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(More customer reviews)The career of action film star Steven Seagal has had enough ups and downs to appear like a rollercoaster ride in one of any hundred theme parks across the country. Beginning in 1988 with ABOVE THE LAW, Seagal burst upon the scene as a martial arts master in a film that featured plot, good acting and enough action that involved non-hand to hand combat to keep audiences screaming for more.
With each new film, Seagal developed more mystery about his personal life, played roles that were a little deeper and eventually was able to parlay his clout to make films that followed items dear to his heart. Unfortunately the more he did so, the smaller the crowds to his films.
In recent years Seagal's films have taken on that dreaded identity of direct to DVD features, movies that play in either no theater or limited run. This doesn't mean that the quality is lacking all the time, just that the studio behind it has less faith in the films than Seagal does. So he has kept making them knowing fans would show.
Fans support him enough that a book has recently been released, SEAGALOGY: A STUDY OF THE A** KICKING FILMS OF STEVEN SEAGAL by Vern, a contributing writer for the ain't it cool news web site. The book covers Seagal's films from beginning to end. But I'm not sure that it included the newest release, KILL SWITCH.
Seagal plays Jacob King, a detective working in Memphis, TN, and hot on the trail of a serial killer. The film opens on a case where a psycho has implanted C4 explosives in a young woman's chest with a timer set to go off in minutes. Confronting the killer, King beats a confession out of him in time to save the girl while inflicting enough damage to require medical support for said killer.
The scene moves to another serial killer on the lose, this one having wracked up 4 bodies to date with one on the way. Using astrological signs and leaving clues to what he is up to, including a coded cipher, King attempts to figure out his prey and take him off the street.
Due to his handling of the last killer though, King now has an FBI agent hot on his tail, Agent Frankie Miller (Holly Dignard). Suspicious of King, raw to the ways of the street, she finds herself at odds with him non-stop. While commanded to co-operate, King does his best to find the killer at the cost of relations with the FBI.
The clues mount up as does the body count. And when the first killer is released due to the coercive tactics of King, he ends up dealing with both killers before the films end.
The movie offers a decent plotline, written by Seagal himself. The action sequences fluctuate between dynamic and lame. Seagal is best when he does all of the work himself, including stunts. Fight sequences where an obvious stand in takes his place seem weak while the scenes with Seagal facing the camera and doing the moves he's made famous bring a reality to it. One has to wonder why this is. With the abilities there, why resort to unfit replicas?
One of the bad things involving the fight sequences is the use of what seems to be hiccup cutting of scenes. The same shots pushed back to immediate back, fast cuts of repeated blows and a close up shooting of intimate fight scenes that were my biggest complaint in the mega hit BOURNE films. Back off and let us see the action!
Seagal's acting has been worse and better. He coasts along easily as King, using a Cajun style twang to make him seem different than usual. And King's secret past leads one to suspect that perhaps he isn't who he seems.
The other actors range from an even keel to some of the worst one line roles seen. Unconvincing would be the nicest way to put it. But all in all this movie is not the terrible film that some seem to think. And if you're a Seagal fan, you should be pleased.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Kill Switch (2008)
Detective Jacob Stillwell (Steven Seagal) is one of the most celebrated homicide detectives in the country. His brutal delivery of street justice is legendary among the men and women of law enforcement. But on this latest case, he may have finally met his match Lazerus, a cunning and perversely violent killer who is on the loose and terrorizing the inner city. Stillwell s desperate pursuit of Lazerus takes him into the dark, depraved Memphis underworld of street sex and senseless violence.
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