End of a Gun somehow is the worst Steven Seagal movie which is saying something given his last few outings. There’s nothing redeemable about it save for Jade Ewen, though it’s not for her acting ability, but I give her props for showing some emotion unlike the bulky star.
End of a Gun
(2016)
Genre(s): Action, Crime
Lionsgate | R – 87 min. – $19.99 | December 13, 2016
Date Published: 12/02/2016 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
THE MOVIE — 0.5/5 |
|
Steven Seagal continues to impress me. Really. With each new direct-to-video schlock that comes out with his large mug plastered on the poster, he seems to care less and less. Last year’s Absolution he didn’t have a single line until 40-minutes in. End of a Gun he has plenty of lines but he mumbles his way through and it’s evident the man couldn’t care less, coupled with the lack of stunt work, something he abandoned over a decade ago.
The film opens as former DEA agent Michael Decker (STEVEN SEAGAL) pulling into the parking lot of a nightclub in Romania – err Paris – where he comes upon a couple in a heated argument, with the guy more or less beating his girl up. Decker steps in and shows the guy his place before a gun fight ensues and the guy ends up dead. Lucky for Decker, he’s good friends with the “Paris” chief detective, Jean (OVIDIU NICULESCU), and after some wooden back-and-forth dialogue, is allowed to leave, though Chauvin must keep Decker’s “favorite” gun. Of course it is. The following day, this gal, named Lisa (JADE EWEN), comes to see Decker at a “Paris” café and makes a proposition: recover 2 million Euros hidden in her deceased boyfriend’s car and Decker can retain a small cut, not to mention a taste of her hoo-ha (if you know what I mean). Catch is, the car is in the police impound. After deliberating, Decker accepts the challenge and gets some nookie out of the deal. Unbeknownst to him, the money belongs to a bad hombre, Mr. Vargas, and his minions, led by Gage (FLORIN PIERSIC JR.), wants it back.
That’s really all that’s involved with this movie. In between there’s plenty of bad screenwriting, average (at best) direction and lazy ass acting on the part of Seagal while his supporting cast, albeit not great, at least were trying to deliver believable performances with Jade Ewen (former member of the girl band Sugababes), making her feature film debut, does look hot throughout and was fine as a femme fatale-esque character. The other standout is Florin Piersic Jr. who granted plays a generic villain yet I could at least see he was having a good time and, like Ewen, had some semblance of charisma. End of a Gun is the eighth team-up between director Keoni Waxman and Steven Seagal (and they have two more in the pipeline), the last being Absolution, an atrocious film though this one is far worse. Apparently Seagal likes Waxman, perhaps because the director doesn’t exactly push his star to actually give two sh*ts about even a quasi-authentic performance, even a fun one.
At this point I shouldn’t be surprised at just how far Steven Seagal has fallen. No, he’s never been a good actor but he had some charisma and his fights scenes were fun to watch. Now he’s completely given up and does schlock direct-to-video flicks, most of them filmed in Romania. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5 |
| This release comes with a matted slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only feature included is the film’s Theatrical Trailer (2:06; HD). |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Lionsgate distributes End of a Gun onto Blu-ray presented with an MPEG-4 AVC encoded in 1080p high-definition and a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio. The transfer itself is fine, nothing spectacular, but does have relatively sharp detail and colors tend to look natural and well balanced. However, it doesn’t help that it looks like this was filmed digitally and night scenes in particular look pretty bad. |
AUDIO – 3.0/5 |
| Although the movie does get a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, it’s so lightweight. While dialogue levels are decent, even when Seagal is whispering his lines, when the action does pick up, it’s all so toned down, even the one explosion toward the end had very little, if any, impact. I can’t even recall my bass kicking on, it’s that discreet. I suppose if you live in an apartment, it might be OK, but for a modern day action flick, and one starring a washed-up movie star at that, it’s really disappointing. |
OVERALL – 1.0/5 |
|
Overall, End of a Gun somehow is the worst Steven Seagal movie which is saying something given his last few outings. There’s nothing redeemable about it save for Jade Ewen, though it’s not for her acting ability. The Blu-ray released through Lionsgate isn’t anything noteworthy with good video, average audio and basically no features. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.