The Keeper
2009; directed by Keoni Waxman

In Steven Seagal's latest release, The Keeper, he plays Rolland Sallinger, a LA cop who is double-crossed by his rogue partner. Forced to retire, Rolland heads to Texas and accepts a gig guarding Nikita (Liezl Carstens), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy businessman, Conner Wells (Steph DuVall). When mobsters kidnap the girl, Rolland's job turns from protector to hunter as he tracks down the villains, bringing his own brand of special street justice and a trail of bodies along the way.

The action fans out there will probably know that Steven Seagal's career hasn't exactly been hot lately, with almost all of his movies over the past several years going straight to video and cable. The portly one has even had to resort to doing a reality TV series, the hilariously bad Lawman. So it might have to be taken with a grain of salt when I say that The Keeper isn't all that bad. Sure, it's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, or even up to the level of cheesy fun espoused by the B-movie classics in Seagal's filmography like Marked for Death and Out for Justice.

But at least this is something decent enough to pop on when you just want to have a couple of frosty beverages, turn your brain off, and relax, unlike some other newer Seagal movies such as the dreadful Mercenary, which isn't even good enough to leave on as late-night insomniac viewing when it pops up at 2 AM on USA every other Tuesday. It helps that The Keeper looks like it at least had some sort of budget attached to it. Most of Seagal's recent output has been shot in eastern Europe, seemingly with some guy's borrowed DV camera with the not-so-hidden agenda of punting off the semi-finished footage as soon as possible for a quick buck. No doubt that a speedy cash-in was also the intention here. However, it seems like the movie was actually made by professionals (or people that gave a bit of a shit about how the film turned out) for more than fifty cents, a used bus transfer, and a trashbag of recyclable Budweiser tallboy cans.

Action-wise, there's nothing up to the coolness factor of Seagal's older stuff, such as the famous "pool ball in a sock" bit from Hard to Kill, but it's surprisingly good for a man approaching sixty, probably because the director, Keoni Waxman, had to foresight to keep the fisticuffs at a minimum, instead having Steven deliver vengeance via guns. One point that I really appreciated about The Keeper, and truly thank the film-makers for: squibs. Though there honestly could have been a good deal more thrown on the screen, the bloodshed we do get actually has some weight to it, unlike the CGI-enhanced wank-fest far too many recent action movies have become. Ultimately, that doesn't save The Keeper from being more than your average straight to DVD movie, but in these lean times for fans of "real" action deluged by limp PG-13 releases, something that's average and doesn't give you a headache after watching it might add up to a good time if you're in the right mood.

RATING: 5

This DVD is available from Amazon.