6.5

Ruslan

Ruslan (Steven Seagal), a former Russian mobster, must return to his dark past when his daughter is brutally attacked hours before marrying the son of a powerful family rival.  With rage only a father’s love can match, Ruslan will stop at nothing to bring justice.

I must say I’ve seen nearly all the Seagal movies over the decades; this is one of his better ones.  Ruslan is one hard bastard, gulag prison tattoos, no moral compass or badge to hold back his revenge and a homicidal desire to punish the wicked.  The usual ingredients are all here.  Seagal beats down on some ‘wannabe tough guys’ to warm up, kills some arm dealers ending with the line ‘Told you I wasn’t a cop bitch’ and ending with the slaughter of all the henchmen of the movies main villain Mikhail played by Igor Jijikine.  The final showdown is one on one with rewarding gore filled demise for Mikhail.   

Mikhail is not too pleased that his son is not following in his Russian mob footsteps, but prefers to settle down with Ruslan’s daughter to live the quiet life.  Mikhail decides to kill Ruslan’s former wife and daughter to toughen up his son, unfortunately this upsets Ruslan no end and the mayhem ensues.  There are a lot of guns, action and one liners, some strip show locales for gratuitous nudity and Seagal speaking mumbled Russian.  All up an entertaining movie.

Picture quality is good shot in 1:78:1 with a running time of 99 minutes.  Dolby Digital 5.1 gets a good workout with gunshots and explosions.  Extras are light on this review disc with only a trailer of the main feature.

Classify this between Attack Force (the worst of Seagal) and Under Siege (the best of Seagal), it moves at a cracking pace with plenty of action and a good very Russian villain.  A good night’s entertainment for lovers of B grade action flicks.  Ruslan also goes by the title Driven to Kill in some countries.