Out For A Kill

It's about time I started getting around to the Seagal movies. This is an odd one to start out with though. It's one of the DTV ones, and not even one of the more recent ones. Just a completely random one. I think this movie is from that period where Seagal was releasing 4 or 5 movies each year. It was fun because I was working at a video store at the time and we seemed to get a new Seagal movie every few weeks. There were the rare movies that almost nobody on the staff watched.

This wasn't my first venture into the world of Seagal DTV movies, but I don't remember much about the other ones. This one isn't exactly the terrible mess I was expecting, but it's certainly not a very good movie. I think the title is probably the best part. It makes the murders sound very casual.

What's interesting about this movie, as well as all of the ones Seagal does these days, is how little Seagal really does these days. Usually a stunt double does all of the fighting, and sometimes Seagal's voice is even completely dubbed over. So I guess they're just hiring him for the name now? Granted I guess he has a hand in a lot of the stories but still. 

At least in Out For A Kill he does seem to be using his own voice. He even does a good chunk of his own fighting. There are a couple of shots where it's a very obvious stuntman, but usually you can tell it's Seagal, so kudos there I guess. It's kind of strange that a movie gets extra points for its action star actually appearing in it and doing his own talking, but Seagal calls for special circumstances.

There is some action here, and for a DTV movie some of it is pretty good. Of course when judging a DTV movie, you have to cut it some slack. There's a few good fights here and there, especially in the second half. However the overall movie is pretty dull. Seagal does indeed step out for a few kills, but a lot of the movie is just him out for a conversation. Plus it goes without saying the acting isn't terrific, but again, it's ok.

There are of course the moments of unintentional humour you'll find in most of the later Seagal pictures. Often times a stunt is put in slow motion that in no way deserves it. Things like jumping. Apparently they were so fucking amped about jumping that we just had to see it again. There's also a funny moment where Seagal's character is in jail and his cellmate starts to tell him the story about how he got there, only for the movie to cut him off mid-sentence and move on to something else. Plus just the idea of Seagal playing a Harvard (or maybe it was Yale...something prestigious anyway) professor is funny by itself.

Out For A Kill is actually a better movie than I ever could have expected. That being said it's still not very good. Mediocre story, mediocre acting and a lot of slow patches lead to this one being slightly above watchable.

5.5/10