I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

So in the times is this fine film that I just watched a 16 year old throw up after watching it for just three minutes.And the car buying scene?!??!?! Priceless.

Steven Seagal's supposed "comeback" film is an action thriller with some intense, expertly-crafted action scenes saddled on to a routine, clichéd plot which never rises above the "good guys battle police corruption" idea which has been done so many times previously (indeed, to highlight the cliché, Seagal's character is even referred to as "Serpico" in one scene). This time, however, the film is slightly different to most in that the budget is larger than usual, and the film has a slick style, a hard edge that's missing from more usual lower-budgeted fare. This time, too, there's an element of humour in the script, with jokes about Seagal's adopted "hardman" persona as he joins an anger management class, and comic supporting characters (not so funny, including one offensive black guy whose lame brained moronic humour definitely wasn't required).The cast is a better one than usual. Seagal - who lost weight for the role - is in good shape and looks capable of carrying out some of the well-edited martial arts techniques he tries out in this movie, although his acting hasn't changed since his debut. DMX is pretty limited as Leon Rollins, who turns from extreme bad guy to good guy at around halfway through in one of the film's many character twists. The familiar faces of Tom Arnold, Michael Jai White, and Bill Duke pep out the supporting cast, while Jill Hennessy makes for a strong feminine role as Seagal's tough Commander. The loud music is frequently intrusive and one of the film's flaws.The action sequences, however, are excellent, and worth watching. Beginning with a large-scale shoot-out involving a squad of renegade commandos disguised as policemen and finishing with a clever helicopter stunt, this has it all. There are MATRIX-style camera tricks used to make characters perform impossible manoeuvres, a motorbike chase, an excellent van set-piece which contains one of the coolest vehicle crashes ever filmed, a scene which harks back to the old days with Seagal battling a street gang single-handedly and breaking many arms and legs, plus plenty of shootings and one-on-one battles for Seagal. Thrilling stuff, it's just a shame the story is so familiar and overdone. Not bad for the genre, though.

Exit Wounds (2001): Dir: Andrzei Bartowiak / Cast: Steven Seagal, Isaiah Washington, DMX, Anthony Anderson, Michael Jai White: Scene after scene of violence with a title that seems to suggest my quick exit with a wounded intelligence. It opens with a scene that bears nothing to anything. Steven Seagal rescues a public figure and authority comes down on him for it. Seagal is sent to anger management seminars and suspects foul play regulated by members of the police force. He teams with Isaiah Washington to find answers as well as support the whole idea of this being the umpteenth bad buddy cop film. This all arrives at the ever familiar violent solution. Sloppy directing by Andrzei Bartkowiak who throws in the justified violence theme for good measure. Seagal isn't any different here than in any other film where he beats up countless people. The only difference is that here he seems to have an unlimited amount of handcuffs. In really awful supporting roles are Washington as well as DMX and Anthony Anderson. Michael Jai White appears in what is as bad as another film he did called Universal Soldier: The Return. What is even worse about this junk is how the audience reacted to it. In the screening I attended they howled with glee as someone's neck is impaled on a nail. They must have lost a sense of human decency. This film should be nailed and smashed with a hammer. Score: 0 / 10

Don't you hate it when the hero and his mate have the bad guys held up and then the hero's mate swings his gun round and points it at the hero, and it turns out he's one of the bad guys after all? Most recently seen in high profile in SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Indiana Jones 4? Well guess what? Spielberg didn't think of it. And neither did the people behind Exit Wounds - it was already old hat when they came up with the idea of trotting it out towards the end of this rather routine Seagal vehicle.Seagal is a problem cop, transferred to a problem precinct where the main activity is playing "Guess who's not corrupt". We have a black crime boss who has a monumentally irritating comedy fat black sidekick, plus Tom Arnold in screaming over-the-top mode (is he ever in any other mode?).You may come to the conclusion at this point that I found this movie rather tiresome. If Seagal butt-kicking action is your thing - and it's OK, that's why I watched the movie - there's some of that in it, but this film severely lacked anything approaching originality - it was simply tired old formula from start to finish. And not even a good example of the formula, either.