Exit Wounds is low-brow entertainment. It's not a film you study or savor for its intricacies or sub-texts. You watch a film like this very much like you watch your average television program. You don't think too much, you don't expect too much, and if you get a little stimulation you're reasonably happy. Since it started life as a big screen film you expect it to have a few really loud over the top action scenes and have at least a little more attitude than a t.v. program does.

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, and he almost never raises his voice and stays very very-- sometimes zombie-like, calm.

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 pissed-off-bad-ass-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. He's not asked to do too much acting, but you can tell if the script asked him to do any, he would have been able to pull it off.

The other good news is that as dumb Joel Silver type action movies go, this one is much better than Seagal's last theatrical efforts which included: On Deadly Ground, Fire Down Below and The Glimmer Man. It' not nearly as good as Under Siege though. There's a bit of a twist of the story and a bit of a surprise towards the end. So instead of running of steam before it's over, this one tries to entertain and satisfy its genre audience.

The other not so good news is 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. It's like the writer and director were telling the actors. . . be funny--and remember to be very loud and obnoxious so everyone knows you're trying to be funny. They aren't given any clever material to work with and their attempts to be funny are desperate. It also doesn't help that they cast Anthony Anderson--an up and coming obnoxious character actor who's loud and got the big big belly laugh and Tom Arnold who you almost always inexplicably catch yourself saying: Why does this guy keep getting cast in movies? The only appearance he made in a film that was close to being worthwhile was in True Lies. NOTE: During the credits Anderson and Arnold do what must have been a partially improvised riff on farting, big breasts and other 80's shock comedy topics. It's a desperate, tasteless attention getting device on the part of the film-makers.

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.

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

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.

Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller. For more information visit the web site at: http://www.radiofreegallery.com/jarmicknholder.htm