***SPOILERS*** The years since Steven Seagal burst upon the screen as Det. Nico Toscani in the movie "Above The Law" back in 1988 have been like the seven fat years in the book of Genesis. By the time he made "The Glimmer Man", some seven years later, Seagal had to wear extra baggy clothes to hide the extra weight that he put on his frame from all the success he had since then.
Steven Seagal, Det. Jack Cole and his partner Det. Jim Campall(Keenen Ivory Wayans), who only seems to be in the movie for comedy relief, are put on the "Family Man" murder case in L.A. The "Family Man" murdered some half dozen families and had them crucified in some weird ritual after they were dead. Seagal here plays a cop who who cracked up back in the early 1980's from the guilt that he felt about his service in Vietnam where he was known as "The Glimmer Man"; a hard as nails killer who the enemy only saw a glimmer of before he did them in. Det. Cole, or Seagal, later went to Thailand and took up Buddhism and became a sweet and peaceful man who wouldn't hurt a fly! Even though the movie "The Glimmer Man" is one of the most violent films that Seagal ever made.
"The Glimmer Man" is an almost incomprehensible movie to understand and follow. It starts off with a serial murder and then goes to what seems like a weirdo psychiatrist Frank Deverell, Bob Gunton, who thinks that he's the Godfather and uses a gang of thugs to smuggle arms from the now defunct Soviet Union to a Serbian freedom fighting organization. This whole racket is run Det. Jack Cole's former boss in Vietnam Mr. Smith, Brian Cox, who's working together with the Russian Mafia. That's about the best way I can describe the plot in the movie.
Early in the film Det. Cole's ex-wife Helen and her husband Andrew Dunleavy are murdered by the "Family Man" killer and it's made to look like it was Det. Cole who was the killer. This makes Cole realize that the killings are a cover for something more sinister. After breaking a number of heads and arms and legs of Russian gangsters and Deverell thugs Det. Cole finally gets to the bottom of what is really behind all these killings.
The movie is so violent it made me wonder what Seagal, who had a lot of control of the material in the film, was trying to tell his audience, love your fellow man? Since it went against everything that Buddhism stands for which I at first thought that the movie was advocating!"The Glimmer Man" builds itself up to it's inevitable bloody conclusion at the Overington Hotel in downtown L.A where Det. Cole has the Deverell mob turn on each other. This all happened when Det. Cole had a tape recording of Deverell played back on the phone to his top henchmen Donald Cunningham, John M. Jackson. The tape said that his boss was going to turn Cunningham in to save his own behind. That lead to a shootout between the two at the hotel where they were supposed to find both Det. Cole and Campell,the C&C boys , as Cunningham trapped Deverell there without knowing that he knew about his plans to double-cross him.
The hoods ended up killing themselves with, of course, the help of Cole & Campbell. Only Cunningham is left for Cole to do in at the end of the movie who after almost beating him almost to death ends up crucifying him! Steven Seagal seems to really enjoy working people over in the movie, he does it with such relish and enthusiasm, despite his non-violent Buddhist beliefs. Seagal does it to the point where he beats them in some cases to death even when their no longer a threat to him at all! when all he had to do is just put the cuffs on them and have them locked up behind bars! This isn't by a long shot going to make too many people watching the movie get turned on to Buddhism which I assume the film wanted them to do.
Steven Seagal, Det. Jack Cole and his partner Det. Jim Campall(Keenen Ivory Wayans), who only seems to be in the movie for comedy relief, are put on the "Family Man" murder case in L.A. The "Family Man" murdered some half dozen families and had them crucified in some weird ritual after they were dead. Seagal here plays a cop who who cracked up back in the early 1980's from the guilt that he felt about his service in Vietnam where he was known as "The Glimmer Man"; a hard as nails killer who the enemy only saw a glimmer of before he did them in. Det. Cole, or Seagal, later went to Thailand and took up Buddhism and became a sweet and peaceful man who wouldn't hurt a fly! Even though the movie "The Glimmer Man" is one of the most violent films that Seagal ever made.
"The Glimmer Man" is an almost incomprehensible movie to understand and follow. It starts off with a serial murder and then goes to what seems like a weirdo psychiatrist Frank Deverell, Bob Gunton, who thinks that he's the Godfather and uses a gang of thugs to smuggle arms from the now defunct Soviet Union to a Serbian freedom fighting organization. This whole racket is run Det. Jack Cole's former boss in Vietnam Mr. Smith, Brian Cox, who's working together with the Russian Mafia. That's about the best way I can describe the plot in the movie.
Early in the film Det. Cole's ex-wife Helen and her husband Andrew Dunleavy are murdered by the "Family Man" killer and it's made to look like it was Det. Cole who was the killer. This makes Cole realize that the killings are a cover for something more sinister. After breaking a number of heads and arms and legs of Russian gangsters and Deverell thugs Det. Cole finally gets to the bottom of what is really behind all these killings.
The movie is so violent it made me wonder what Seagal, who had a lot of control of the material in the film, was trying to tell his audience, love your fellow man? Since it went against everything that Buddhism stands for which I at first thought that the movie was advocating!"The Glimmer Man" builds itself up to it's inevitable bloody conclusion at the Overington Hotel in downtown L.A where Det. Cole has the Deverell mob turn on each other. This all happened when Det. Cole had a tape recording of Deverell played back on the phone to his top henchmen Donald Cunningham, John M. Jackson. The tape said that his boss was going to turn Cunningham in to save his own behind. That lead to a shootout between the two at the hotel where they were supposed to find both Det. Cole and Campell,the C&C boys , as Cunningham trapped Deverell there without knowing that he knew about his plans to double-cross him.
The hoods ended up killing themselves with, of course, the help of Cole & Campbell. Only Cunningham is left for Cole to do in at the end of the movie who after almost beating him almost to death ends up crucifying him! Steven Seagal seems to really enjoy working people over in the movie, he does it with such relish and enthusiasm, despite his non-violent Buddhist beliefs. Seagal does it to the point where he beats them in some cases to death even when their no longer a threat to him at all! when all he had to do is just put the cuffs on them and have them locked up behind bars! This isn't by a long shot going to make too many people watching the movie get turned on to Buddhism which I assume the film wanted them to do.