent and as said not all his films are bad. Also do appreciate the action genre and there are good films out there in the genre, classics even. 'End of a Gun' is far from that, more closer to a waste of time that shows little signs of trying.

Seagal himself gives another lazy and wooden performance that shows that he was not interested and wanted to be somewhere else. His reading-from-an-autocue-like and robotic line delivery in particular betrays that. The rest of the cast are just as poor though in all fairness have little to work with and over-compensate.

The characters are ones we know very little about and don't care what happens to happen, so unengaging and one-dimensional they are. The dialogue is risible, with a lot of cheesiness, awkwardness and far too much talk delivered with little emotion or momentum and bordering on the near-incomprehensible.

Its excessively talky nature affects severely the pacing, which never comes to life. There is no urgency, let alone tension, intrigue or suspense. The action doesn't feature enough in comparison and suffer from pedestrian choreography and laughably bad editing. The story is by-the-numbers, dull and not always easy to follow.

Direction is flat and ill-at ease, while the sound/soundtrack are one-note and obvious as well as poorly recorded and the whole film looks cheap. And it's not just the editing, the slapdash effects and drab photography also.

Overall, a mess in almost every way. 2/10 Bethany Cox