Kill Switch - Reviews

msmith

Member
I find it hard to believe that Seagal having wrote the film is to blame for the poor dubbing and the diabolical fight scenes. Surely he must've been passionate about the film and surely he must've done all the fights and spoke all his lines.

I think if anyone is to blame for the negative feedback coming from people who have seen the screener are Nu Image for their stupidity in added extra footage after the film was completed and also Cinetel for their poor and shoddy editing skills.

If i were Insight/First Look and i was releasing this film I'd be taking all the negative critism and making sure it was corrected before the October release date as it's only going to hurt DVD sales.

I will buy the film as i have done on every single release of Seagal's but i won't be watching it again in a hurry.

Having watched the screener it would be really interesting to be able to watch the original cut of the film to see if there are any significant changes like the doubles in the fights and also the dubbing issues.

I highly doubt it that having been successful with his past two films UJ and PW that Seagal would deliberately make a cock up with KS.

It might be a good idea for one of the guys on here to email Kirk Shaw the producer of the film to see what he feels about all the problems we've found with the film already and to see if anything will be done or if anything is possible before release date to be corrected.

What d'you think guys?

It's a real shame because KS had the potential to be Seagals best in a long time but the fights and dubbing have spoilt it completely.
 

fakeshemp

Hard To Kill
If i were Insight/First Look and i was releasing this film I'd be taking all the negative critism and making sure it was corrected before the October release date as it's only going to hurt DVD sales.

I don't think any changes will be made as I don't think the company behind the film would care about what fans think. If they did, there wouldn't be any dubbing to begin with. Steven has a loyal fanbase who buy the movies no matter how poor they are (Attack Force, Flight Of Fury) and it's well known in the DTV industry that his movies sell well on DVD. I suspect that those behind these movies see them more as product than films.
 

rastafari

Well-Known Member
Kotegashi;189183 said:
Ah..then I have to return to the reasons for using doubles and "killing" fights sequences. I think Reiné gave Seagal more freedom in the choreography of the fights and if I recall correctly there has been almost no re-editing on PW. KS has had lots of re-editing and had some re-shoots.

The last fight in KS I watched very close several times and here it is about 95% all Seagal.

Peace

i would say ts 95 percent doubles

also your right roel renie cut of the film was released
 
this was by no means seagals worst film but it is the weakest of his last 3 dtv films.personally i think pistol whipped was best in terms of story,fight scenes,seagals acting/character,his enthusiasm and overall look.urban/renegade justice was not far off maybe bit dark in places.but kill switch has the most unfulfilled potential.if not for all the doubles and dubbing it could have been great.but on some of the fight scenes,2 of which were very long,it was clearly a double.what made it worse was the double would dish out a flew slaps then it would show seagals rather uninterested looking face.few more slaps then seagals face,and that was the pattern for a couple of the long fight scenes.after UJ and PW i thought seagal was really on the comeback trail,but this movie is,maybe not a full step backwards but certainly a half step!van dammes shepherd movie was good,dolphs missionary man was good,even snipes managed a decent film with art of war 2.decent dtv flicks are possible and seagal is probably the most capable of all dtv stars around today,but someone somewhere along with steven needs to realise this!if stallone can pull off not just rocky 6 but also rambo 4 then im sure we can see seagal with an under siege 3 or at least an exit wounds or glimmer man equal of a movie!
 

supertom

Disgruntled fan!
Awful, awful film! Definitely the worst I've seen this year, and almost as bad as anything Seagal's done. It's probably the least watchable of all, because it doesn't even have the laughability factor. It's just utterly hideous.

What's worse is the fact that the cinematography is pretty good. It looks nice, it's got some nice lighting. Some of the music, especially the more bluesy stuff is decent too.

However the rest of the film is abysmal. Seagal is awful. He just can't be bothered. There's a lot of dubbing in the film, a lot of doubling, and when Seagal is actually there on screen and actually delivering his own lines, he looks like he's about to slip into a coma. The rest of the cast are terrible too.

The directing (or lack of) is poor, lifeless, but most awful of all is the editing. I kid you not this is an example of probably the worst editing you'll ever see. It's hideous. During one a bar fight, Seagal is doubled through most of it (because I believe they shot most with 2nd unit after Seagal had finished on the film), and it's extremely badly pieced together. The continuity (such as endlessley re-using the same shots of Seagal throughout the fight, because he evidently didn't shoot much himself, and they've gone and made the fight ridiculously long). There are shots when Seagals double is being grabbed from behind by one of the bad guys, and they insert close ups of Seagal with no one behind him!

Seriously, after coming back on form with Urban Justice and then Pistol Whipped, Seagal hits the skids badly here. It's just horrid, moronic filmmaking, and Seagal, as producer and writer must take a lot of the blame. He's not put any effort into making sure the film was at least watchable. Had he made himself available for more of the shoot, and stayed to do more ADR, then made sure the film was edited in some normal way, it could have been vaguely watchable. As it is, it's just a piece of cack that should never be released on the public. It's the film equivilant of herpes. I'm utterly disappointed because just when we thought Seagal had turned a corner, he comes out with this. And what's worse, is that the same director has been hired for Ruslan. There's no hope for it.
Avoid.

0/5.
 

Littledragon

Above The Law
It is not his worst film, but it shouldn't be praised like it is a good film.

Like suprertom stated, horrid film making, it is not watchable, it's just not.

Dragon1978;189242 said:
this was by no means seagals worst film but it is the weakest of his last 3 dtv films.personally i think pistol whipped was best in terms of story,fight scenes,seagals acting/character,his enthusiasm and overall look.urban/renegade justice was not far off maybe bit dark in places.but kill switch has the most unfulfilled potential.if not for all the doubles and dubbing it could have been great.but on some of the fight scenes,2 of which were very long,it was clearly a double.what made it worse was the double would dish out a flew slaps then it would show seagals rather uninterested looking face.few more slaps then seagals face,and that was the pattern for a couple of the long fight scenes.after UJ and PW i thought seagal was really on the comeback trail,but this movie is,maybe not a full step backwards but certainly a half step!van dammes shepherd movie was good,dolphs missionary man was good,even snipes managed a decent film with art of war 2.decent dtv flicks are possible and seagal is probably the most capable of all dtv stars around today,but someone somewhere along with steven needs to realise this!if stallone can pull off not just rocky 6 but also rambo 4 then im sure we can see seagal with an under siege 3 or at least an exit wounds or glimmer man equal of a movie!
 

rastafari

Well-Known Member
supertom;189254 said:
Awful, awful film! Definitely the worst I've seen this year, and almost as bad as anything Seagal's done. It's probably the least watchable of all, because it doesn't even have the laughability factor. It's just utterly hideous.

What's worse is the fact that the cinematography is pretty good. It looks nice, it's got some nice lighting. Some of the music, especially the more bluesy stuff is decent too.

However the rest of the film is abysmal. Seagal is awful. He just can't be bothered. There's a lot of dubbing in the film, a lot of doubling, and when Seagal is actually there on screen and actually delivering his own lines, he looks like he's about to slip into a coma. The rest of the cast are terrible too.

The directing (or lack of) is poor, lifeless, but most awful of all is the editing. I kid you not this is an example of probably the worst editing you'll ever see. It's hideous. During one a bar fight, Seagal is doubled through most of it (because I believe they shot most with 2nd unit after Seagal had finished on the film), and it's extremely badly pieced together. The continuity (such as endlessley re-using the same shots of Seagal throughout the fight, because he evidently didn't shoot much himself, and they've gone and made the fight ridiculously long). There are shots when Seagals double is being grabbed from behind by one of the bad guys, and they insert close ups of Seagal with no one behind him!

Seriously, after coming back on form with Urban Justice and then Pistol Whipped, Seagal hits the skids badly here. It's just horrid, moronic filmmaking, and Seagal, as producer and writer must take a lot of the blame. He's not put any effort into making sure the film was at least watchable. Had he made himself available for more of the shoot, and stayed to do more ADR, then made sure the film was edited in some normal way, it could have been vaguely watchable. As it is, it's just a piece of cack that should never be released on the public. It's the film equivilant of herpes. I'm utterly disappointed because just when we thought Seagal had turned a corner, he comes out with this. And what's worse, is that the same director has been hired for Ruslan. There's no hope for it.
Avoid.

0/5.

i agree with most of that apart from seagal doing ADR..nu image never asked him backl so hes no chance of doing it weather he wanted to or not

also altough i dont think jeff kings a good director im hoping he does a better job with ruslan with hopefully a better script than seagals horrible screenplay

the place where jeff king wnt wrong for me was he didnt get a performance out of seagal that at least renie and fauntleroy did
 

supertom

Disgruntled fan!
I'm not too sure about what's gone on between Seagal and Nu Image in the past, before or after the lawsuit. But the problem is, Seagal comes in, does his bit and then goes home with no care of how a film turns out. I suppose NI didn't ask him back for ADR, because they knew he'd say no, or had moved onto his next obligation. But seriously, how can that much dialogue need changing? I felt watching the film, that the best way to decipher between Seagal, and his ADR double, was that the Seagal parts, were those you could barely hear. Maybe his constant whispering meant they had to re-dub a lot of the film, to make the "dialogue" audible.

It's strange though, you cannot invest so little into a film you're headlining. Seagal, like JCVD, and Dolph, needs to be there for post, and take an active part in making sure it's all done right. When producers interfere and re-cut like that, it's normally because the inititial cut is either awful, or too short, or too long. I suspect it was the first two with KS. Sadly most times they re-cut and re-shoot, they make things worse. It just seems a bare minimum of effort with Seagal to come in, do his 20 days of shooting, and then leave the film behind. Or maybe the companies don't care enough to add in reshoot, re-dub, clauses.
 

shirlgirl13

New Member
\the Onion Movie

I recently purchased the "ONION MOVIE". that was the worst thing I think I have ever seen. Why would Steven lower himself to even be in that??
 

seagalfan128

New Member
Just watched Kill Switch, and I'm sorry I did. Kill Switch, from start to finish, was just awful. I mean, this film really was trash, with no exaggeration. In all aspects of the film, acting, editing, cinematography, dialogue, Kill Switch is by far Seagal's worst. Then again, having never seen Flight of Fury, I would definitely consider this in line with Attack Force as Seagal's worst.

Should I even say Seagal? I really shouldn't, seeing as the total screen time of the actual Seagal is only about 45 minutes. It's truly pathetic how often we see Seagal's stunt double. Every fight scene is long and dragged out, boring and repetitive, as well as unwatchable because the editor felt it was necessary to jump cut every half second for "stylish" purposes. Besides Seagal's stunt double being seen so frequent, we also hear Seagal being dubbed about every other line. And for no reason either. There is no reason why Seagal needs to be dubbed for the scenes he's in. It's just poor production. And his voice overs sound nothing like him, as usual.

And why does Seagal feel the need to talk like he's a black man raised in the south. He's not. He's a white boy from Michigan. I don't understand why Seagal does that. He's not black, he's not a rapper, it's not cool. He sounds dumb when he says "right quick" or "Lo'rd have mercy!" It's one thing to spit out those phrases while singing the blues, but he really needs to drop the charming, bluesman wannabe black act fast...like right quick fast.

The action, like I said, is too long, dragged on, repetitive...just really bad. The gun fights are stupid. Why do directors of recent Seagal movies have extended gun fights where nobody gets shot, but the people just continue to fire for minutes long. At one point, all you hear are bullets, and the gun sound effects are childish.

Basically, this movie was shot, produced, and edited by a 16 year old. It's awful from start to finish, and basically unwatchable. I KNOW you will all be disappointed with this stinker.
 

Kotegashi

Master Of Disaster
Staff member
seagalfan128;189383 said:
Why do directors of recent Seagal movies have extended gun fights where nobody gets shot, but the people just continue to fire for minutes long.

Well, perhaps they do because it's more realistic?

Did you know that in a gun fight about 99% of the bullets don't hit the intended target due to enormous stress levels and adrenaline levels during a gun fight? I believe it was in WWII there were about 70.000 bullets fired for every hit.

In KS you see the shooters coming out of cover, quickly shooting a few rounds and then duck for cover again.

Even Seagal doesn't break cover enough to aim carefully and give a direct hit.


Okay, the shoot-out is perhaps a bit too long but it's more realistic then the one shot one kill shoot-outs.

Peace
 

rastafari

Well-Known Member
seagalfan128;189383 said:
Just watched Kill Switch, and I'm sorry I did. Kill Switch, from start to finish, was just awful. I mean, this film really was trash, with no exaggeration. In all aspects of the film, acting, editing, cinematography, dialogue, Kill Switch is by far Seagal's worst. Then again, having never seen Flight of Fury, I would definitely consider this in line with Attack Force as Seagal's worst.

Should I even say Seagal? I really shouldn't, seeing as the total screen time of the actual Seagal is only about 45 minutes. It's truly pathetic how often we see Seagal's stunt double. Every fight scene is long and dragged out, boring and repetitive, as well as unwatchable because the editor felt it was necessary to jump cut every half second for "stylish" purposes. Besides Seagal's stunt double being seen so frequent, we also hear Seagal being dubbed about every other line. And for no reason either. There is no reason why Seagal needs to be dubbed for the scenes he's in. It's just poor production. And his voice overs sound nothing like him, as usual.

And why does Seagal feel the need to talk like he's a black man raised in the south. He's not. He's a white boy from Michigan. I don't understand why Seagal does that. He's not black, he's not a rapper, it's not cool. He sounds dumb when he says "right quick" or "Lo'rd have mercy!" It's one thing to spit out those phrases while singing the blues, but he really needs to drop the charming, bluesman wannabe black act fast...like right quick fast.

The action, like I said, is too long, dragged on, repetitive...just really bad. The gun fights are stupid. Why do directors of recent Seagal movies have extended gun fights where nobody gets shot, but the people just continue to fire for minutes long. At one point, all you hear are bullets, and the gun sound effects are childish.

Basically, this movie was shot, produced, and edited by a 16 year old. It's awful from start to finish, and basically unwatchable. I KNOW you will all be disappointed with this stinker.

i agree with most of that apart from the cinematography which i thought was decent
 

fakeshemp

Hard To Kill
This is easily one of Steven's worst movies, almost on a par with Attack Force. It's badly written (sorry Steven), poorly edited (the constant jump cuts are annoying) and the use of doubles and dubbing is constantly distracting. I don't think I'll ever understand how Steven can put his name to a script as well as star in a mess like this. It's easy to assume that he just can't be bothered (Kill Switch and other recent movies have shown that Steven doesn't have much of an interest in post-prodyction work) but what about the last two films which seemed to demonstrate that Steven wanted to make better films? Were they flukes?

The story itself is pretty dire. It's a substandard serial killer movie which is filled with cliches we've seen way too many times before. Steven's cop character is laughably bad...does anyone still believe that movie cops can get away with beating suspects and kicking them through windows without being kicked off the force? If it was a tongue-in-cheek action movie like Action Jackson I could accept it but it's completely out of place in a movie that's going for a Se7en vibe. The fight scenes are way too long and laughably bad as shots constantly switch between Steven and his stunt double. So there you go...no good action scenes, a story that was old a decade ago, and not even adequately made.
 

Kotegashi

Master Of Disaster
Staff member
fakeshemp;189417 said:
This is easily one of Steven's worst movies, almost on a par with Attack Force.

You have got to be joking, right?

This movie (even with the lousy editing and crappy doubles) is way better then AF, OFAK and FOF.

Why? Because:
- The storyline is plain and simple and easy to follow.
- No horrific foreign actors that are overacting
- Seagal seems to be putting somewhat of an effort in acting
- No bad SFX (there are simply no SFX)
- No Stockfootage
- Not too much cheap looking scenery
- Decent soundtrack


This is what sets it apart from AF, OFAK and FOF.

Peace
 

Martin01

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Kotegashi;189421 said:
You have got to be joking, right?

This movie (even with the lousy editing and crappy doubles) is way better then AF, OFAK and FOF.

Why? Because:
- The storyline is plain and simple and easy to follow.
- No horrific foreign actors that are overacting
- Seagal seems to be putting somewhat of an effort in acting
- No bad SFX (there are simply no SFX)
- No Stockfootage
- Not too much cheap looking scenery
- Decent soundtrack


This is what sets it apart from AF, OFAK and FOF.

Peace

I agree with you! Not nearly as good as the last 2 but actually an OK movie.
 

rastafari

Well-Known Member
Kotegashi;189421 said:
You have got to be joking, right?

This movie (even with the lousy editing and crappy doubles) is way better then AF, OFAK and FOF.

Why? Because:
- The storyline is plain and simple and easy to follow.
- No horrific foreign actors that are overacting
- Seagal seems to be putting somewhat of an effort in acting
- No bad SFX (there are simply no SFX)
- No Stockfootage
- Not too much cheap looking scenery
- Decent soundtrack


This is what sets it apart from AF, OFAK and FOF.

Peace

seagals looks bored in this film and the energy of UJ and PW has gone
 

supertom

Disgruntled fan!
I think KS is far worse than AF and FOF. Mainly because, while AF and FOF are technically even worse, they are completely laughable, so bad it's good in many ways. They're funny to watch. KS happens to be one of those really bad films that just isn't funny and only gives you a searing headache.
 
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