Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

CAUTION: Plot spoilers present.Esteemed archaeologist Robert Burns is shocked to discover that someone had been using the artefacts he had dug up to transport drugs. Panicking, he & his assistant make for the Chinese border but on the way there the assistant is killed by a stray bullet. Sent to jail, Burns is then released by the CIA as bait for the owner of the drugs – the Chinese mafia. Burns is reluctant to play along but when his wife is killed in a failed attempt on his life, Burns decides to single-handedly take on & defeat the Chinese mobsters.Ever since his 1988 debut in ABOVE THE LAW, Steven Seagal has been one of the 1990s' action icons – a master of the brutal martial art of Aikido & part-time police officer in real life. But during the late 1990s, his career started to decline. He briefly turned to DTV land but after a brief return to the big league, Seagal ended up stuck in DTV wasteland for the remainder of the decade.Before I get into the review for Out for a Kill, let me point out that I am not Seagal's biggest fan nor his harshest critic. He has made some decent films – the best being UNDER SIEGE – but he is not particularly good as an action hero. His brutal martial arts moves are so sadistic that they are a source of amusement for those who like brutal action (including myself) but Seagal has resulted in some real abominations – particularly the 1998 flop The Patriot. Having said that, his weakest pre-2003 films has been unfairly maligned – TICKER was a reasonable thriller if one goes into it with the right state of mind; HALF PAST DEAD was trashed by almost everyone but was entertaining in a dumb sort of way & THE FOREIGNER was average but not bad.Out for a Kill is perhaps one of the worst action films I have seen in quite some time. The film is the second pairing of Seagal & The Foreigner director Michael Oblowitz & has been almost a complete disaster. Judging by what I saw on screen, it seems likely that a lot of the dialogue has been replaced by ADR looping since most of the actors (namely Seagal) end up being obscured by odd camera angles while speaking (perhaps the original dialogue was changed for some reason) & the film's pacing borders on the cinematically schizophrenic. This has been done before on other films, but not to the destructive extent it has here.The film is beset by other problems as well. The plot is almost incomprehensible to understand & has clearly been put together in post. The acting is almost universally poor – chief villain Chooi Kheng Beh spends his role mainly sitting at a meeting room chair spouting stupid lines like "There will come a time when the Chinese (mafia) families will control the entire (drug) market" & lacks sufficient characterisation to be a real threat. The most disturbing part of the film is the poorly-done action scenes, with a couple of real turkeys like the fight between Seagal & a strange assassin who for some reason can climb on walls & keeps scratching his head as if he had a lice problem. The real prize moment of badness comes in the final confrontation where Seagal is stunned by a flashbang bomb & picks up a sword, walks to the window where he spots the villain running to his car & tosses the sword at him, decapitating him from a good ten feet away. I couldn't understand why the assassins all have tattoos revealing codes for the mob's safe but this is a minor problem in a film full of problems.Out for a Kill is only to be enjoyed by those who have been chemically enhanced (I mean drunk or stoned) or those who can survive sitting through a turkey without suffering from badness overload. The worst part of this film is that it was the beginning of a very long road to ruin for Seagal's post-millennial career.

Wow, what can I say, Well I could add all the words of every review written here and the end result would grossly fail to portray just how unbelievably horrible this movie is. But I think I can sum it up in one sentence, here goes, Steven Seagal has officially, undeniably, and irrevocably lost his bad ass status forever. The question that begs answering is how in the hell do movies like this get made in the first place, that means a lot of really untalented people had to be involved in making this. I have a theory: This movie will end up making a lot of money, Why? Because once word gets around about how bad this movie is people will want to see it to believe it. Furthermore, this movie will assuredly take its place at film schools around the world when a reference or illustration as to what not to do in movie making is needed. Too bad cause I really liked him, but he has shamelessly and sadly reduced himself to nothing more than a laughing stock has-been. The only reason I made it more than 5 minutes into this movie was because I really wanted to see just how bad it was and I can honestly say on that note the movie really delivered. On a good note, at least this movie will be able to inspire future film makers because if a movie like this can get made, then even the worst of the aspiring film makers out there will have hope at achieving success and probably have a really good shot at making it. I really hope Seagal stops embarrassing himself, maybe stop with the movies and get back in the gym so he can loose the trench-coat that pathetically tries to hide the fact that he has lost his bad ass status only to replace it with an equal amount of weight. Seriously man stop embarrassing yourself.

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.