Review of Exit Wounds

Introduction

After a number of low budget martial arts/Police movies earlier in his career, Steven Seagal hit the big time with Under Siege and it`s sequel, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Seagal`s career however went slightly backwards again afterwards. Since then we`ve seen a succession of feel-good movies of dubious quality.

Exit Wounds marks the return of Seagal to a high-profile action movie, in which he stars as Orin Boyd, a cop with a reputation for bending the rules in pursuit of villains. The movie starts with Boyd single-handedly foiling a plot to kidnap the Vice-President but instead of being hailed as a hero, he is transferred away from his precinct and ends up directing traffic. However he is soon on the trail of drug dealers with links to the Police...

Video

The video comes in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of a very high standard throughout the movie. As you would expect from a big-budget Hollywood action movie made earlier this year, the picture is free from dirt and grain and is stable and sharp at all times.

Visually, the film is a superb example of hi-octane action with numerous fights, gun battles, car chases and explosions, all of which look fantastic. The two big car chases inparticular are spectacularly entertaining with some very impressive crashes etc.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and, like the picture, is of an exceptional standard throughout. Despite me not being a fan of DMX`s music, I found myself turning up the subwoofer by a couple of DB and experiencing the great beat as the bullets fly across the soundstage from all angles.

The sound fills the room wonderfully, with effects and music hitting you from everywhere – this really is a movie to be enjoyed at high-volume!

Again, the car chases stand out sonically, but also look out for the ending shootout which has a hail of bullets flying across your room!

Features

The extras consist of a DMX music video, a making-of, a featurette about Anthony Anderson, the trailer and cast/crew bios.

The making-of is really an extended trailer with various interview clips of the cast cut in periodically. Some of these clips are interesting, others are of the back-slapping variety with everyone proclaiming how good their colleagues are.

The featurette about a day with Anthony Anderson is a quite amusing 8 minute short which, unsurprisingly follows Anderson around the set for a day.

The disc is packaged in one of Warner`s usual snapper cases.

Conclusion

After a number of particularly cheesy feel-good movies, Seagal is back with a bang in a movie with is fast-paced and very entertaining from start to finish. Exit Wounds is no Oscar winner, but the great action scenes will have a smile on your face for much of the movie. Seagal is backed up by a good cast with DMX, Anthony Anderson and Tom Arnold all putting in good performances.

The sound and video are both top notch, and the extras are reasonable.

Overall, this is a good addition to the action movie genre and fans of Seagal will certainly not be disappointed – oh, and make sure you watch the discussion between Anderson and Arnold during the ending credits...