Out for a Kill | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Oblowitz |
Written by | Danny Lerner Dennis Dimster |
Produced by | Steven Seagal Danny Lerner George Furla Randall Emmett |
Starring | Steven Seagal Corey Johnson |
Cinematography | Mark Vargo |
Edited by | Robert A. Ferretti |
Music by | Roy Hay |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Millennium Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $14,000,000 |
Out for a Kill is a 2003 straight-to-video action film directed by Michael Oblowitz. It stars Steven Seagal.
Wong Dai (Chooi Kheng Beh), an influential Chinese drug kingpin, sits 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 City, 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.
The film was one of two movies made by Seagal's own company, Luminosity Media, in association with Emmett/Furla Films Productions Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Family Room Entertainment Corporation. The other film was Belly of the Beast . [1]
Filming began in Eastern Europe on 15 September. Actor Rachel Grant later claimed Seagal assaulted her during rehearsals for the film. [2]
Stuntman actor Sam Cam Lui was awarded £10,000 after he was injured in a fight scene with Seagal during filming. [3]
Den of Geek wrote that "the special effects are dreadful; bad ideas that look cheap and unconvincing. The story follows as though the script was tossed into the air and the pages put back together in the wrong order. Fortunately, the tone is light and the silliness passes as good fun. There are a couple of great fight scenes, too. My favourite part of the film sees Seagal fighting a guy who bizarrely develops the ability to crawl along walls, mid-brawl. Obviously, Seagal smashes him to pieces regardless. We also get lots of scenes set in strip club, because of course, and plenty of Seagal shooting." [4]
Steven Frederic Seagal is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instructor in Japan and would run his father-in-law's dojo for a time. He later moved to Los Angeles where he continued teaching aikido. In 1988, Seagal made his acting debut in Above the Law, which is regarded as the first American film to feature aikido in fight sequences. By 1991, he had starred in four films.
Above the Law is a 1988 American crime action thriller film cowritten, coproduced and directed by Andrew Davis. It marked the film debut of Steven Seagal, who was also a producer, and stars Pam Grier, Sharon Stone, Ron Dean and Henry Silva. Seagal plays Nico Toscani, an ex-CIA agent, Aikido specialist and a Chicago policeman who discovers a conspiracy upon investigating the mysterious shipment of military explosives seized from a narcotics dealer.
Marked for Death is a 1990 American action film directed by Dwight H. Little. The film stars Steven Seagal as John Hatcher, a former DEA troubleshooter who returns to his Illinois hometown to find it taken over by a posse of vicious Jamaican drug dealers led by Screwface. Using a combination of fear and Obeah, a Jamaican syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin similar to Haitian vodou and Santería, Screwface rules the drug trade in Lincoln Heights.
Out for Justice is a 1991 American action film directed by John Flynn and co-produced by and starring Steven Seagal as Gino Felino, a veteran police detective who sets out to avenge his partner Bobby's murder by killing Richie, the trigger-happy, drug-addicted mafioso culprit.
Executive Decision is a 1996 American action thriller film directed by Stuart Baird and written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas, who also produced the film with Joel Silver. It stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet and B.D. Wong. It depicts the rescue of an airliner hijacked by terrorists, by a small team placed on the plane in mid-flight. The film was released in the United States on March 15, 1996, by Warner Bros. It grossed $122 million against a $55 million budget.
The Glimmer Man is a 1996 American buddy-cop action comedy film directed by John Gray and produced by Steven Seagal. The film stars Seagal, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bob Gunton, and Brian Cox. The film was released in the United States on October 4, 1996.
Exit Wounds is a 2001 American action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, and starring Steven Seagal and DMX. The film is based on the book of the same name by John Westermann. The book takes place on Long Island, while the film is set in Detroit. Steven Seagal plays Orin Boyd, a police detective notorious for pushing the limits of the law in his quest for justice.
Double Happiness is a Chinese drama serial on MediaCorp Channel 8 in Singapore which was screened in 2004 and ended in Jan 2005. It stars Ivy Lee, Xie Shaoguang, Edmund Chen, Vivian Lai & Zhang Wei as the casts of this series. It consists two parts, with 70 episodes in this part of the show. It is about a family who sells fish and chips in a renowned restaurant in East Coast Road called Happy Fish. The restaurant has its ups and downs, but eventually it will come out strong, but not without tragedies and lessons learnt.
Triple Nine is an English language dystopian fiction television police procedural telecast on what was then the Television Corporation of Singapore's Channel 5 from 1995 to 1999. As the station's earliest attempt in an action-based drama series, the series revolved around the lives of a group of police officers, namely Inspector Mike Chin, Inspector Elaine Tay, and Sergeant Alan Leong from the Special Investigation Section of the CID.
Into the Sun is a 2005 action film directed by Christopher Morrison and starring Steven Seagal, Matthew Davis, Takao Osawa, Eddie George, Juliette Marquis, and William Atherton.
Legendary Weapons of China is a 1982 martial arts wuxia film or wuxia pian directed by Lau Kar-Leung. It takes place during the late Qing Dynasty when Empress Dowager Cixi dispatches her agents to various factions of the Boxer Rebellion in order to find supernatural martial artists that are invulnerable to western bullets. When one of the leaders of these groups disbands his forces, assassins from the remaining factions are sent out to kill him for his apparent treason. As the title of the film suggests, a great variety of fights take place involving the "legendary weapons."
Capital punishment in Singapore is a legal penalty. Executions in Singapore are carried out by long drop hanging, and usually take place at dawn. Thirty-three offences—including murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, use of firearms and kidnapping—warrant the death penalty under Singapore law.
Gao Kaidao, at one point known as Li Kaidao (李開道), was an agrarian rebel leader who rose against the Sui dynasty at the end of Emperor Yang's reign. He occupied the region centering Huairong and claimed the title of Prince of Yan, in alliance with the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. In 620, he briefly submitted to Emperor Gaozu of Tang and was bestowed the imperial surname of Li, but in 621 he rebelled against Tang and reasserted independence. In 624, his general Zhang Jinshu (張金樹) started a coup and he, realizing that the coup was about to succeed, committed suicide.
Heroes Among Heroes is a 1993 Hong Kong martial arts film produced and directed by Yuen Woo-ping and starring Donnie Yen as the protagonist So Chan, who was one of the Ten Tigers of Canton. The film shows opium smugglers in the Qing Dynasty, China, with Officer Lin Zexu and Chinese martial arts master and folk hero of Cantonese ethnicity Wong Fei-hung fighting against them. It was released in the US as Fist of the Red Dragon.
A Dangerous Man is a 2009 American direct-to-DVD crime action film directed by Keoni Waxman. It stars Steven Seagal as an ex soldier released from prison after spending six years locked up for a crime he did not commit.
The Duel, also known as Duel of the Iron Fist, is a 1971 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh and starring Ti Lung, Wang Ping, Yue Wai and David Chiang.
Wonder Boy is a 2017 Singaporean coming-of-age musical film directed by Dick Lee in his directorial debut, and co-directed by Daniel Yam. An autobiographical film, it stars Benjamin Kheng as a younger version of Lee.
Contract to Kill is a 2016 American action film starring Steven Seagal. It received a limited theatrical release in the United States, and was released via video on demand.
The death of Chan Yin-lam occurred during the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and gave rise to speculations by protesters about its cause. Lam was a 15-year-old student who died on or shortly after 19 September 2019. Her naked corpse was found floating in the sea near Yau Tong, Hong Kong, on 22 September 2019. Following a preliminary autopsy, police asserted that no foul play was suspected and that Chan had killed herself, while there were allegations that she was murdered by Hong Kong authorities in connection with her participation in the 2019 Hong Kong protests. The coroner's inquest concluded with the jury unanimously returning an open verdict, after Magistrate Ko Wai-hung ruled out both homicide and suicide as possible causes due to insufficient evidence to support this.