Friday, June 29, 2012

SPLIT SECOND (1992)

[Update 10/11/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

London 2008 looks a lot like a couple of alleyways and dilapidated rooms from 1992. Rutger Hauer is a cop who, along with his partner, was attacked years earlier by a large nasty creature. His partner died during the attack and Hauer was left with a bizarre sixth-sense that tells him whenever the creature is nearby. It's been quiet recently, but suddenly and without warning the attacks began just as quickly as they stopped. The first victim is a woman in the restroom of a club Hauer is casing. Soon the bodies start piling and Hauer is taking this shit personally. Nothing is going to stop him from killing this monster. Even if it takes longer than a...split second!

Actually I have no idea why SPLIT SECOND was called SPLIT SECOND, but it didn't take me much longer than a split second to figure out that SPLIT SECOND was nothing more than a low-budget PREDATOR 2 clone that falls in line, at least artistically, with pretty much all of the other futuristic action films from the early 90's...CYBORG, HARDWARE, FREEJACK, etc. Still, it's a mildly entertaining watch but we never really get a good idea at what the killer monster is or it's motives. Is it an alien? A mutant rat? A ghost?  A wookalar? How did it learn English? Why is it leaving notes and clues written in blood? What is it's interest with Rutger's character? Why is it supposedly bulletproof and able to run through solid steel doors but yet so easy to kill at the end?

Worth watching if you're really bored, but I can't really recommend it. The story's not strong enough, the action scenes are pretty forgettable and the gritty story sprinkled with comedy moments made the whole thing feel uneven.
Nights misspelled as knights.