Pistol Whipped

Steven Seagal releases movies like a B-52 drops its payload. This entry in his nonstop carpet-bombing campaign (twelve movies in four years) sees him playing a washed-up, alcoholic ex-cop with gambling debts and a young daughter in need of a better father. Instead of joining AA meetings, though, his 12-step programme involves being dispatched by Lance Henriksen's shadowy government operative to wipe out various bad guys. Half-baked character development scenes see Seagal staring into glasses of whisky and furrowing his brow, while the action proves just as leaden. Kept largely immobile by his paunch, Seagal takes out bad guys with nothing more than his arms and a scowl - even killing a table of diners from a seated position using the silverware. The final shoot-out is set in a graveyard, which is fitting since Seagal appears to be writing the epitaph to his career.