End of a Gun

Where did the star of "Above The Law" go? Where is that svelte, femur snapping dude who had us waiting for the next villain to tell him to go to hell? Well, long gone, I guess. An overweight caricature of Steven Segal appears to be starring in a genre where he is no longer in his element. The whispering, slang using ladies man, who could kick the eyes out of a snake at sixty paces, is no more. Instead, we're faced with something we cannot recognize, a man who is attempting to woo us with action hero status, but not quite getting there. His "gangsta" lingo and attitude with the French police (who do not have French accents, curiously) who are investigating his killing of a mobster in a parking lot, just isn't making the grade. We see something that looks so ridiculous and out of place, it causes us to allow the story-line to wisp about in thin air, and we cannot seem to catch it. With a twenty-something cutie (he's rescued from a violent boyfriend) coming on to a bloated, sixty-four year old in Segal, its difficult for any viewer to believe in the story, even those of us who are rooting for the old "Nikko" to jump out at any time. Even in the over- choreographed and under-whelming fight scenes, which quite frankly, have us scratching our heads in disbelief, we come to realize how bad this film is, and how much we long for the Steven Segal of old.