Killer Instinct

Split Second was a blast to watch. This movie has all the great elements of action and horror, with a bit of the absurd to border on a cult film. Rutger Hauer is very good in this kind of film. The film is tight and there aren't alot of wasted frames. I enjoyed the characteristics of Hauer's Stone character. Watching Rutger Hauer take on a monster and scarf down some chocolate donuts was very cool. The monster itself was a very imaginitive creation and I liked that it attacked so quickly. Split Second is a great film for a rainy day or a late night feature.

Split Second is hardly essential film-making, but it is a prime example of how to make a low budget film more entertaining than it has a right to be. Put another way, if there is a calculation that divides a budget by entertainment value, Split Second might not lead the way, but it is a damn sight ahead of many so-called 'blockbusters' in value for money.

But still you can't ignore the fact that this film runs on the smell of an oily rag, it's evident from the first frame all the way to the reveal of the shonky 'beast' near the end, a creature that elicits more chuckles than screams.

In 2008 the global pollution problems created rising water levels, which left London largely underwater, stricken with a huge ongoing vermin problem, and created an almost endless night.

Or perhaps you missed it… (I love it when the 'movie future' becomes the past.) Rutger Hauer plays Stone, a hard nosed, grizzled veteran who works alone and ignores everything in the rule book. He is a hard drinkin' loose cannon who does things his way, and has done ever since his partner and best friend was killed by a notorious and as yet on the loose serial killer.

Well imagine our surprise when said killer reappears on the scene, literally ripping hearts from bodies and taking bites from his victims. Reluctantly allowed on the case only due to his previous experience with the killer, Stone is aghast (p*ssed might be more accurate but is a worse scrabble term) when he is saddled with a younger partner named Durkin who is everything he is not: a straight-laced, clean living logical thinker who not only follows the book but practically lives by it.

As the gnawed on bodies of the innocent pile up and Stone and Durkin nearly cross paths with the unseen killer many times it grows more evident that this case is perhaps more personal for both Stone and the pursued, with the lines between hunter and hunted becoming increasingly blurred. The last straw comes when a human heart is express posted to Stone – with a large bite already taken from it.

This is a fairly standard set up for many sci-fi flavoured films, the thing that differentiates Split Second is the humour. While hardly Beverly Hills Cop or Red Heat this film is laced with lashings of black humour of the driest kind, much of it from Durkin, who it would be fair to say is hardly the comedic type but still manages many of the best lines, his rant about finding 'big f*cking guns' after first contact with their prey still elicits a chuckle and his progressive hardening up as the film progresses is quite humorous.

The rest of the film is to be frank amateurish, when revealed the killer and most of his previous actions make no sense whatsoever. How a 10 foot tall long fanged alien/monster can lurk in nightclub corners unseen, manage to package and address a human heart to the right recipient and also write notes for his pursuers is beyond me.

Equally confusing is the presence of Kim Cattrall as a sex-object. As someone who has had the misfortune of seeing 12 minutes of Sex and the City any possibility of attraction is long since dead, despite the fact that when this was made she is in her so-called 'prime'. But here she is the dead partner's ex-wife, who is there to be occasionally nude and vulnerable… There is some mystical supernatural crap designed to justify – or distract us from – the situation, but misguided symbolism or not Split Second is less about the logic and more about the fun in watching Rutger Hauer play a bitter and violent cop as he chases some sort of monster.

Obviously cheap and filled with blood and a few laughs, Split Second provides a stronger budget : entertainment ratio than a thousand Transformers or Harry Potters ever could. It still isn't amazing but you could do a lot worse.

Final Rating – 6 / 10. Split Second might not even be around any more – I bought it many years ago on VHS and dragged that out the other night – but if you even pretend that you are a Rutger Hauer devotee you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Rutger Hauer plays one big walking cliche in this amusingly, knowingly routine B flick that does have a sense of humour about itself. Hauer plays a surly, slovenly detective named Harley Stone in London in the "future" year of 2008. Global warming has resulted in the city being partially submerged in water. Stone stalks through this unusual setting in search of the serial killer who slaughtered his partner once upon a time. This particular killer loves to taunt Stone, and has a penchant for EATING the hearts of their victims. What Stone learns is that the psycho might be something other than human.

Excellent urban-Hell production design and moody cinematography are assets of this deliberately drab-looking cop vs. killer programmer with a true grungy aesthetic. Some people may feel that projects like this were way beneath Mr. Hauer, but the truth is that he always remains fun to watch, and he's clearly having a good time as this tormented protagonist. Kim Cattrall, on first glance, seems under-utilized as his love interest, but then she *does* get to help out during the final assault on our inhuman villain. Hauer has good odd-couple chemistry with Alastair Duncan as the eager-beaver new partner with book smarts regarding serial killers. Duncan is very amusing, and fun to watch himself. The supporting cast includes a couple of familiar faces: Alun Armstrong, American character actor Michael J. Pollard (popping up briefly to do his typical shtick as a rat catcher), Pete Postlethwaite, Ian Dury, and Tony Steedman.

The movie further benefits from its relentless and seemingly impossible-to-kill murderer, as well as a pretty good pace that results in a trim run time of just over an hour and a half. Its dialogue may sometimes be silly, but it's good that screenwriter Gary Scott Thompson (future creator of the "Fast and the Furious" franchise) and director Tony Maylam ("The Riddle of the Sands", "The Burning") refuse to ever take any of this too seriously. Viewers will also love the over the top gore and Stephen Norringtons' design of the monster (bearing more than a passing resemblance to a Xenomorph from the "Alien" franchise).

A good, mindless way to kill 91 minutes.

Seven out of 10.

If you don't like B-movies, then you should stop reading this review right now, and drop any interest in Split Second.

If you do DO like B-movies, check this one out, because it is a quintessential cult flick. Great hammy acting by Rutger Hauer and some of the supporting cast. (Note that great hammy acting is considerably different than great acting). The director actually did pretty well, establishing the post-apocalyptic mood with reasonable skill. The effects are godawful, but neat, just as it should be in this kind of movie. Lots of great one liners, especially from Hauer.

All in all, if you enjoy those good-because-they're-bad sci-fi flicks, this is a mighty enjoyable one. If you're looking for meaningful cinema... ummm.. well what are you doing looking up a movie about an alien serial killer?

Split Second is great at what it does delivering fast paced action filled b-movie sci-fi / noir. The acting is actually quite good, the plot interesting and well constructed and the action sequences just about deliver the goods on what was no doubt a tight budget.

Rutger Hauer does OK as the tough guy cop Harley Stone without ever really excelling, congratulations should go to Neil Duncan who brought humour to the movie as the irrepressible Detective Dick Durkin, Kim Cattral makes a pre sex in the city film appearance and does OK with the limited scope she's given.

It's an entertaining bit if sci-fi fluff the influences are obvious Blade Runner, Predator and Alien instantly spring to mind It never scales the heights of those films to transcend it's genre and as such is unlikely to appeal to anyone who doesn't go for this kind of B-movie style entertainment. However it does provide a good hour and a half of solid entertainment in an interesting environment, the rain lashed semi flooded London is an interesting premise and is explored as much as budget allows.

If you want good plot, fine acting and very big guns wrapped in a nice bit of trashy sci-fi then this could be the one for you. 7/10