Exit Wounds

Starring:Steven Seagal, Isaiah Washington
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
One can always count on Steven Seagal to act as the repository of yesterday's action-film clichés, and Exit Wounds is yet another case in point. Seagal plays Detroit cop Orin Boyd, a lone wolf lawman who gets in the middle of his precinct's losing battle against police corruption. Taking on a powerful but crooked cop named Montini (David Vadim)--who is busy making deals with a rich gangster (DMX)--Boyd soon sends fists and feet flying while Tom Arnold provides the comic relief. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak surely had less fun guiding Seagal through slow-motion fight sequences than he did Jet Li in Romeo Must Die, but as compensation he gets to work with the mesmerizing DMX, who looks as though he has leading-man possibilities. Plenty of gratuitous gore, awful cop banter, and miles of cleavage courtesy of Jill Hennessy, who plays Boyd's tough-as-nails boss. --Tom Keogh
Description
A tough but burned-out New York City policeman assigned to a remote Long Island precinct uncovers corruption among his fellow officers there.

DVD Features:
Documentary
Featurette
Filmographies
Music Video:by DMX
Theatrical Trailer

Average customer rating:

Unusually effective frequency, intensity and quality of action scenes
3 Stars for Anger Management
A dance of violence...
Better than average by the numbers Action Flick
Exit Wounds is explosive!

Exit Wounds
Starring: Tom Arnold , Bill Duke , Jill Hennessy , Bruce McGill , and Steven Seagal
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

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ASIN: B00003CXW4
Release Date: 2001-08-31

Amazon.com

One can always count on Steven Seagal to act as the repository of yesterday's action-film clichés, and Exit Wounds is yet another case in point. Seagal plays Detroit cop Orin Boyd, a lone wolf lawman who gets in the middle of his precinct's losing battle against police corruption. Taking on a powerful but crooked cop named Montini (David Vadim)--who is busy making deals with a rich gangster (DMX)--Boyd soon sends fists and feet flying while Tom Arnold provides the comic relief. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak surely had less fun guiding Seagal through slow-motion fight sequences than he did Jet Li in Romeo Must Die, but as compensation he gets to work with the mesmerizing DMX, who looks as though he has leading-man possibilities. Plenty of gratuitous gore, awful cop banter, and miles of cleavage courtesy of Jill Hennessy, who plays Boyd's tough-as-nails boss. --Tom Keogh

Description

A tough but burned-out New York City policeman assigned to a remote Long Island precinct uncovers corruption among his fellow officers there.

DVD Features:
Documentary
Featurette
Filmographies
Music Video:by DMX
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

Unusually effective frequency, intensity and quality of action scenes.......2007-06-17

EXIT WOUNDS (2001) does justice to Steve Seagal's reputation for
outdoing all others motion pictures for the frequency, intensity and
quality of action scenes, gun firefights, and man-to-man combats.

With a plot that's somewhat difficult to follow or believe (such that
some in the audience may reach for a Bufferin), the story deals with
an inside job, being coordinated and masterminded at the highest
level in the US police force, such that in the end, it is entirely
logical, explicable, and comprehensible for why so many police
officers were recruited for, and participated in a narco-trafficking
operation without being caught, by Internal Affairs or by clean cops.

In addition, Seagal's characters learns the lesson that high level
officials in an organization can take out their rivals (lower in the
hierarchy) by taking on alone the roles of judge, jury and
executioner, all-in-one.

Playing an iconoclast, independent-minded police detective, who is
able to think things over for himself, pulled from a vast experience
on the force, and talent, with the ends for him always justify the
means, (in terms of stopping a suspect, and protecting civilians) ,
this gets Seagal in trouble, for not being a low-profile officer.

Clearly, the non-stop action scenes will send thrills down the
audience's spine, their jaws and eyes wide-open, as all types of
vehicles (cars, motorcycles) and arms are used (shotgun, pistol, Uzi,
swords) including karate body to body defense and attack moves, etc.

The soundtrack is a mixed bag, but obviously, having been prepared by
DMX, with the cast split 50/50 with African Americans, evidently, hip
hop and the latest style of rap music was employed.

The sound effects for those with a 5.1 home theater will clearly meet
and exceed expectations. The wide-screen is well done, and a plus.

There's a number of quirky short catch-phrases, most often uttered by
Anthony Anderson's character, such as when he admits fearing Seagal
"will stick a plunger up his a#$" or "you need the meat, to feel the
heat" praising obese women.

Showing plenty of fitness and gym scenes, (weight lifting, boxing,
athletics), and a $300,000 Ferrari and phenomenal stunts and
firefights almost every 10 mins, the movie clearly aims to have to
audience's adrenalin and testosterone pumping, and manages this well.

The non-sequitur of the last 5 mins, with Tom Arnold doing comedy,
and the short shelf life of the rap numbers are the weak points.

3 Stars for Anger Management .......2007-03-07

Over weight and over the hill, Steven Seagal had certainly seen better days before EXIT WOUNDS. The film starts out with an interesting premise which it unfortunately does not pursue. The best scene in this entire movie is the anger management sequence where he destroys the desk. Wouldn't we all want to do that at some time?

A dance of violence..........2006-12-29

'Exit Wounds' begins explosively with a terrorist raid on the Vice President, who is surrounded by an array of police escorts...

When renegade Detroit detective Orin Boyd (Seagal) takes on the whole Michigan militant group to save the man's life, in true action hero fashion, he is punished for his lack of respect for authority and procedure and sent to one of the toughest precincts in the city of Detroit, the 15th...

Once there, Seagal begins his usual habit of investigating things he's not assigned to, and quickly begins to suspect police corruption involving a major heroin operation...

Seagal plays a super tough cop who stays in trouble for complaints filed against him for excessive force...

He lands in a bad dangerous precinct and before you know it finds himself in nonstop furious action, trying to clean up the streets while taking on drug dealers and dirty cops pretty much all by himself...

Seagal is accompanied in this film by rapper DMX and a few other familiar faces including Anthony Anderson who is absolutely hilarious...

Better than average by the numbers Action Flick.......2006-05-30

This is one of the better Seagal Action movies and features a convincing DMX who shows he has some movie star charisma and acting chops. It's not UNDER SEIGE but it's far better than GLIMMER MAN, ON DEADLY GROUND and FIRE DOWN BELOW. It's also better than all of Seagal's direct to video fare. You also don't have to worry about him singing any Country-Western or blues songs in this one.

Seagal does not really act, but he does have an interesting charisma. At his best he's a poor-man's Clint Eastwood, who's spare Akido influenced martial arts moves are bone break-ingly no nonsense, macho stuff. He frowns a lot, he grimaces once in a while, he's sometimes photographed at unflattering angles, has vampire like teeth, runs like a girl and he almost never raises his voice and stays very very-- sometimes zombie-like, calm.

At times, Seagal's acting is so minimal you want to laugh at the irony that you actually wanted to spend your money to watch this guy. I mean I still can't decide if I think Seagal is a first class jerk with little talent (rumors of his big ego persist) or if he's kind of cool. It's remarkable he's gotten away with what he does in more than a dozen big screen movies and at least that many direct to video mistakes.

Seagal you'll notice almost right away in this movie still has that walk of his. Movie stars like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Robert Mitcum, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney, to name just a few used to have interesting walks. Walks which were full of attitude and set them apart from regular people. Seagal has a special way of walking... strutting actually. It's a modified Pimp's walk. Oh not the herky jerky kind of Huggy Bear (of Starsky and Hutch fame) walk, but more the Fred Williamson or Ron -Superfly- O'neal type of strut. When you add Seagal's greased back hair (he got rid of his pony-tail a few years ago) perpetual frown, wrinkled forehead and slanted eyebrows, with the strut, he drips with the I'm a pis-ssed-off-bad-a-s-s-vibe that action movie hero's since Eastwood and Bronson are supposed to exude. Seagal's got the attitude, and he's shed most of that beer belly gut he had during the last few films he walked through (on video about three years ago, on screen it's been four years). He may be 50 years old but he's quite willing and able to do some impressive looking martial arts moves and play cops and robbers quite well.

The film also stars Issiah Washington-- a real actor. Why he isn't working in better movies I have no idea. Issiah isn't actually asked to do much acting, but you can tell if the script asked him to do any, he would have been able to pull it off.

DMX (aka Earl Simmons) is another reason people were initially curious about this film. Perhaps the biggest reason. And he has some presence in the film. I'm not sure how good of an actor he actually is since he's playing a pretty cliché'd kind of character through most of the film. He acts tough, does some physical stunts (or seems to be doing them) very well and when he's supposed to have some warmth and the audience is supposed to like him--we do. He doesn't embarrass himself and has some on-screen charisma that's not the same as other rap stars turned movie stars. He contributes a few songs to the soundtrack as well--including an interesting version of the Bill Wither's hit Ain't No Sunshine.

Maybe the worst news about this movie is that we have not one... but two characters who are in the movie mostly to provide comic relief. They are written into the movie in a very forced manner and the actors that have been cast don't do themselves any favor by trying much too hard to be funny with the material they are given. Anthony Edwards and Tom Arnold try way to hard to be funny. They usually annoy. You might enjoy their end credit comic riffing however.

So what's THE STORY? The story updates ,merges and dumbs down Dirty Harry and Serpico.

During the first sequence some bad guys impersonate cops to try and kidnap a politican. Seagal as Orin Boyd, a decorated but Lone Wolf kind of hero-cop, is the only officer who notices that the impersonating cops are breaking regulation by wearing earrings. Hundreds of cops around and only our hero sees the irregularity and suspects something funny might be going. Some sort of gadget passes hands and Orin is the only guy who pays this any attention.

Cue the action complete with some bloodshed and a climax involving the fiery explosion of a helicopter.

In the process of saving the politician's life Orin has embarrassed the politician and caused lots of damage, endangered lots of lives and broke lots of rules. He's a decorated hero cop so he's transferred to the worst ghetto precinct you could imagine where a lot of misfit neanderthal cops work.

Oh that old chestnut huh? Yep.

What you couldn't imagine is that this precinct is run by a woman whom everyone pretends doesn't look like a cover-girl model. She's tough though and sends Orin to anger management classes and eventually demotes him to traffic cop. It's at the anger management school that Orin meets up with the t.v. talk show host played by Tom Arnold.

However Orin has quickly had a run-in with the local drug king pin, Latrell Walker (played by DMX), and his over-weight comical assistant and combo dance/strip club owner, T.K. (played by Anthony Anderson). When he tries to be the lone -wolf hero and take Latrell down he winds up screwing up another cops undercover operation. This is what gets him demoted temporarily to a traffic cop.

Oh but something isn't quite right with the picture and Orin discovers that dirty cops are involved and not all the players are who, they at first, seemed to be. I know this will come as a huge shock to action movie fans (NOT).

This leads to Orin getting involved in several scrapes that lead to a fairly big shoot-out/ action scene to wrap things up.

All of this takes supposedly takes place in Detroit. If you haven't been to Detroit you probably won't notice that Toronto is where the movie has been shot.

There's no romance in the film and outside of some naked club dancers and the brief hint of a flirtation, none of the stars have any on-screen relationships with women. In fact we have no idea about Seagal's private life in the film at all. You want depth? Go swim in the deep end of the pool. This is a Joel Silver action movie darn it.

Exit Wounds, is just one more time-wasting action movie that too many people weren't able to resist, so it became successful at the box-office. It's slightly better than you probably think it is, but you would still be better off satisfying your macho movie 'jones' by watching some action movies from Hong Kong (directed by Johnny To, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark or John Woo to start with), but hey, this one is in English.

IMAGE AND SOUND

Overal the 2.35:1 anamorphic wide screen transfer looks very good. The film has lots of nigh scenes and the black levels are strong and shadow details pretty good. There's some pixalation in a few scenes and if you want to be really picky you'll notice several white spot drop outs that are the result of some wear and tear on the original print used for the transfer. That's a bit disappointing that they didn't find a print in better condition or combine a couple of prints to Create one pristine one to transfer, but it's a pretty minor distraction. There doesn't seems to be too many problems with edge enhancements or bouncing video levels either.

There's only one soundtrack on the DVD and it's in 5.1 dolby. If you don't have the 5 channel system you'll be hearing a squeezed version of it which others call a down-mix. That means some of the squeezed together separation will create some muddier sound effects but usually it is not problematic and it won't affect your ability to hear dialogue.

The 5.1 track is utilized quite well. There's lots of big bangs and sound is bounced around from the various channels so there are plenty of left to right, back and forth, and right to left sound effects. When a noisy Humvee drives across the screen the sound moves through the room as well. This however isn't always the case... which is a bit puzzling. Why in the opening action sequence is the bun battle now nearly as lively as the one later in the film? The music score , occasional DMX songs and several sound effects are base heavy, so the LFE is being used throughout the film.

Extra Features:

The longest extra is the obligatory behind the scenes puff piece. There's the expected discussion about Seagal's come-back (of sorts) the casting of DMX and pre-planning for the film. Everyone is upbeat and positive and congratulating and praising everyone else of course. You do hear from Seagal, who sounds a bit tired and bored as well as producer Joel Silver who sounds enthusiastic. We get to see how a few stunts were done and see how the wire work played a big part in making Seagal look pretty good in the action scenes. Seagal as we see is a very agile athletic guy and he doesn't look 50 years old.

There is also the 9 plus minute feature called A Day on the Set with Anthony Anderson. Anderson plays T.K. in the film and he's often called upon to be the comic relief. We follow him from his hotel room, to his trailer, to the set for a scene he is shooting, and then, at the end of the day, he does a bit of a comic rant about what a long hard day it has been and how he has sacrificed so much to give those of us in the audience some entertainment value. Anderson's running commentary is only occasionally amusing and we don't see enough on the set type action for the piece to have much value.

The music video is presented in wide screen (but it is not anamorphic). Mysteriously the audio for the video is in Dolby 2.0. It should certainly have been in 5.1. The re-make, hip-hop version of the Ain't No Sunshine sounds okay in 2.0.

Exit Wounds is explosive!.......2006-01-31

When I saw previews for this movie, I thought to myself man I want to go see this movie. I never did though go to the movies to see it. I finally rented it though and I wasn't disappointed one bit. The action is off the chain, the plot is pulsating, and Seagal is his typical bad ass self. There were other good performances in this movie as well. DMX is equal to Seagal in the bad ass department, Isaiah Washington shows off his versatility as the cop teamed with Seagal, and Michael Jai White is very convincing as the devil cop Louis Strutt. The best part in the movie is when Boyd (Seagal) fights Strutt while Rollins (DMX) fights Bontini. If you're a movie fan who likes over-dramatized Oscar movie dribble, then this movie isn't for you. If you like an entertaining plot with pizazz and style, then this movie is right up your alley!

Average customer rating:

Unusually effective frequency, intensity and quality of action scenes
3 Stars for Anger Management
A dance of violence...
Better than average by the numbers Action Flick
Exit Wounds is explosive!

Exit Wounds [Region 2]
Starring: Steven Seagal , DMX , Isaiah Washington , Anthony Anderson , and Michael Jai White
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The Glimmer Man
Fire Down Below
Half Past Dead
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
Cradle 2 the Grave (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B00005O4UV

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Unusually effective frequency, intensity and quality of action scenes.......2007-06-17

3 Stars for Anger Management .......2007-03-07

A dance of violence..........2006-12-29

Better than average by the numbers Action Flick.......2006-05-30

Exit Wounds is explosive!.......2006-01-31

Collateral Damage / Exit Wounds (Two-Pack)

Average customer rating:

Collateral Damage / Exit Wounds (Two-Pack)
Starring: Warner 2pak
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Proof of Life/Exit Wounds
Starring: Proof of Life , and Exit Wounds
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Collateral Damage/Exit Wounds

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Average customer rating:

Exit Wounds/Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
Starring: Steven Seagal , DMX , Isaiah Washington , Anthony Anderson , and Michael Jai White
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak , and Wych Kaosayananda
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B0000E6FRJ
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Average customer rating:

Collateral Damage/Exit Wounds
Starring: Warner 2pak
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

16 Blocks/Exit Wounds
Starring: Various
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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The Departed (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

ASIN: B000H5TV6C
Release Date: 2006-10-10

Average customer rating:

Two of Seagal's Best!

Exit Wounds / Under Siege
Starring: Steven Seagal , DMX , Isaiah Washington , Anthony Anderson , and Michael Jai White
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak , and Andrew Davis
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001WTX28
Release Date: 2004-05-04

Customer Reviews:

Two of Seagal's Best!.......2004-03-27

These two movies are a great place to start for those who have ever had any interest in seeing why there's so much hype about Steven Seagal. The fact that they are in a two pack will also please DVD collectors who only want to purchase the best of the best, for these are definitely two of Steven Seagal's finest films. They were shot on a bigger budget than most of Seagal's efforts and, while they are definitely vehicles centered around Steven and his martial arts skills, both films contain big-name co-stars of real merit. The stories are fun and engaging, and the action is exiting AND inspiring, which are two other obvious reasons why these films had such box office appeal when they were in theatres.

UNDER SIEGE is the story of Steven Seagal (as Casey the Cook!) and his efforts to save a ship that has been hijacked. Things get complicated when a stripper below deck (played by the lovely and comically talented Erika Elainek) miscues her entrance and pops out of a bachelor party cake to find no one left to dance for. She stumbles into Casey the cook who now really has his hands full! Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey put in memorable guest appearances as the head villains, but it is the combination of the under-the-top Seagal with the over-the-top Elainek that really make this one shine. (Oh, and Seagal intermitently performs some beautiful aikido based moves as well.)

EXIT WOUNDS has Seagal playing a veteran cop with anger management problems who's sent to the projects as punishment. There he encounters police corruption and a very suspicious character played by DMX (who's actually a pretty good actor here, although one wonders why his character is able to hold his own in a fight with Seagal's combat trained cop). The uncharismatic Michal Jai White offers a high kicking contrast to Seagal's inspirationally interesting redirectional arm techniques, and Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold provide plenty of gut-busting laughs (don't miss the end credits!). It's easy to root for the aging Seagal in this one as he basically plays someone similar to his actor self, an aging martial artist and stoically tough action hero who's considered a relic of the past by today's everchanging world. While flashy athletic choreography seems to be the norm these days in martial arts films, it's a nice change to go back in time and see real moves performed by a relatively ordinary man. There's some flash here and there, but most of Steven Seagal's techniques are based on Aikido which is an art for those whose aim is not to become a supreme athlete or a show off or to hurt others, but rather to simply be able to redirect an agressor's energy causing them to become unbalanced and under control. (This is an art that is great for the designated driver for instance who has to deal with drunk friends that are out of hand. You don't want to hurt your friends!) Seagal could be a GREAT role model for the ordinary Joe if he would continue to play characters like this that everybody could emulate if they so chose.

I HIGHLY recommend these two movies as examples of Steven Seagal at his best! Other recommendations of his best work would be ABOVE THE LAW (his first and a nice introduction to his philosophy of Aikido) and OUT FOR JUSTICE (a tough mafia movie with a truly heinous villain).

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