L'ombre blanche

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.

In Viet Nam they called him "The Glimmer Man". As a homicide cop they all tend to think of him as trouble. A renegade New York cop(Steven Seagal) with a not so perfect background is transferred to L.A., where his actions make him a prime suspect in a series of murders. It takes time for the soft spoken, new age cop to get the respect of his partner(Kennen Ivory Wayans).Typical strong violence with well paced martial arts displayed. Not much different from any other Seagal movie, but not as good as some.

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 .

It was here the trend of Seagal starring in more economically budgeted movies with drab scripts that seriously lacked action. (And that were never screened for the critics!) Though the fight sequences here aren't has badly done as in his subsequent movies (the editing is less frenzic), they are few and far between. As a result, action fans will really be bored, especially since the story is so drab, despite it involving a serial killer who's especially sadistic. New twists to the story only occasionally come, and they are usually so murky that eventually the viewers will be confused as to who is doing what (and why.)

Seagal and Wayans never quite generate the necessary chemistry, despite the fact that their characters are opposed in their views and practices. Although they occasionally have some mildly amusing dialogue, the level of dialogue is generally bad, sometimes mind-bogglingly so.

It's easy to see why this didn't do much at the box office, and why Seagal increasingly became frustrated with Warner Brothers, eventually leaving them. (Though he returned for EXIT WOUNDS for some reason.) Seagal needs to not only stop playing the same basic character in each of his movies, but stop choosing scripts that recycle the same basic elements we see in almost every one of his movies. If he does that, there is a possibility he could remove the stigma of being a glorified "B" movie actor.

This movie is actually the proof that all you need to make a movie in Hollywood is a lot of unnecessary stupid action and a good ending story about 2 cops lynching bad guys. All 2 women in this movie that have a line other than 'aaaah', are dumb and over-sensitive. A few scenes that illustrate the originality of the script writers: bad guys in a car chase end up underneath a fuel truck, which explodes in a sea of fire... good guy falls out of a window, but can hold on to a ridge... cop:'do you know the doctor?' - girl: 'I don't need a shrink' - cop:'I never said he was a psychiater'...

Another aspect is the morality in this flick. On the one hand smokers are being prevented from lighting a cigarette, but on the other hand a cop can shoot someone in foot and hand during an interrogation. Of course this reflects the all-american point of view on the world: if you think someone is bad, you can beat the hell out of that person, without thinking twice.

Anyway, I know this movie might be fun for 80% of the American population, but I'm pretty sure this movie went 'straight to video' in Europe!