EXIT WOUNDS

SYNOPSIS:
After single-handedly thwarting an assassination attempt on the vice-president by throwing him into the river, super-cop Orin Boyd (Steven Seagal) finds himself busted to beat-duty in the city’s worst precinct. There he stumbles upon a heroin racket led by a group of steroidal dirty cops and distributed by mysterious gangster Latrell Walker (DMX). But Walker isn’t exactly who he appears to be, which means an unlikely pairing with the incorruptible, indestructible Boyd to deliver rough justice on the crooked cops.

"You've got to hand it to action man Steven Seagal. He launched his own career by co-producing and co-writing Above the Law in 1987, and has replicated the same cops and robbers formula in ten movies since. If you find him appealing, it's probably because he's an enigma. He's a beefy Aikido master with hands of steel, but he's also a softly spoken spiritualist. He never gets mad, shouts, or go crazy. Animal on the outside, pussycat within. And by all accounts, he’s the same man on screen as he is in real life, which makes him even weirder. In his latest shoot-em-up, Exit Wounds, Seagal replicates the same character; a loner cop who’s prone to dispensing Dirty Harry style justice, be it with his hands-of-steel or a gun. But the man is no Dirty Harry. More like crouching tiger, hidden pussycat. Exit Wounds, like Seagal’s other movies, contains all the standards; fast cars, bloody shoot-outs, bone-crunching punch-ups, gruesome deaths, and gratuitous displays of boobs. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the odd bit of mindless, indulgent entertainment now and then. But this does glorify guns and violence, which is repeatedly disappointing. It's also cheap thrills. In one sequence, DMX and Anderson buy a beastly silver Lamborghini from a luxury car shop. But it’s only used in one small scene later, which is a waste. Yet Exit Wounds moves along at a cracking pace, thanks to Andrzej Bartkowiak's direction, some above-average action sequences, a bearable plotline, and a balance of trademark puns from Tom Arnold as a talk show host with a rage-complex, and Anthony Anderson as Latrell’s loud-mouth sidekick. The various nasty cops also make a rowdy bunch, with their steroidally pumped bodies and their cruel torture games. If you have 90 minutes to spare and the inclination, Exit Wounds doesn’t reach the slickness of Seagal’s best (that’s still Under Siege), but it’s not all that bad."
Shannon J Harvey

"For about 30 seconds, it seems Exit Wounds might have something important to say about violence in society. But that impression’s soon dispelled as the bullets start flying in another Steven Seagal action-fest. In this one though the filmmakers seem to have had no qualms about the kind of picture they were making. At one point, Steven Seagal’s character actually acknowledges that his life’s "the usual cliché"; and that kind of self-awareness at least manages to keep this from being a complete waste of time. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) keeps the action coming thick and fast, and even manages to extract some humour from an otherwise tedious script. Mind you, none of this can make up for the moronic plot, the appalling casting, stilted dialogue, improbable coincidences, and the subtle but palpable racism and sexism. Seagal is, well, Seagal – essentially the same character he’s played in dozens of other films; and yet again he takes the role nowhere. DMX fares a little better as Walker, but hardly sets the acting world on fire. Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold (both stand-up comics in other lives) provide some comedic relief in between shoot-outs. Their parlay over the closing credits is the best thing in the whole movie. Although it has some nicely staged combat sequences moments, Exit Wounds is your run-of-the-mill actioner. Hardened Seagal fans will love it – for the rest of us, it’s a mindless diversion at best. Granted, it doesn’t set out to be anything else; but this is a popcorn movie and nothing more."
David Edwards