Ruslan (Steven Seagal) is an ex-Russian mobster living on the west coast. When his daughter (Laura Mennell) in Trenton wants to get married, Ruslan goes there against the wishes of former acquaintances. When his ex-wife (Inna Korobkina) is killed and daughter is left for dead, Ruslan goes after the Russian florists who did the hit.The film is straight forward Seagal. There are no twists, no surprise endings. If this film, Seagal had not yet perfected the duck, then one knock out punch move as he does in his later offerings. The film takes about 30 minutes to introduce characters before Seagal goes after the bad guys. Average Seagal Flick.Parental Guide (extended and uncut version): F-bomb, no sex. Stripper nudity

Ruslan (Seagal) is a writer and three-cup-monte enthusiast who uses his experiences as a former mobster for his books. While living in L.A., he gets word that his daughter is getting married so he travels to New Jersey. While there, he discovers the family she is marrying into also has Russian mob connections. After some of those baddies put her in the hospital and murder some family members, Ruslan reverts back to his old persona and he goes after the people responsible. Will he get revenge? It's best to go into these newer Seagals not expecting much. It truly is a case of managing your expectations. But Driven To Kill is just dour, bleak and boring. Compare it to the fun of Urban Justice (2007) and you can see the contrast right away. One of the main problems is Ruslan is not a hero, not even an anti-hero, he's just a brutal, amoral, amazingly unlikable monster. You don't root for him to succeed; in fact, you end up rooting for the people he's (usually unnecessarily) viciously murdering. Considering he tortures, kills and impales people with the slightest provocation, Ruslan is more like Jason from the Friday the 13th series than an action hero.But because this movie in general, and Seagal in particular, is so humorless and self-serious, some entertainment can be gleaned from that. Also his voice is funny, as usual - instead of an absurd Cajun accent, now whoever is doing his ADR is trying his hand at an absurd Russian accent. He's (and by He's we mean the anonymous voice actor reading Seagal's lines) is really stretching his acting range. And because his voice is so soft, you need subtitles once again.Looking at Seagal's triangle of Eddie Munster hair, we realized he's just the modern-day equivalent of Jalal Merhi: An unlikable, overweight actor/Martial Artist of limited ability. But Seagal continues to put out product, and Merhi doesn't. That's the only difference really. As for Driven To Kill, you don't really care about the characters, especially Ruslan (unless you feel bad for all the basically innocent people Ruslan has mercilessly slaughtered), and at 97 minutes, it truly stretches your patience. That's a long time to spend with Ruslan, a guy you wouldn't want to spend 3 minutes with in real life. Add to that some CGI gunfights (complete with CGI muzzle flashes, CGI bullet hits and CGI smoke), some knockoff of a Powerman 5000 song, and some filler, and you'll be wishing for the days of Seagal's "Patty Cake" Martial Arts style.As the latter-day, Direct-To-DVD Seagal output goes, certainly some are better than others, but Driven To Kill represents a low point in this phase of the man's career.

After a big number of DTV flops such as The Patriot (not to be confused with the Mel Gibson film of the same name), The Foreigner and Submerged, Steven Seagal comes up with Pistol Whipped, Regenade Justice (or Urban Justice) and this DTV flick that was better than I expected. Seagal plays a former Russian mobster who gets a call from his ex-wife about his daughter getting married, Seagal finds out that she is marrying the son of a mob boss that he worked for 20 years ago. Trouble starts when Seagal's daughter and ex-wife are left in the house, two men suddenly break in and killed them both. Once Seagal found out about this, he was DRIVEN TO KILL.Even though the plot is pretty much the same as most of Seagal's other films, it's better than most of his recent films and he carried on getting better afterwards with The Keeper.Worth a watch if you're a Seagal fan.

Just saw a little gem titled Driven to Kill. Steven Seagal, Russian accent and all is Ruslan Drachev, a former member of the Russian mob, who is now making an honest living writing crime novels.But, you see all this changes when his daughter Lanie (Laura Mennell) is brutally attacked on her wedding day. As it turns out, Lanie was engaged to Stephan (Dmitry Chepovetsky), the son of ruthless Russian crime boss, Mikhail (Igor Jijikine).Ruslan you see is not very happy at what has just unfolded and he pledges to find the people responsible for the crime. He even says that they will " cry tears of blood.." Driven to Kill is not just your typical vengeance flick, it is also a flick that returns Ruslan to the sinister underbelly of his past. In a way that only Steven Seagal+Russian accent could deliver: " Everybody want to be a tough guy-but nobody want to pay the price." He also delves into the philosophy of killing someone: "Well, there's two kinds of people. Those without a heart, maybe even enjoy it, they don't feel nothing... People like you and me-for us it never gets any easier. But well always have our reasons." Simply put, this is Lord Seagal's best feature in years. Perhaps the best scene of the year in the film, is the sequence in which Ruslan & Stephan end up at a pawn shop, and the scene pretty much ends with Seagal beating the pawn shop owner into a pulp, and him moaning and crying " Oh, god!" Beyond brilliant.Other scenes of course find our dynamic duo (Ruslan & Stephan) engaging such Euro-trash in places like a strip club. Highlight=one long ass knife fight. "I've never been someone who could, uh, run from a knife fight." Power to the truth, Seagal! Ruslan mentions something about it being a place with a lot of shifty "bad guys" and such. A strip club full of shifty creepy guys? Who would've thought? One hilarious scene finds our duo being entertained by a naked dancer in a back room and such and Stephan says something along the likes of " Am I supposed to be feeling like this?..." I'm not sure what that whole purpose for that was....Perhaps the strangest thing about the film is the fact of the type of music played in such scenes. For instance, I don't know about you, but upbeat Russian folk music during dramatic and violent beat downs? Awesome.Another problem? Putting an old lady wig & makeup on a young actress and hoping no-one would notice. You see, it turns out Ruslan's ex-wife Catherine (Inna Korobkina) is a year younger than the actress that plays his daughter (Laura Mennell). Brilliant! Also what in the heck is going on, in the beginning of the film? There is a scene in which Ruslan is having lunch or something with his book agent (?) (Crystal Lowe), it involves a magic trick and it pretty much ends up with her saying something along the likes of "If you do it for me, I will do anything you want." Next thing you know, she's talking about some sort of threesome. ??? Also, what kind of moronic Det. just leaves their badge lying around, and then starts bitching about how Ruslan isn't Detective Norden...?? Well, Det. Nording you mam, are a moron!