Out for a Kill (2003)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Continuing with Seagal Month, "Out for a Kill" from 2003 is among the few movies he's made for Millennium Films. Budgeted at $14 million, this has better production values than "Flight of Fury" and that's not saying much. Clocking in at around 90 minutes, this feels like a four-hour biology lecture.Our portly Buddha white boy plays Robert Burns (not the late production designer on the original "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"), an unorthodox professor who wears leather coats on digging expeditions because he's cool. Or he might be covering his enormous gut whichever you figure out. After discovering ancient Chinese artifacts, Seagal finds himself chased by a million bad guys in a poorly-choreographed car chase where his female partner is murdered. He reaches the border and gets framed in this low-budget rendition of "Midnight Express." While spending a short amount of time in prison, Seagal befriends a stereotypical black guy who doesn't have anything to do with this film. Upon his release Seagal reunites with his wife whose also forgotten about and is killed in a superimposed explosion. Predictably, Seagal goes on a violent killing spree breaking the arms of every nameless Chinese extra in a series of over-the-top fight scenes that are desperately mimicking "The Matrix." The film is padded with scenes of the villain and his men sitting in a long table with subtitles and title cards galore reminding us of their dastardly deeds. "Out for a Kill" is sleazy-looking for a direct-to-DVD action film and does it show. The computer-generated effects are the most horrible I've ever seen and so are the unconvincing backdrops. I swear, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" has Oscar-caliber FX and producing design compared to this. And the editing is like Paul W.S. Anderson on cocaine. The below-average but great-to-laugh-at fight scenes aren't any better. The good news is Seagal is doubled much less. But the bad news is that they are poorly edited to the max. However, Seagal's performance doesn't fare better as his voice constantly changes from his own to someone else. Also noted is that Seagal is filmed in the shadows to hide his oily skin and multiple chins. That is a prime example of laziness at its highest form. The other actors are even worse. Michelle Goh may be attractive but her performance is awful, awful, awful. Corey Johnson is only in the film until he's bumped off and collects a paycheck.Did I mention that "Out for a Kill" is terrible? No. But it is. And at least it wasn't a stock footage movie.

The picture starts with a brooding phrase : 'All warfare is based on the art of deception'. Robert Burns(Steven Seagal) is a professor of archeology, happily married(Kata Dobo), making excavations in Eastern China. When he discovers the existence a Chinese mob using archaeological pieces for drugs smuggling, the Chinese authorities suspect on Burns and is taken prisoner. He gets the freedom and returns US looking for vengeance. Meanwhile a group of Chinese mobsters encounter in Paris, it's the beginning of a new era. As Sai Li controls shipment in the French heroin market; Tang Zhili controls entire N.Y. drug conglomerate; Yin Qunshi from Sofia controls Eastern European drug cartel; Libo controls Shangai drug exports; Fang Lee from Paris , aka the Barber, controls Paris drug cartel, known to hire unique assassins; Mr Chang controls London drug money. Like all great conglomerates around the world, Chinese families are merging. An united Tong is powerful enough to push other syndicates out of business and will come a day when the Chinese families control entire market. The mobsters take special care so that nothing and no one interferes with a historic event, it will be the most important business transaction in the history of the Chinese family. Robert Burns is helped by two Dea agents, Tommie Ling(Michelle Goh) and Ed Grey(Corey Johnson).Tammie Ling based in Hong Kong investigates narcotics and other related crimes, assigned to work with an American agent, they have been in six countries in international drug ring. Burns gets a books of addresses in code, an ancient Chinese system used by messengers to the emperor, on the arm of every Chinese Tong member is tattooed a symbol from the emperor's code. Decoded and getting the boss'emperor, Wong Dai(Chooi Beh). Then Robert vow revenge and seeks the location of Sai lo(Ping Tang) the man who killed his wife. Si-Lo is using an old building in a laundry of Paris. Si-Lo made one very big mistake, he touched the most sacred thing in Burns'life, killing his wife and Robert is forced to dig two graves.The film packs lots of noisy action, thrills and violence, but doesn't quite hang together. Wooden Seagal is efficient at dispatching the enemy, he kicks, punches, wags and uses blades against the nasties villains. The fight scenes are middling-choreographed and violent, flowing much blood . May be predictable , especially the graphic violence , but the action is fast though with no sense. This film belongs the Seagal's last period when he's doing low budget and direct to video films, such as 'Flight of fury, Mercenary of justice, Submerged, Belly of beast, Ticker', among others. The motion picture is badly directed by Michael Oblowitz who also directed him in 'Out for kill and The foreigner'.

It is good to see Seagal at work. No matter what his debt to the mob he still is fun to watch. I like movies without too much tension, where I know the good guy wins. So for my simple tastes the movie was fun.Years ago, I thought Seagal had the fastest hands in martial arts movies. Unfortunately, he has not received the recognition that other martial arts stars have.Many times a star is the same personality in all his or her movies. Such as John Wayne or Chackie Chan. It just becomes a matter of what stars you can identify with. When Arnold says, " I'll be back!" You have to be glad he is coming back.

Out for a Kill starts in China somewhere at an archaeological dig where Chinese archaeological expert Professor Robert Burns (producer Steven Seagal) is running things, however his crocked boss Sai Lo (Hon Ping Tang) is an international drug smuggler & using archaeological artefact's dug up by Burns has a nice line in drug smuggling going on. However Burns finds out that he & his dig is being used to smuggle drugs & isn't happy about it, he tries to escape to the border but the bad guy's shoot dead his pretty female assistant, then he is arrested & framed for the drug smuggling himself but is let free when two international DEA agents want to follow him in the hope he'll lead them to the big boss. Unfortunately the big boss doesn't want Burns complicating things so he has Burns wife blown up, big mistake because the bad guy's have framed him for drug smuggling, they killed his assistant & now they have blown his wife up. Burns decides to dish out a little vengeance...This American Aruba co-production was directed by Michael Oblowitz & is yet another terrible straight-to-video/DVD Seagal action flick which almost defies words. The script by Dennis Dimster is simply terrible, Out for a Kill is one of those films which on paper sounds OK & is a film you need to experience to get just how bad it is, nothing I write will properly convey how bad this film is. The films as a whole is utterly predictable, it makes absolutely no sense, the character's are awful (Steven Seagal as a archaeological Professor? Ha, ha, ha, ha!) the plot is awful, the dialogue is awful, the pacing is awful, the narrative is awful, the fights are awful & to try & illustrate how stupid it is for some bizarre reason all the bad guy's have tattoo's on their wrist's which when combined spell out some sort of cryptic message & it's just hilariously bad & a real chore to sit through. I honestly don't know how to convince you that Out for a Kill is as bad as I suggest, without actually seeing it which I don't recommend you'll just have take my word for it & if you do decide to watch it don't say you weren't warned!Director Oblowitz does nothing to make this watchable, the plot is a mess the use of slow motion is just annoying, there are random scenes of strippers which ordinarily wouldn't be a bad thing but here they are literally just randomly inserted, the fights are poor with Seagal's opponents doing all the fancy kicks & twirls only for Seagal to just stand there & when attacked just knock the guy out with the least amount of fuss. What the hell is that guy who can crawl across walls all about? The film also has the annoying habit of putting a caption on screen to indicate the time & location which becomes irritating & is utterly pointless. The action scenes are poor, the film is unexciting & Seagal is just out of shape & too fat.Who on Earth keeps giving $20,000,000 to Seagal to make a film? I don't know if that figure offered up by the IMDb is correct but there's no way this looks like it had 20 big ones spent on it, it's terrible & the CGI computer effects shots look awful. Shot in Sofia in Bulgaria. The acting is awful although Michelle Goh is a pretty hot looking chick. Seagal mumbles his way through the film as usual & is terrible as usual.Out for a Kill is an awful action film that isn't unintentionally funny enough to to be watchable, it's hard to explain in words how bad this film is. Not recommend even to Seagal fans if any still exist.