Out for a Kill (2003) - Archeology professor Seagal in risible shoot-em-up turkey

♥

 

+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year 

 

High-octane action is promised on this generic poster for Michael Oblowitz's Out for a Kill

An archeology professor, who among other things locates and removes ancient Buddha statues from China (...), clashes with a cigar-chomping network of Tong bosses.

 

Out for a Kill is written by Dennis Dimster (Cyborg Cop III (1995)) with co-writer/co-producer Danny Lerner (Shark in Venice (2008)) contributing story elements and Sam Hayes (The Deal (2007)) contributing uncredited writing, and directed by Michael Oblowitz (Minus Zero (1979)).

It is a thoroughly incompetent and braindead action flick without a shadow of a valuable story, good action or real acting involved. There is terrible editing, green screen solutions and lousy music to boot. 

But star/co-producer Steven Seagal (The Glimmer Man (1996)) is so involuntarily comedic in Out for a Kill, especially as he spouts out the film's grotesque, risible lines. And this is the film's sole mitigating quality, accidental as it is - it still counts. Out for a Kill is laughably bad!

 

Related post:

 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

 

 

Listen to the credits music from the film here

 

Cost: 8-14 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 547k $

=  Box office disaster (returned 0.03-0.06 times its cost)

[Out for a Kill was released 14 August (Italy) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. Shooting was reportedly stalled for days, when Seagal saw Spider-Man 2 and demanded that the barber shop fight scene include someone who could crawl on walls 'like Spidey'. A stuntman was paid 10k £ after getting injured in a fight scene with Seagal. Though the film is listed as a video release many places, and was seemingly direct-to-video in North America, it seems that it was released theatrically in several countries, and at least in Italy, Lebanon and Spain, the three markets listed on its Box Office Mojo site, of which Spain is far the biggest with 492k $ (89.9 % of the total gross), followed by Italy with 49k $ (9 %) and Lebanon with 5k $ (0.9 %). An actress years later claimed that Seagal sexually assaulted her during a casting call in a hotel room prior to the film's production. Oblowitz returned with 2 TV movies and a documentary prior to his theatrical return with The Traveler (2010). Seagal returned in Belly of the Beast (2003). 6.5k+ IMDb users have given Out for a Kill a 3.4/10 average rating.]

 

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