The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The plot (written by Steven Seagal himself) is hectic, with strange turns and flashbacks; fights and chases are too long and lopsided, acting leaves a lot to be desired (with the exception perhaps Isaac Hayes as coroner). Clichés become annoying soon and there are several ridiculous and unreasoned scenes and depictions, i.e. a maniac in strings... And the very ending, oh - probably the silliest Seagal ever had! Political correctness together with the attempts to widen audience did not give any fresh look either.Thus, Kill Switch is rather bad, but not so bad that it could be just "enjoyed" and mocked in a bigger company in front of TV. And, having seen his 2 latest movies, I cannot agree with those thinking that Seagal must be totally written off - Born to Raise Hell and Maximum Conviction are significantly better played and written. So avoid this one and see something else of him :)

KILL SWITCH deserves one minor commendation for attempting to do something that many Steven Seagal films don't: feature a semi-original storyline. Instead of having Seagal battling various gangsters, terrorists, thugs, kidnappers or whatever, this one sees him on the path of multiple serial killers as he attempts to stop them from killing again. Ultimately, it makes not one jot of difference because it all boils down to our hero beating seven shades out of various bad guys, but at least the thought was there.Sadly, as you might expect given the star's track record as of late, the execution sucks. At least there's none of that stupid inappropriate music from the last Seagal film I watched (DRIVEN TO KILL), but there are massive problems stemming from the ridiculous doubling in the fight sequences (and the voice double's back, to boot). The film obviously came in under the scheduled running time so one fight, early on, is extended to ludicrous lengths just to pad things out. It's also noticeable that the violence is among the most extreme of the star's career, as Seagal goes about literally torturing the villains. Expect plenty of that gloating sadism that our beloved censors here in the UK used to regularly cut out (but don't seem to mind these days).Still, violence does not make a good film, and this is definitely bottom of the barrel type stuff, featuring a storyline you'll struggle to make sense of and poor Isaac Hayes cameoing in what would be his penultimate role. In one respect the film's worth watching till the end, though: the out-of-left-field ending, featuring some gratuitous nudity and one of the cheesiest eyebrow-raising moments I've ever seen from Seagal. If that doesn't make you laugh out loud, nothing will.

Thats it, no more seagal movies from now on. The last quality movie he was in, was 'half past dead', i think. ever since then, his movies spiraled right down the drain. occasionally, i've watched a promising title, only to find myself disappointed again! kill switch is really a ... well, i'm lost for words. this could very well be THE worst movie of all time (and i have watched 'retrograde', so you know i'm not kidding). i really wanted to warn movie-optimists from this and found, that there are already enough adequate descriptions from other users. believe every word of it! if you think a movie can't possibly suck that bad...think again.consider yourself warned! ;-)

The name 'Steven Seagal' may not put the fear of God into many people these days, but when it is preceded by the two little words 'written by' it is something to strike fear in the hearts of stronger men than me. Summoning that peculiar kind of bravery possessed by a masochist equipped with a dozen clothes pegs and a wet shoelace I girded my loins and pressed the 'forward' button on my remote. There was no going back now, like one of Seagal's on screen sparring partners I was to be exposed to every sweaty punch and chop the big (big) man chose to throw in my direction.I can get back the precious 8% of available recording time KillSwitch occupied on my Sky box, and the 90 minutes I lost watching the film are, in the grand scheme of things, only a minimal fraction of my intended lifespan, but my faith in the movie-making business may never be the same after watching this unholy mess.The story is rubbish – that was to be expected after we learned who the screenwriter was – but the direction and editing in this film are surely something to be amazed by. The direction varies from pedestrian to excruciatingly bad – we see one bad guy crashing through a window half-a-dozen times, another bad guy collapse onto a table three times, etc. The editor keeps cutting away from the fights to the same headshot of Seagal in which he looks like a mildly interested bystander. In one fight scene, his opponent's bloody scars keeping appearing and disappearing. Another fight seems to go on forever, with all participants seeming to possess super-heroic stamina levels, and you end up watching in stupefaction, not quite able to believe that a movie fight scene is actually boring you.Seagal plays a Southern cop with issues. It seems he witnessed the murder of his brother when he was a kid. What bearing this has on his present-day pursuit of a serial killer is never really explained. Neither is the identity or motive of the murderer. In fact the incident just seems to have been added to fill out the running time, give the director (whoever he is – I really can't be bothered to check) a chance to show off all the flashy tricks he learned while balancing on top of a dustbin to peer through the window of the local film studies classroom, and to give Seagal the opportunity to come over all broody every now and then.Seagal was never sylph-like but, judging by the way we are treated to a lot of head-and-shoulder shots but hardly any full-lengths shots of him, his girth has expanded considerably since the 90s. In fact, he doesn't even move when he fights: he just parries his opponents' blow and waits for them to stray close enough for him to fell them with his meaty paw.