“Exit Wounds” stars Steven Seagal as a rogue cop who gets sent to a tough Detroit precinct as punishment for his unorthodox crime-fighting methods. If you do not like Steven Seagal movies, there is no reason why you’d like this one.
But for the sake of accuracy, here are some of the many cop-movie clichés utilized in “Exit Wounds.”
• There’s a rogue cop who gets sent to a tough Detroit precinct as punishment for his unorthodox crime-fighting methods.
• He has a fat, blustery boss who says stuff along the lines of “You’re a loose cannon!”
• When he gets to the new precinct, he bad-mouths the commanding officer to a woman he meets in the hall, only to find out SHE’S the commanding officer!
• There’s lots of slow-motion and, it probably doesn’t need to be stated, lots of punching, kicking, explosions and shootings.
• The main character keeps inadvertently walking right into drug busts, robberies, etc., allowing him the chance to take on several bad guys at once without back-up.
• The bad guys own a strip club, at which there are several gratuitous scenes.
• Someone made a promise to his father before he died.
• There’s a crazy car chase that turns into a motorcycle chase in which every law, including the law of gravity, is broken.
• There are bad cops who are involved in a huge drug ring.
• Rap music plays on the soundtrack whenever a black character appears.
Seagal’s character, Orin Boyd, is up against one Latrell Walker (DMX), a powerful drug lord who seems to be involved with some dirty cops, too. The plot line involving this drug ring does not emerge until 45 minutes into the film. Before that, there’s the opening sequence in which Boyd’s unusual tactics save lives and get him in trouble, plus a scene at an anger-management class (which also has Tom Arnold as a trash-TV host).
There is some attempted comic relief with that anger-management thing, along with Anthony Anderson as Latrell Walker’s fat sidekick. But mostly it’s run-of-the-mill action-movie fodder. It’s not unbearably stupid like some entries in the genre, but neither is it the least bit original or inventive. It is exactly what you’d expect. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your mood, I guess.
C (; )
