- Directed by Michael Oblowitz
- August 19, 2003
A university professor is the unwitting accomplice in a foiled Chinese cocaine deal so he must escape jail to take his revenge and prove his innocence.
The elements of Out for a Kill sound like they were thought up by a 5th grader after binging so-bad-they-are-good 80s movies. Or just really bad ones. Depends on your tastes. Steven Seagal stars as Prof. Robert Burns, an American professor of Chinese archaeology who before he became a professor of Chinese archaeology was one of the greatest priceless art thieves ever. After spending seven years in jail he created a new identity and now teaches. Smooth transition there.
Steven Seagal engages in his usual slap fighting and even does it at one point while sitting down. At least part of the time in that moment. If he were in better shape then the moment might get to action comedy. But given his heft and later use of body doubles for things like going up steps it just looks lazy here.
What we get in Out for a Kill amounts to a series of random fights. If you use a videogame analogy then Burns must fight one character after another to get to the next piece of the puzzle before the final boss. And that’s pretty much what Steven Seagal does. Burns said in the film he could do the investigation better than the cops. He does no investigation which makes me wonder what the cops would actually do in the mind of Steven Seagal.
It’s Steven Seagal versus the Chinese drug world as they’re trying to merge into one happy family. Why he would get framed for drug smuggling doesn’t make too much sense. And when you find out why it makes even less sense. Apparently back in his criminal days Burns was a real a bad ass. And drug kingpin Wong Dai (Chooi Kheng Beh) maybe found out about it. Wong Dai decides to use Burns to take out the other kingpins. The thing is that worked only if Burns got out of prison and chunky monkey didn’t die of a heart attack or get killed by one of the other kingpins.
In an attempt to make the villain sound deep and intelligent as well as to do the same for Seagal, there’s quotations of Chinese philosophy and apparently the tattoos the assorted henchmen are tidbits of the same. Some kind of massive clue I guess about what’s going on before Mr. Burns meets the final boss like in this videogame puzzle.
Take out the slow motion and this thing easily falls below the 90-minute mark. Slow motion when used appropriately can add impact to a scene. When used excessively it becomes an unintended joke and communicates to the viewer that there isn’t much really to what they’re watching even if it is a shallow action film.
This was made somewhere in Eastern Europe meaning the moments in China are accomplished with a yellowish/burnt orange filter. That was acceptable. What was not acceptable was calling a terra cotta saucer bought at any store an ancient Chinese artifact. They needed to show how bad the villains were but they could have done something better then have them break cheap pottery. And why does so much happen in strip clubs in Steven Seagal movies. The opening scene is in a strip club! Does he think that much intersects with jiggly rooms?
The directing by Michael Oblowitz is competent. He knew what he was doing and managed to scale up something that did not deserve it and is ultimately trash. Not too good but better-than-it-should-be good. It doesn’t get to guilty pleasure level for an action fan. It doesn’t even drift closer to Seagal’s glory days than it does to the present.
Out for a Kill is an action movie with an out of shape former star thinking he still has it. Find something else.
Warren Watched A Movie 