Critic Reviews
26
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
positive
0(0%)
mixed
4(27%)
negative
11(73%)
Showing 15 Critic Reviews
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All Reviews
Metascore
Metascore
60
Very fast-paced, SPLIT SECOND is an example of the men-versus-monster genre, with a British setting providing a fresh twist.
50
While entertaining and often genuinely frightening, thanks to a remorsefully blue cast to the cinematography, this thick stew can be tough to swallow under Tony Maylam's bumpy direction. [3 May 1992, p.C7]
40
As a throwaway 80's B-movie you could do much worse. Hauer, as is his way, plays the rough and silent type, this time a cop with Scot Duncan as his partner. There is enough gore, monsters and violence to satisfy but a good plot is sadly lacking and worst of all, they even managed to make Kim Catrall look unattractive.
40
Scriptwise, you'll be left thinking "if it only had a brain." Like last year's "Hardware," this British effort is simply too talky. Those who seek deeper meaning will enjoy the astrological and satanic explanations, even if they make no sense.
38
Sloppy writing, inconsistent tone and gaping plotholes make this film look more like instant video product. [1 May 1992, p.34]
38
This one has all the usual cliches. The serial killer. The strip joint scene. The bad-tempered superior. The villain that won't die. The graphic gore. Hauer plays a suspended cop, of course. To these it adds a fairly creative scene of Hauer and Duncan stalking and shooting at the beast in a morgue, plus very damp streets and a vision of the future that is bleaker than usual. [2 May 1992, p.C04]
38
It's too unfunny to be comedy, too ordinary to be sci-fi and too flat to be action. But give the cinematographers credit: All that dark mood lighting does make it much easier for moviegoers to snooze. [5 May 1992, p.31]
30
Split Second is an extremely stupid monster film, boasting enough violence and special effects to satisfy less-discriminating vid fans.
30
Within the genre of supernatural thrillers, Split Second is fairly dull. Mr. Hauer's Stone is an expressionless, unsympathetic lug who grunts his lines in a near monotone that sometimes becomes unintelligble in the movie's muffled soundtrack. The film is so desperate to create tingles that poor Miss Cattrall has to endure two protracted nude scenes -- one in a shower, the other in a bathtub -- in which she is menaced. Neither is especially spine-tingling.
30
Split Second turns out to be one of those dreaded “so-bad-it's-good” debacles, and a marginal one at that. Ed Wood, where are you when we need you?
