This movie is unashamedly ridiculous and that's why you should watch it. It doesn't qualify as So Bad it's Good, it's just a decent B-Movie. The principles are well played – you get what you expect from Hauer's unhinged Stone and Duncan's Dick Durkin is a delight as he slowly comes to realise what's actually going on.Highlight is the "bigger guns" scene.It is very much a straight to video affair – but it's in the best of what that category can offer.

As a movie, it's about a 7 in my mind. Better than most of its type, but not as good as films like Alien, and Predator, which are among the best.That being said, for pure entertainment, this is a 10! If you enjoy humorous characters battling ridiculous situations, you will enjoy this film. As another reviewer said, this is what Predator 2 wanted to be, but failed at.Rutger Hauer is what really makes this film work, with his dead-pan delivery and sarcastic comments! The supporting cast is full of great actors that you'll recognize! Plenty of eye-candy in Kim Catrall, that does not distract from the story.The story and environment is very well done. As with Alien, the killer is rarely seen in the film until the climax. The suspense builds throughout the film as the viewer begins to wonder "is the killer even human?".Like some of the best movies in its sub-category, ala John Carpenter's classics like The Thing, Escape From NY, and Big Trouble in Little China, this movie excels in great characters that you love giving great sarcastic dialog and the best one-liners! One-liners on par with Carpenter's best! Even the all too brief character of "The Rat Catcher", played excellently by Michael J. Pollard, who you will recognize, is played so well that you feel bad when he is killed later. This is why this movie endures. It's ironic that the only victim that you feel for is the throw-away character of "The Rat Catcher"! The character just comes alive as a nice guy and you feel sad when he's killed.I've seen this film at least ten times since the 90's and every time I enjoy it.Hauer has done many B-Movies that are classic because of his character in them: Ladyhawke, Blind Fury, Wedlock, Wanted: Dead or Alive, and this, are a few. These are not considered his best work (maybe with the exception of Ladyhawke), but they are enjoyable re-watchable films that you want to revisit time and time again.So, seek out this film and enjoy it for what it is, a fun movie that will entertain you for 90 minutes! You'll be quoting this movie for much longer than that! "Police... Dickhead"

I remember Split Second being a rather popular rental title in the early 90s and everyone seemed to have seen it but me. Even the reviews I read at the time were generally favorable despite the dubious plot synopsis. Now, all this time later when I had all but completely forgotten that the movie even exists, I gave it a go. It's not good.Set in a future 2008 London this is not a city permanently haloed by TV choppers circling the HSBC building capturing footage to illustrate the recent banking crisis to half-witted viewers. No, this is a gloomier alternate London that has no financial district and has been flooded by global warming and torrential rain. Rats thrive in the shadows, decay and despair have stained every backdrop, and a serial killer is stalking the streets. Tough cop Harley Stone (Rutger Hauer, slumming it as usual) has a vendetta with said killer after the death of his partner but uses a new-found psychic connection to his advantage. His new, goofball partner immerses himself in occult research and tries to deliver expository dialogue on the nature of the killer but it's all a load of codswallop. Split Second tries to present itself as a low-budget hybrid of Blade Runner and Predator 2 but instead is more like Friday the 13th crossed with Alien. The final "reveal" of the killer is very disappointing and makes no sense whatsoever. Not only does it look like it was made out of bin liners and paste but its physicality does not fit with anything that it has done throughout the movie. And why is it wearing a helmet? Even the tagline makes no sense. "He's seen the future and now he has to kill it." Say what???The filmmakers have no clue what this thing is supposed to be. Extra terrestrial? Mutant? Demon? Devil? All of the above and none of the above? It's never defined, it doesn't add up. They chuck a smearing of hokum into the exposition hoping that some of it will work but it simply doesn't. Fast and Furious creator Gary Scott Thompson is the man behind the script but it's obvious that London was not the original location (perhaps New York as it is liable to flooding in the future) and has merely but cut- and-pasted despite localisation issues (UK cops are not armed with guns).The movie has some satisfyingly rough edges, particularly in the overlit and grainy cinematography that will remind of other British horror films of the same vintage such as Hellraiser or Paperhouse. Kim Cattrall shows us her pleasing breasts a few times, and the cheap synth score (by no one you've ever heard of) fits the grimy atmosphere. There are a couple of nice aerial shots of a London long gone but that's it for establishing the location. Since the climax was helmed by a completely different director I can't shake the notion that there was some behind-the-scenes trouble. The ending is so disappointing and rushed but I was still sort of glad that it was over. Split Second squanders the potential of the setting and theme and is never all it could be.

Split Second is directed by Tony Maylam and Ian Sharp and written by Gary Scott Thompson. It stars Rutger Hauer, Kim Cattrall and Neil Duncan. It was filmed in London, England, predominantly at the Hartley Jam Factory in Southwark, with Clive Tickner the cinematographer.London, 2008. "After forty days and nights of torrential rain, the city is largely submerged below water, a result of the devastating effects of continued global warming. The warnings ignored for decades have now resulted in undreamed-of levels of pollution where day has become almost endless night..." and something is stalking the watery city and tearing hearts out of its victims…..Plot follows a familiar course, and in truth there's no surprises here. A psychic link between Stone and the killer is sadly never fully formed, which is a shame because it had the potential to make the film more interesting, but to off set that a touch is some nice babble involving astrological and satanic matters which are thrown up during the search/investigation. In its favour as well, is that Maylam and his team sensibly keep the perpetrator hidden for most of the film, instead choosing the odd flashing glimpse of a clawed hand, or a murky torso running across the frame, while the idea to only show the bloody aftermath of a kill hits home harder than if we actually viewed it.The look is spot on for an apocalyptic sci-fi piece, all greys, silvers and low lights, while the cheap production design works well in context of the tone of the picture. There's even some Schwarzenegger like cheese dialogue, the likes of which the big Austrian would have got paid millions to speak at around the same time Split Second was released. The killer, once revealed, will disappoint many, mainly because it looks overly familiar, but it does impact for the finale set at a flooded tube station. While the music (co-scored by three different people) is ideal as it sounds very tinny, in fact it's very 1980's like.Judging by the critical reaction to it you have to think some folk were taking it a bit too seriously. Never fully convincing as a lead man, Hauer pitches this just right, with tongue in cheek, a grizzled personage and a swagger to match the glint in is eyes. He's playing a burned out cop character called Harley Stone, his partner, who of course is the polar opposite, is named Dick Durkin! Take this seriously? Never! Cattrall is merely here to be a love interest, to scream and show some flesh for the discerning hound dog, while her haircut, some black dyed German Helmet effort, is totally unflattering. Duncan dose a fine job as the nerdy copper, working the comedy off of Hauer very well, while fleeting support comes from great British actors Alun Armstrong and Pete Postlethwaite. In cameos we get song man Ian Dury and Michael J. Pollard.Leave the brain at the door and you have a good chance of enjoying this low-budget British sci-fier. 7/10