Out for a Kill

Plot synopsis:
This Steven Seagal thriller sees Wong Dai (Chooi Kheng Beh), an influential Chinese drug kingpin, sitting at a long table in an old building in Paris, France, going through the motions of a gigantic merger between himself and several other major Chinese drug dealers.
Sai Lo (Hon Ping Tang) controls shipments in the French heroin market in Paris, using laundromats all over Paris as a front.
Tang "The Bird" Zhili (Bruce Wang) controls the entire New York drug conglomerate from the Chinatown section of New York, and runs Mahjong gambling rackets.
Yin Quinshi (Dave Wong) of Sofia, Bulgaria, controls an Eastern European drug cartel.
Li Bo (Tom Wu) controls drug exports in Shanghai, China, and has a penchant for French restaurants.
Fang "The Barber" Lee (Ozzie Yue) controls a drug cartel in Paris, France, and he is known to hire unique assassins. And Mr. Chang (Chuke Chan) controls drug money in London, England. Yale University archaeology professor Robert Burns (Steven Seagal), who has just recently won the Winthrop Award for excellence in archaeology, stumbles onto the fact that his expedition to China, near the China/Kazakhstan border, is being used by Wong as a cover for a drug smuggling operation.
Realizing the danger of sticking around, Burns and his assistant, Luo Yi (Elaine Tan), make a run for it, but in the resulting gunfight, Yi is killed.
When Burns reaches the border, he finds that Wong's smugglers have set him up for smuggling the drugs. Burns lands in a Chinese prison, framed for drug running.
Burns is questioned by Chinese narcotics cop Tommie Ling (Michelle Goh) and DEA agent Ed Gray (Corey Johnson), who want to release him and use him as bait to nail the drug smugglers.
Burns, referred to by the Chinese drug barons as the "gweilo Professor", is quickly released and sent to the USA, where he promises Yi's father Luo Dazhong (Vincent Wong) that he will get revenge for Yi's murder, but Wong is not done with Burns yet.
Wong sends hitmen to Burns's house in New Haven, Connecticut to plant a bomb, which explodes and kills Burns's wife Maya (Kata Dobó).
With the two people closest to him dead at the hands of Wong and his minions, and with Tommie and Gray shadowing his every move, Burns is out for revenge.
As it turns out, Burns was not always a Professor. Burns was once a thief of Chinese artefacts, who served time in prison and earned his archaeology degree while in prison. He changed his name and married Maya after he was released.
With his determination to exterminate those who killed Maya, Burns tells Tommie and Gray to stay out of his way, as he cuts a bloody path through Chinatown and across Europe on his way to a confrontation with Wong.

Tags: neo noir, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, revenge

Review:
Naturally, the DEA decides that if they release Burns, he'll do their job for them and take out the Triads, and so Burns is free to on a global stroll of death.Sometimes laughably bad, but generally very cringe-worthy, 'Out for a Kill' is easily one of the worst movies I've seen.
Right from the start when we are treated to poorly done CGI bullet-time, followed by a massive break from action clichés when bullets actually penetrate a car and kill a good guy.
Now, I don't think anyone anywhere has ever watched a Seagal movie expecting a good story, but when there is not enough action to distract us, we will start paying attention to such things.
Throw in a pair of useless and annoying cops who follow Seagal everywhere and many pointless scenes, and you may start to get an idea of how bad this movie really is.There are a few action sequences in the movie, but maybe only two that are of any real worth.
Most of the fights are poorly choreographed and poorly edited, all based around trying to make Seagal look like an action hero while trying to hide the fact that he is still out of shape.
As for Seagal speaking Chinese: it sounds worse than his use of Italian in 'Out for Justice'.'Out for a Kill' is a terrible movie.
All we need is some kind of Rambo-like hero with whom we can identify and, presto, we're there, vicariously getting off as we watch the hero (us) waste the bad guys while the babes swoon.The problems with the formula in Seagal's formula action outing "Out for a Kill" are manifold.
Of course what they didn't know was that the mild mannered and slightly portly Professor was once one the world's greatest thieves and a martial arts expert to boot and, when he is struck, he strikes back.Early on in this film, Professor Burns notes that pilot "Crash" Kupper used to fill proper airplanes and that his current job of flying rubbish little passenger planes shows that his career has really taken a turn for the worse.
About 90 minutes later I couldn't help wonder how many takes they had to do of that scene before they were able to get Seagal to deliver the line without the irony bringing tears to his eyes (although his "highs" were never really that high were they?) because even by his standards "Out for a Kill" is a poor film, whose unimaginative title only hints at the dreariness to come.
The support cast are made up of Asian actors who fill space on the screen and a baddie who we know is a baddie because he spends all his time in a big room, smoking  they must have shot all his scenes in about a week.Overall this is a poor film and even fans of Seagal will struggle to find any value in this one.
What can I say: bad editing (oh and you don't have to be an expert to catch this), terrible acting and dialogue, ridiculous fight scenes, stupid character development and on and on.Seagal must have been short on alimony payments or something to put this mess together and lay it our for viewers.
They try to explain in hindsight where this professor got his superior kung-fu fighting skills, but it works as badly as their attempt to explain how a convict gets a doctorate in archaeology while in prison (without any field work of course).Then there's the simple technical aspects of the film like being in Bulgaria, but all the signs are in English and the people are either Chinese or American.
The fight scenes are either prolonged patty-cake slapping with dubbed bone cracking to the height of dumb with the monkey style kung-fu in the barbershop complete with all the ridiculous gravity defying stunts of Crouching Tiger.I cannot conceive of any audience other than reviewers for the worst film of 2003 that this movie would appeal to..
Great acting, brilliant plot, memorable dialogue, unforgettable music, inspirational directing - Out for a Kill is unquestionably none of these.At least you've got to hand it to Steven Seagal who effortlessly maintains his unassailable position at the absolute pinnacle of the "films guaranteed to bomb" list with this non-performance in this non-film.
(I was tempted to use the word wooden but trees show more expression that Seagal).I swear, throughout this film Seagal's expression never changes.He adopts the same tight lipped expressionless face when his colleague gets shot, his wife gets blown up, he has to fight a man monkey (what the hell was that scene all about), he has to fight the obligatory several dozen Chinese Martial Arts experts armed with swords and guns who are inevitably no match for Steve who can't even be bothered to get up off his arse to fight in one scene and remains seated whilst he counters every punch and blow thrown with his greased lightening hands.I think what happened with this film was, when they swept the cutting room floor up they mistakenly canned and released the rubbish on the floor and threw the film away.
If you were expecting a bad review for this movie look elsewhere because this movie rocks so hard that there is no movie screen on earth big enough to capture it's power.The easiest way to measure a Seagal movie is to apply the "Seagal Movie Checklist" so here it goes:|Arm breaking - Yes | Seagal never gets hit - Yes | Boobs - Yes | Bullet Cam - Yes | SlowMo shots of seagal "powering up" - Yes | Seagal in prison - Yes | Seagal befriending a black inmate and being a true "homeboy" - Yes | His inexplicably hot wife gets whacked sending him on a one man rampage - Yes | Psychedelic prayer scene - No | Decapitations - Yes | Seagal preemptively attacks everyone - Yes |Aside from no psychedelic prayer scene this movie has it all.
I am really sorry, but I do not know where to start pointing out the things that are wrong with this movie.Now don't get me wrong, there have been some good action films, and I do like the genre, but as an action film and a film in general, Out for a Kill ranks towards the bottom of the spectrum.
Steven Seagal looks really unkempt here, and he gives another lazy performance, while Michelle Goh is cursed with some of the worst dialogue of the film and the rest of the supporting cast were pretty much playing themselves.
This phenomenon of poor and unnecessary dialogue continues throughout the entire film.My personal favorite is the Chinese villains whose sole purpose in life is to sit around a table and complain about Seagal's character, especially towards the end when the head of the table started to spouting, "I may have to take care of this, myself." What are you going to do, pal?
Maybe they were aiming for that obvious use of set, obvious use of rear screen projection, etc look and feel that gives Hitchcock films their charms, but it never really came through as much more than effects that exceeded their allotted budget.I remember watching Under Siege, and taking great amusement at Seagal playing a lonely cook  "I'm not even a good cook" classic!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, used to be ex-Seal, special ops guy, legendary convict - somebody who could get the training and experience to be a badass - whatever it was this time around.In the end, Out for a Kill really presses the literal definition in the phrase "mindless entertainment." No, you don't understand: I mean that relatively speaking (ie, for a Steven Seagal film this is mindless .
Steven Seagal has a decent run of action films in the early 1990s with Under Siege being the high point.
The artifacts have been used by the Triad gangs to smuggle drugs and the somehow police think that this award winning expert is behind it and sent to jail.The US cops get him released hoping that he would lead them to the bad guys, but as always Seagal is a man with a shady past and worse his idiocy leads to his wife being killed.
Now he is bent on revenge and no amount of bad CGI will stop him.This is a film if you want to see bad acting, bad dubbing, bad special effects, bad script and to see how the once mighty have fallen.The high point is the monkey style kung fu fight scene..
This movie try to copy a bond film, taking Seagal trough the world as a 008 agent but without the toys and financial support of the British.About the Movie: Seagal plays here the role of Archaeologist professor Robert Burns, excellent in the matter and who received a prize for his discoveries at Yale University.
The story takes place in different parts of the world (like a James Bond movie), specially in Chinatowns of all world.About the Cast: Seagal, terrible!, the Chinese bad guys are the worst actors of all time!, Michelle Goh, beautiful but bad actress, and her DEA partner is even worse than the Chinese; i haven't seen such bad acting in months!
Don't get me wrong, Steven Seagal has made some pretty good movies since Under Siege 2 came out in 1995, but Out For A Kill completely takes the Aikido battling ass kicker to the next level.
Seagal really shows his martial arts talent in this movie, he is so much better then Bruce lee because the proves to be the best martial arts actor ever in film history!
Overall I think it is a good movie, a little like The Foreigner but a different film!
If you are a hard core Steven Seagal fan give Out for a Kill a try because in My opinion its a good Seagal movie!.
Out For A Kill is a very good Martial Arts Thriller starring Steven Seagal as Professor Robert Burns, Michelle Goh as Tommie Ling and Corey Johnson as Ed Grey.
Burns swears revenge on the Chinese gangsters that have framed him.I've stated in my previous reviews that I liked Steven Seagal growing up and he was entertaining to watch around the 1988-1992 era.
I think he may be drinking vinegar before he speaks.There are indeed some good martial arts sequences with Seagal, other than that there is no movie here.Maybe if I smoked a doob it would improve the film for me..
It was one of those rare moments when one finds himself saying, "this is time I'll never get back." Anyone thinking of watching this should quickly consider a lobotomy before hand so as to ease the mental anguish that it will surely engender.If, however, you are a fan of sitting around, drinking heavily and making fun of really terrible movies, this is the one for you.
Perhaps a drinking game involving taking a shot every time something is typed on the screen or every time there is a superfluous slow motion scene, or perhaps even a sudden cut to another country, action scene, or cigar-smoking plotting bad guys for some inexplicable reason.90 minutes of film-making agony, with bad (a.k.a. no) directing, childish editing, and over-acting (except Seagal, who if he were less animated, we'd be forced to check his vitals).
New Steven Seagal movie at the video store.Out for a Kill.Nice title.Good cover.Looks like throw-back to the good old days of Out for Justice and The Glimmer man.WRONG on all counts.This time around Stevie is an ass-kicking archaeologist named Burns who runs afoul of the Chinese Mob who make life a hell for Burns and his family involving a framing,Prison,and the death off his loved ones.He promptly joins up with Chinise cops and a Dea agent for some righteous pay-back.This is a different approach to a Seagal flick...That does not work.The fight scenes are ludicrous and laughable most of the time.The editing is very choppy.There is one fight with a monkey type guy where Seagal is sitting down for the whole fight.And never taking one shot.The bad guys are a round table-type of crew that snicker and smirk like they came right out of an Austin Powers movie.Ditto for the supporting cast.The script has the worst Dialogue of recent Seagal flicks.Seagal has let himself go.I can understand he is no spring chicken anymore.But at least get into shape.Whats with the dubbing of his voice?He is on auto-pilot here.The only thing I recommend is the visuals for OFAK.It has a nice dark feel.I would have thought Director Michael Oblowitz and Seagal would have made amends for the debacle that was the Foreigner.Nope.Oblowitz has went downhill as well since his underrated Vampire flick,The Breed..
When drug barons, frame him, our stout sensei quietly does his time in prison (the prison scenes do nothing to further the plot, but pad out the already 'slim' running time) but when released, the bad guys kill his wife........STEVEN SEAGAL is OUT FOR A KILL!
On paper, this sounds great, but SEAGAL has chose to work again with hack director MICHAEL OBLOWITZ (who directed the slightly less inept THE FOREIGNER) and this film is as simplistic, as the previous movie was complicated.
This goes on (and on and on and on) until SEAGAL squares up with MR BIG (tm) On a positive side, their are some good(ish) fight scenes (mostly doubled) and the film looks OK, but the plot (or lack of it) are terrible.
4.) The sound is terribly poor & the music drowns the dialogue& finally 5.) The American & Hong Kong DEA Agents seemed a very pointless addition to the plot- just walking in and out on every dead body.These 5 points seem to be in each of Steve's Movies since 'Exit Wounds' and really get on my nerves, But I'm still a Seagal Fan and will continue going to Blockbusters' bottom shelf and renting his latest.P.S 'Belly of the Beast' which came out after this- is much better!I'm looking forward to 'Out Of Reach' but my expectations are sadly lowering with each new releaseMy Rating **1/2 out of ***** or 6/10.
i expected normal action movie, while the incompetent director guided me through the most stupid plot with even more stupid dialogues.i really do not know how it happened that seagal accepted acting here.
I have been a faithful Seagal fan for quite some time, owning all his movies on DVD.This film is horrible!
The first fight scene with the swords was decent....then the Matrix style fighting and the Crouching Tiger climbing walls was very out of place and unexplained.I agree with many people here that this has to be the worst Seagal film to date....Any movie that requires almost 20 Location Graphics obviously has a problem with a flowing storyline, watch out for one scene where Seagal takes over a small plane...the agents one the ground are clearly BADLY Chroma keyed....Only for Die-Hard Seagal Fans...and even then...it's a stretch..
this film embarasses seagal and frankly i think after making this movie he deserves to have such a lousy career.
Immediately after watching it, I had to put in "Fire Down Below" just to feel like Seagal was still the man.I know the man is getting older, but he's still capable of putting out good movies (Exit Wounds being a good example).
That's how bad it is.If one's life depended upon finding some positive note to this film, it would be Michelle Goh who plays Tommie Ling, an undercover DEA agent who seems to follow Seagal's character around the world trying to collect enough evidence to put an end to the `evil cartel'.
An 'anti' film if there was ever one, everything that's wrong with a picture.Seagal (an award-winning Professor of Archeology in this movie) is too old and too fat to be convincing - he's rarely seen moving on screen (much less running).
maybe i need to have my head examined,but i thought this was a decent enough Steven Seagal flick.no,it won't win any awards,and yes there are a lot of logic gaps,but honestly there are a lot worse movies inflicted on the public than this.there is more than enough action in my mind,and the fight sequences were not horrible by any stretch.you will really have to stretch you suspension of disbelief here though if you want to buy Seagal as an archaeologist.but as a time waster,you could do worse than this,in my opinion.and besides it's less than ninety minutes long,so it's not like you're losing a big chunk of your life.for me,Out for a Kill is a 5/10.
What keeps this movie going is Steven Seagal with a lot of kick-ass fighting scenes with some real cool action visuals and adds a good acting performance to all the B-rated acting.
Overall, this movie is for Seagal fans as far as his kick-ass fighting scenes and not for those expecting much plot and great acting which will only get from Seagal himself.My Full Rating System Story: C Acting: B Direction: B Visuals: A Overall Grade: B.
Seagal still has some of the greatest martial arts moves ever, but his acting in this movie is really, really dark and mysterious.....which in my opinion, makes it the great film that it is.My Rating (10 being the highest) 10 out of 10rated R for strong violence, some language, and brief nudity.
Great Martial Arts by Steven Seagal like ALWAYS!!!
Okay, if you are a hardcore Steven Seagal fan, watch this movie once - otherwise, don't waste your time!
I think the man is a great action flick hero and he fights like no other; however, this movie was so poorly filmed it almost made me sick.
If you are a die-hard Seagal fan, watch the movie just to say you have seen it; otherwise, do not waste your time!.
Like other 2003 action flicks, Seagal is able to look good thanks to careful camera angles, editing, and stunt work.