The Glimmer Man

Directed by John Gray, The Glimmer Man follows mismatched cops Jack Cole (Steven Seagal) and Jim Campbell (Keenen Ivory Wayans) as they set out to find and capture a mysterious killer known as The Family Man. There’s little doubt that The Glimmer Man fares best in its briskly-paced (and rather promising) opening stretch, as filmmaker Gray, working from Kevin Brodbin’s script, does an effective job of establishing the central characters and their appealingly familiar buddy-cop chemistry together – with the watchable vibe heightened by Seagal’s relaxed performance and a series of better-than-expected action sequences. It’s clear, then, that the growing emphasis on the narrative’s serial-killer elements slowly-but-surely cements the picture’s downfall, with the midsection’s decidedly hit-and-miss bent paving the way for a second half that is, for the most part, distressingly underwhelming and tedious (ie the serial killer stuff is hardly as interesting as Gray seems to believe, ultimately). And although the movie closes with an appreciatively violent climax, The Glimmer Man has long-since cemented its place as an oddball misfire that feels like it could (and should) be so much better.

** out of ****