{"id":15471,"date":"2026-06-06T07:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/posle-prosmotra-filma-merczayushhij-chelovek-vy-ne-smozhete-perestat-czitirovat-stivena-sigala-i-kinana-ajvori-uejansa\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T12:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:15:59","slug":"after-watching-the-film-the-flickering-man-you-wont-be-able-to-stop-citing-steven-seagal-and-kinana-ajvori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/posle-prosmotra-filma-merczayushhij-chelovek-vy-ne-smozhete-perestat-czitirovat-stivena-sigala-i-kinana-ajvori-uejansa\/","title":{"rendered":"After watching Shimmer Man, you won't be able to stop quoting Steven Seagal and Keenan Ivory Wayans."},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday evenings IndieWire After Dark<\/strong> celebrates avant-garde cinema in the age of streaming, screening films from all periods of cinematic history at midnight.<\/em><\/p>\n

At first BAIT<\/strong> : an unusual choice of genre and why we are now studying this particular niche. Then ANSWER<\/strong> : A spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question: "Is this old cult film really worth recommending?"\u00ab<\/em><\/p>\n

Bait: You always remember your first\u2026 movie with Steven Seagal<\/h2>\n

Being addicted to Steven Seagal films is a bit like contracting a venereal disease: you don't know where you caught it, and you prefer to keep it a secret. Personally, I blame my "infection" on the brilliant action director Andrew Davis, who directed Seagal's first feature, Above the Law, and tricked me into putting Seagal at the center of a truly good film. Seagal himself wasn't as dynamic an actor as he is now\u2014his range was always limited, making Chuck Norris look like De Niro\u2014but the film Davis created around him was so multifaceted and captivating that I became hooked.<\/p>\n

And the word "addicted" is apt here, because while Seagal is a venereal disease, he's also a drug, and the only cure for Seagal is more Seagal. There's something about his raspy delivery (he's reminiscent of a gruff Marilyn Monroe), his oddly limited fighting style (he's one of the few martial arts stars whose feet seem permanently planted on the ground), and the minimalist simplicity of his revenge stories (reflected in their three-word titles: "Hard to Kill," "Seeking Justice," "On Deadly Ground," and so on) that makes his films strangely soothing and deeply addictive. <\/p>\n

\u00ab"The Shimmer Man" (1996) \u00a9Warner Bros.\/Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

For those who weren't alive during Seagal's heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it may be hard to believe, but before he was banished to the world of weird straight-to-video films like The Chinaman (starring Mike Tyson\u2014highly recommended!) and became a conspiracy theorist obsessed with the "deep state," Seagal was a major box office draw in well-financed studio films. Again, he owes much of his success to Davis, who not only made Seagal a star (after CAA super-agent Mike Ovitz decided to make his personal aikido teacher a star), but also directed his best and most memorable film, Under Siege.<\/p>\n

Essentially a Die Hard on a boat, Under Siege became a huge hit and allowed Seagal to chart his own path at Warner Bros. for several years before it collapsed under a barrage of sexual harassment allegations and increasingly bizarre films. (His sole directorial effort, the earnest eco-thriller On Deadly Ground, starring Seagal opposite Michael Caine, is a spectacle that must be seen to be believed.) However, before leaving the studio system, Seagal gave us all The Shimmer Man, a film that somehow manages to exploit every clich\u00e9 imaginable while remaining aggressively and engagingly eccentric.<\/p>\n

Released in 1996, a year after Seven, The Shimmer Man essentially follows that film's formula, combining a buddy cop comedy with a serial killer thriller, though whether this influence was intentional or whether The Shimmer Man was already in development when Seven was released is open to debate. Instead of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman tracking a killer, we have Seagal and Keenan Ivory Wayans, and in an intriguing example of casting at odds with their respective roles, Seagal plays the easygoing chatterbox and Wayans the prim curmudgeon\u2014as if Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte had swapped roles in 48 Hrs.<\/p>\n

It's worth noting that Seagal is actually very funny\u2014and intentionally so\u2014in many of the film's scenes; he handles the comedy required by the script far better than one might expect, and he and Wayans have some pretty funny scenes together. The film's true eccentricity lies in its blend of lighthearted comedy with shocking violence and gore, perhaps most vividly demonstrated in a strangely mundane moment in the morgue where Seagal and Wayans discover a clue in the form of a serial number on a dead woman's breast implant. The post-Lethal Weapon era has seen plenty of buddy cop comedies combining laughter and violence (Wayans' brother, Damon, starred in one of the best, The Last Boy Scout), but this film takes it to a whole new level. <\/p>\n

\u00ab"The Shimmer Man" (1996) \u00a9Warner Bros.\/Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Things get even stranger in how Seagal presents his character\u2014a tough-guy Buddhist. He wears ornately floral jackets and pontificates about his belief in peace and his reluctance to resort to violence, often right before gunning down a dozen guys at once. Seagal's own apparent conflicting feelings on this matter led to some interesting moments on set, such as when he refused to follow the script and shoot the villain, Stephen Tobolowsky; according to Tobolowsky, he had to persuade Seagal to kill him, saying his character was in pain and that killing him would be an act of mercy.<\/p>\n

As with Andrew Davis's films and John Flynn's "Search for Justice," Seagal benefited greatly from a director who skillfully contextualized his talents in "The Glimmer Man." John Gray, who went on to create the television show "Ghost Whispers" and was deservedly recognized as a master of Hallmark Hall of Fame-worthy films (a remarkable feat for the director of an action film replete with jokes about deer penises), orchestrates a series of expertly staged Steadicam shots and action sequences in "The Glimmer Man" that elevate the film to a more respectable level than it deserves.<\/p>\n

But the real auteur of The Dazzle Man must be Seagal himself\u2014not only did he star in it and produce it with his partner Julius R. Nasso (whose most recent work is the intriguingly titled The Pendragon Cycle: The Rise of Merlin), but he also wrote two songs! Unfortunately for Seagal, The Dazzle Man marked the beginning of his commercial decline; the film grossed $40 million but cost $45 million, and Seagal's subsequent films also saw declining profitability, though he did have one last hit with Exit Wounds, starring DMX. As of this writing, Seagal is still around\u2014he's in post-production on The Order of the Dragon, playing a character with the very Seagal name "Mason Riker"\u2014but to see him at his very best, you need to go back 30 years and more than three dozen films to the brilliance of The Dazzle Man. \u2014Jim Hemphill<\/em> <\/p>\n

\u00ab"The Shimmer Man" (1996) \u00a9Warner Bros.\/Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

The Bite: Happy Pride Month! Make those crazy cops kiss!<\/em><\/h2>\n

When IndieWire launched its film night club a few years ago, I never imagined I'd have to address in print the veiled implication that my 54-year-old colleague had infected me with some kind of epidemic through a Steven Seagal film. But before anyone calls HR, let me state bluntly: I can't imagine discovering "Flicker Man" any other way.<\/p>\n

Jim is a true eccentric, and generally, meeting cinephiles like him is a way to learn about periods of cinematic history that Hollywood itself seems to have gratefully forgotten. After watching the first few minutes of John Gray's remarkably quotable 1996 Los Angeles crime comedy, I realized that must<\/em> I wanted to recognize the dark-haired handsome man who advised me \u00abnot to criticize Chinese potions\u00bb \u2013 but I simply didn\u2019t recognize him.<\/p>\n

Having turned on the film "The Shimmering Man" even before I read it, Why<\/em> we're watching, I mistakenly assumed it was Keenan Ivory Wayans' return in the new Scary Movie that brought me this wonderfully ridiculous detective series. And in one of my awkward moments, I Googled Seagal's name, wondering if he was the Frenchman who painted all those pictures. (Note: It was Marc Chagall, who, by the way, Not<\/em> Jason Segel\u2026 All in all!<\/em> ) <\/p>\n

\u00ab"The Shimmer Man" (1996) \u00a9Warner Bros.\/Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

I still recognize a movie star when I see one, and The Shimmer Man hooked me from the start with its lead duo. The fiery chemistry between the police partners reaches its peak when Detective Campbell and Lieutenant Cole bicker by the ambulance at the end. And what about a bisexual woman celebrating Pride Month? I'm brave enough to admit that their flirtatious dynamic throughout the film was, frankly, quite appealing.<\/p>\n

\u00ab"The Shimmer Man" is the type of film that isn't overtly gay, but ends up feeling gay. Very<\/em> homosexual because of the vocabulary used in the genre. There's a fine line between the brazenness a police officer might display in a holding cell and the flirtatious remark he might make that night, showing up at his attractive partner's door. And the homoerotic ballad about Campbell and Cole doesn't so much walk that line as leap over it. <\/p>\n

\u00ab"The Shimmer Man" (1996) \u00a9Warner Bros.\/Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

From the leads' surprisingly tender car conversations about self-care and religion to that gangster who suddenly starts quoting Shakespeare, Seagal and Wayans' film plays like an LGBTQ-inclusive spinoff of Demi Moore's Striptease. I was at most a year old when both of these films came out in 1996. Even then, I'm sure if I'd been shown either of these films as a baby, my first word would have been \u00ab"gay".<\/em> (Or perhaps "homoerotic"? I was very developed in that regard.)<\/p>\n

Either way, whether you're a queer woman in your thirties today or a queer straight teenager watching Steven Seagal movies about the Mesozoic era (tell those Christians dinosaurs were real, Jim!), the Shimmering Man doesn't care who it infects. Thanks for that truly world-changing recommendation. But now it's time for this little grasshopper to get back to writing fanfiction. ("It was a dark and stormy night when Campbell and Cole's police car began to stink..." deer penis<\/em> \u00bb.) \u2014 Alison Foreman<\/em><\/p>\n

The film "The Shimmer Man" (1996) is available for rent or purchase on VOD platforms.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read other episodes of After Dark, IndieWire's late-night film club:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    CBS may pull "The Late Show" from streaming services, but I'll never forget working for Stephen Colbert.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    End your career with Maximum Overdrive: the only feature film directed by Stephen King.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    The deeply disturbing 1994 indie album What Happened, Happened reminds you that dating Always<\/em> were hell.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Chang and Anita Mui rescue a group of babies in "The Heroic Trio.".<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    If April 20th falls on a Monday, you simply must watch Gregg Araki's "Smiling Face" - or else!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Video game movies were more fun when they were as weird as 1993's Super Mario Bros.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Subscribe to the Indiewire newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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