November 23, 2008

SPLIT SECOND /1992/ d: Tony Maylam & Ian Sharp

In the far-flung future of the year 2008, most of London is flooded from the effects of Global Warming! Rutger Hauer loses all the subtlety of his past performances (ha!) and really turns up the crazy here. When he’s not tossing Pete Postlewaite around a police station, he’s tossing his partner around a sewer or just tossing Kim Cattrall around in general (although we can’t really blame him for that last one, who wouldn’t want to toss Kim Cattrall?) He would also do stuff like make out with her at the most inappropriate times; for example, when he’s jumping through the air, shielding her from an explosion. Anyway, there is some weird, possibly supernatural serial killing monster that Rutger shares a psychic bond with and as the film progresses, Rutger gets crazier, his nerdish partner gets crazier and Kim Cattrall rocks a pretty bad haircut. The strange thing is by the time things get completely out of hand and you have a hard time keeping track of whatever plot is supposed to be moving along, you really don’t seem to mind because at the very least SPLIT SECOND is weird, entertaining sci-fi fun. I remember going to the theater to see this with my Dad and brother, and feeling the same way about it even then.

BLADE director Stephen Norrington created the crazy serial killing monster guy, which looks quite similar to Judge Death from the Judge Dredd comic series. Being a European production, I’m sure this makes the film a bit more skill across the pond.

All in all, SPLIT SECOND is still pretty good lazy Sunday afternoon fare.