Split Second is so cheap and so cheesy at times it should be utterly unwatchable. Thankfully due to a volcano sized scoop of cool delivered by the cast and the creative team it's a fun bullshit action romp from beginning to end.
Bonkers Rutger Hauer (wearing sunglasses in an underground sewer pursuit) plays the archetypal rouge, loose cannon cop on the hunt of a heart collecting serial killer.
One of the things that keeps this interesting is the weird blend of genres; at first a serial killer crime film, then a buddy movie, then comes a touch of the supernatural before become a flat out monster flick. Oh, and all wrapped up with a cheap Blade Runner-esque, flooded, near-future Brit-sci-fi vibe.
Hauer is his usual, charming, unpredictable self, his banter with Alistair Duncan forms the heart and humour of the film, Kim Cattrell (complete with Star Trek VI Vulcan haircut) brings the cuteness, Michael J Pollard brings the weird and Alun Armstrong and Pete Postlethwaite bring the backlash of Police formality.
Despite the mega low budget, it's got a strong, decaying, run-down visual design, distinct cinematography (in a James Cameron/blue lighting kind of way) and a great monster when the large bugger finally appears. There's some great running gags as far as the mis-matched partners are concerned like Hauer's addiction to coffee and sugar (which he passes on to his partner and Duncan's obsession with 'fucking big guns' and killing rats.
If Britain's film industry must be low budget and small scale, why can't we make more stuff like this?
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