After Under Siege 2 Seagal's star was slowly fading, something that begun with On Deadly Ground actually. By the time it was 1996 Seagal's name wouldn't automatically generate box office success. In 1995 a movie called Se7en did very well and so it was time to pit Seagal against a serial killer. To kill two birds with one stone he also gets to participate in a buddy-cop movie. This movie was the Glimmer Man and substituting for Morgan Freeman is Keenen Ivory Wayans and in the role of Brad Pitt we've got Steven Seagal. Oh well, at least on the asskicking front this movie beats Se7en...

Situated on the west coast, LA to be precise, this movie has got the worst rainstorms since... ehm, oh since it was raining in Se7en. A serial killer is targeting catholic families and crucifying them in their houses. On the case are Lt. Jack Cole (Seagal) and Det. Jim Campbell (Wayans). Cole just came over from New York where he solved another serial killer case and he has a shadowy past, but that you'd probably expect. It soon becomes clear that there's a copycat killer using the MO of the real serial killer so before you know it they're trying to solve two cases.

This movie is the one where Seagal starts getting annoying with his personal philosophies and views on life pushed into the movie. He's walking around in Asian jackets and wearing love beads. At one point he also goes into a Chinese herb store which for once doesn't get robbed while he just happens to be there. No, the whole shop-scene is their to show us he speaks Chinese and knows a lot about herbs and such. Oh, and we get a recurring joke about Powdered Deer Penis and how antlers are good for one's manhood out of it. Halfway in the movie Seagals wardrobe goes back to plain black. Guess someone on the set pointed out that his costumes look more funny than serious. There's quite a few jokes about the beads and the clothing by other characters in the movie.
Somehow the buddy-cop thing did work. Seagal had buddies or partners in earlier movies but they always played a serious second fiddle like Keith David in Marked For Death or the puppy in Out For Justice. Wayans gets equal screen time even though he's less featured in the fight scenes. His job is to spout oneliners and other remarks. He makes the movie more fun to watch, but by implementing his character as a wise-ass they do lose the grittyness in the story they so forcefully wanted to create with the serial killer storyline and the heavy rain.

Cool, symmetric bleeding! How badass is that!?

For you who might be wondering what a "Glimmer Man" is and are thinking that it refers to the serial killer: Seagal is the titular Glimmer Man, it's a title he got during his shadowy past. To use the words of a high-ranked CIA official:

"Suffice to say, to the people he hunted for us, he was known as the Glimmer Man. There'd be nothing but jungle, then a glimmer... Then you'd be dead!"

Now I wonder, how the fuck does a story like that spread? It's not that people get to write that down in their diary. "Their journal, I just saw a glimmer..." bang, no more entries in the diary. My guess is that Cole made that one up himself or maybe he let one live after generating the glimmer. Which makes me wonder: how did he generate the glimmer...

What's always fun are those before-they-were-famous roles. In The Glimmer Man there are two scenes featuring Nikky Cox. You know, the extremely hot daughter from Unhappily Ever After, the self-titled show Nikky and Las Vegas. She plays a student and does nothing special but it is fun to see here before she went on to do her signature roles. She doesn't show off her assets like she would do later on in her career. Bummer.

One thing people come to see are the fight scenes. They're here of course, but less flashy as we're used to see. There is one quite noteworthy sequence in a restaurant in which Seagal actually almost gets beaten up. Since he has become superhuman over the last few movies that is quite surprising. Even the endboss, to use a gameterm which can be applied very easy to these kind of movies, gets and takes the opportunity to make Seagal bleed. That endfight reminded me a bit of the fight with Screwface in Marked For Death. This one was less full or rage even though this guy killed his ex-wife while in Marked For Death his niece only got shot. He probably hated his ex-wife I guess.

I always thought The Glimmer Man was one of the lesser Seagal movies, but that was before he started starring in tons of crappy straight to dvd movies. I actually like this movie now more because I automatically compare it to his abysmal movies released the last couple of years. The Glimmer Man is a poor man's version of Se7en and nothing more, but it's mildly entertaining to give it credit where credit's due.

Hang in there!