My Detailed Review of Out For A Kill
Out For A Kill Review
Story:
The movie offered the viewers the same old revenge scenario, and nothing more.
Character Development:
The writers choose not to spend much time introducing us to the main characters, and decided to start the film with the threat, which just like a chain reaction caused other events to take place throughout the movie. I would have liked instead if the movie briefly introduced us to Steven Segal’s character the archeology professor. This movie avoided character development, and the outcome is that we are left staring at the same Steven Segal. The Patriot tried character development, and I think it succeeded. But The Patriot had so many other flaws, that I just didn’t appreciate the overall attempt at the character development in the end. The Professors wife is a perfect example of no character development. As soon as we are introduced to the wife, she is killed in an explosion. I mean character development could have made scenes such as Professors wife and assistant getting killed more dramatic. How do the writers expect us to show any emotions towards these characters if they only get two seconds of screen time….
The Director:
The director Michael Oblowitz in the end is not completely incompetent. But he needs to stop relying on other films to make his own better. He decided to use slow motion once again for the fight scenes, that I felt didn’t work most of the time. He also sped up a few scenes such as the car chase, which once again I felt wasn’t needed and was quite distracting as well. The problem I have with this director is that he takes certain ideas from other films/directors, and uses them in his own to enhance certain scenes. While many people do this, I just felt that this director fell short of his own expectations. For example the “Bullet Time Sequence” only looks good the first time, but so many movies are now using this technique that it just doesn’t look special anymore. Also the flashback scene went on for to long, and the background made this scene unbearable. Quentin Tarantino is a genius when it comes to flashback scenes, but Michael Oblowitz is not. While I think that Michael Oblowitz should be blamed for majority of things, he is not responsible for Steven Segal’s deciding to be in this film. The decision was Segal’s, and I am quite sure that he was aware that the movie was a failure from the start. An advise to Michael Oblowitz would be to find his own technique. His own individual style, and maybe then his craft will make it to theatres.
Steven Segal:
We received an emotionless performance from Steven Segal this time around. While Steven Segal received opportunities in the past to show us that he can act and even handle drama well, this time the script didn’t work in his favor. Steven Segal chooses these projects, and maybe its time he needs to reconsider a few things. He needs a project that will help his career rather than bring it down. I think because Steven Segal doesn’t care about the state of his shape and his career anymore that he makes films like these.
The Two Agents:
I found these characters to be quite annoying. While the female agent wasn’t that annoying, her partner was indeed that way. The actor that played him delivered a terrible performance. He tried being serious, funny, and dramatic but failed terribly. And the most annoying scene in the entire film is when he and his female partner are laughing, looking upon Steven Segal flying the plane.
Action:
This movie offered us more action sequences than any Steven Segal film in years. But the real question is how good are these scenes? Great in number but not so great in quality. While the fight scenes offered us glimpses of power, technique, and great choreography, but they were flawed in the end. The slow motion, the sped up scenes, the wire work, and MB in the director’s chair didn’t help to make these scenes any better. I felt that the fight scenes relied to much on Steven Segal throwing people around for affect, rather than showing him using technique to defeat the enemy. There were occasional glimpses of good hand-to-hand combat, and even a nice kick from Steven Segal. But all the negative factors mentioned above, had caused majority of the action to be unbearable to watch.
The Comedy:
The movie did offer us occasional comical relief to distract us from the overall failure of a film. The male agent tried to be funny several times, but failed miserably in my eyes. There was a funny scene involving the boss sitting at an empty table stating that he will take care of Segal himself after ten of his man have failed to do so. Another funny scene was the scene where Segal enters a gambling den and a girl states that he doesn’t look like he is here for mahjong. Very rarely there are films that have a perfect balance of drama and comedy, this was not one of them.
The Drama:
The writers could have added more dramatic moments to this film. I for one do not believe that The Professor who used to be a thief could just go out and kill so many people without showing any remorse for his acts. Maybe if there were more dramatic presence we wouldn’t be just looking at a character that travels to different countries killing everyone like a robot. I feel there should be more drama because of the mood of the film, and more dramatic scenes would help Steven Segal to show us that he is indeed capable of handling such a serious subject. Were we supposed to fell sorry for the male agent when he got shot? Well I didn’t simply because the movie introduced us to him as a bad guy in a way. The writers want us to feel sorry for him in one scene, and then hate him in the next. That simply doesn’t work in a movie like this. Also the scenes with the Professors assistant and his wife being killed are also supposed to be dramatic, but the lack of character development made me not care.
Locations:
For a film that took place partially in Paris, the movie didn’t offer us much visually. The director choose to shoot the ending of the film in a rather boring looking building rather than use some other visually spectacular location. Michael Oblowitz needs to watch films like Frantic to learn how to use the location to add that special touch to the film.
Special Effects:
The Special Effects in this movie were quite average, and also tended to be ridiculous at times. The house explosion is an example of low budget special effects at work. While I do realize that this movie only had a budget of 20-25 million, the Foreigner offered us better effects altogether with the same budget.
P.S After reading this review you might come the conclusion that I despise this film, but I did enjoy parts(short) of it. Here a question that we should ask ourselves: What can save Steven Segal’s career? Two simple words: Ringo Lam. He is a spectacular director that directed such epic films as: City on Fire, Prison on Fire, Full Contact, and Victim. This director saved Jean Claude Van Damme’s career three times. And he did that with three low budget films. We can only hope that Steven Segal will make that film.
Action Sequences Listed Below:
1.Car Chase-Short:
* “Bullet Time Sequence”
2.Funeral Home Fight:
*S.S uses two sticks to defend himself
*S.S fighting with a sword
3.Fight in a Restaurant Against Three Thugs:
*Almost the entire fight was slow motion
*Also shoots one thug with a gun
4. Barber Shop Fight:
*While the scenes with the Monkey Man flying around looked fake, the brief hand exchange in the beginning was quite good.
5. Half Moon Restaurant Fight:
*Has a brief exchange with three thugs
*Key Line: “This man doesn’t look like he is here for the mahjong”
*Chases one of the bosses and uses a rope to lift him to the second floor. After that he has a brief hand-to-hand exchange(Fast Motion), and sends the boss out the window.
6. Steven Segal climbs a building
7. Fight in another Building:
*Steven Segal briefly fights two thugs
*The female cop fights with a women
8. The female cop shoots one or two thugs and kicks another one
9. Car Chase #2:
*To many cuts, and fast motion
10. Laundry Fight with Another Boss:
*Good moment when Steven Segal’s fist connected with the thug’s
11. Gun Fight-Brief:
*Steven Segal shoots two thugs
12. End Confrontation:
*Brief exchange with four thugs.
*Throws the sword out the window, which cuts the boss’s head
Other Action:
*The Shootout(Basically lots of Asian thugs killing a bunch of people in a nightclub)
*The Plane Scene
*House Blowing Up.
P.S My DVD wasn't working properly in one spot. Was there a fight between Segal and three thugs in a hallway right before the female cop went in to the Tattoo Parlor?