A GOOD MAN (2014) **

After Force of Execution, we find Steven Seagal settling into the Goatee, Scarf, Sunglasses, and Backwards Baseball Cap phase of his career.  In fact, this was originally conceived as a sequel to Force of Execution.  Maybe that’s why the wardrobe (and even his character’s name) stayed the same.

Seagal quits the Army after women and children get killed in a U.S. drone strike.  He takes a job as a handyman in an apartment building and learns his neighbor’s brother (Victor Webster) is in deep to the Russian mob.  Naturally, his little sister is kidnapped by the bad guys and it’s up to Seagal to get her back.

Directed by Keoni Waxman (who also helmed Force of Execution), A Good Man features a surprisingly game Seagal.  He spends very little time sitting down in this one and is up and walking around a lot more than he has been of late.  He has more fighting scenes in this one as any in recent memory, the best being the ones where he uses a samurai sword.  (Is a samurai sword considered a backup piece in the Army?)

I wish “Seagal fighting more” translated into “better movie”, but it doesn’t.  Although A Good Man is fairly competent, it’s also overlong and slow going in some stretches.  There are a lot of subplots that bog things down (like the one with the mismatched cops).  If this had been 89 minutes, it might’ve been okay, but at 103, it’s just too damn long.

Victor Webster is good in an Armie Hammer kind of way.  He’s got soap opera good looks and is a little bland in his delivery, but he carries himself well enough.  The movie really needed someone like Danny Trejo to give Seagal a meaty co-star to play against.  

Seagal is more present during his acting scenes, which is nice.  Although early on, he speaks in an odd, slurred southern drawl that sounds like an elderly blues singer in a rest home for no good reason whatsoever.  (He says, “Muh-fuh-kas” a lot.)  After the opening credits, he drops the accent and begins talking normally.

One notable thing about A Good Man:  Seagal’s sex scene.  No, it’s not notable because he gets it on with a leading lady who’s a third his age.  It’s notable for its placement.  It happens at the very last scene, not halfway through the picture as with most movies.

Other than that weird touch, you’ve seen this stuff before, and done better I might add.  If the movie was a bit more incompetent, it might’ve been more fun.  Oh well, a middle of the road Steven Seagal effort is better than bottom of the barrel one.