Kite (2014) User Reviews

IMDb ratings are right on this movie

[paul-psr-ryder · 5/10 · 30 September 2014]

Modeled loosely on the 1998, anime movie... I Wasn't very keen on the original, went on to find this movie to be pretty uninteresting, as a big anime fan I watched this assuming the ratings would be incorrect. However, this movie didn't really grip me..

There seemed to be far too many characters of different nationalities for a country which is post apocalyptic.

I didn't really feel anything for the characters, and the story seemed to jump from one section to the next with noting much substantial in between.

The best thing about this movie is that it has very little or no CGI oh, and that it stars Samuel L Jackson.

Each is different though, watch it for yourself, I'm sure if you are just into action movies you may find it appealing...

Predictable to a "t"

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 12 January 2015]

As the saying goes, not many surprises to be found here, but still a somewhat decent low budget effort. Formula is well known and with an added gravitas such as Samuel L. Jackson, you give the movie some weight (it's not like he can help all the flaws this has, but he's always mesmerizing to watch).

The other actors are mixed bunch. The action (choreography) though is pretty good. Always taking into account what movie that is. There is also a lot of blood and drug use fyi, though I'm sure you can read that in the rating explanation too. There are not many shades of gray character wise, you do get them in color scheme of the picture though. For some it might be a bit too dark of course.

Needed way more time, effort and intelligence pumped into it. Really could've been great.

[liltj5 · 3/10 · 15 January 2015]

If you like highly immoral sexual themes, bad sound design and mixing and less logic than "The Purge Anarchy." You'll love this. I really don't have much more to say about it. It wasn't really well thought out. That being said: Visually pretty cool.

There was some really nice shots and the picture overall definitely didn't conform to "the norm" which I always commend.

Overall it could have used way more love. It felt like no-one actually enjoyed the making of this film or put any real effort into it. They had a main girl character which you could say is great- But it was so typically taken advantage of. It's like the film makers just wanted to turn her into a marketing strategy for sex. She had no character, she wasn't a powerful person. There was SO much space to turn her into a really memorable character.

I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone, but i guess there is a market for it.

gross.

[paulieboi84 · 1/10 · 30 September 2014]

terrible. i love anime. seen the original many times and this is just an insult. i have no clue what blackmail they used to get Sam Jackson to play in this movie but it is just a terrible movie. I am going to watch the anime again to wash away this sin. Did the director even watch the original? I just hope Yasuomi Umetsu doesn't see this. i feel this is just a total insult to the legend. i guess it is my fault for being so eager and having high hopes that this movie was going to be spectacular BUT i really should have seen who did the screen play and director before i held my breath. for the avid anime fans like myself: steer clear from this title.

Don't waste your money, this movie is terrible

[james_s9 · 1/10 · 14 September 2014]

So disappointing bad acting, weak plot, poor action scenes. To be honest this was one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. 3 of went to watch and all 3 of us agreed to leave about 30 min into the movie. Normally I give movies a chance to develop, but this one just got worse. Normally anything with Samuel Jackson, is an immediate thumbs up. Not sure what went wrong, but I just didn't believe him when he was on screen. Sewa the main character is supposed to be this tortured orphan set out for revenge, but there was nothing about her that made me care for her cause. I was really disappointed. Sorry Mr Jackson, but I will say save your money, I wouldn't even watch this if it was free on TV.

In no way the worst movie ever

[coopmaxx · 2/10 · 25 September 2014]

To say this is the worst movie ever is a stretch. To say its one of the 10 worst movies ever is more accurate. From beginning to end this movie is horrible. Generic plot, horrendous acting, poor character development, poor transitions, etc. The sub plots do little to carry the movie along as well. The thread that ties in the sub plots throughout the film can be cut with a crumpled up piece of toilet tissue. Everything that makes a movie bad, this film has it. Even the presence of powerhouse Samuel L. couldn't elevate this atrocity from theatrical hell. I wish I could un-watch this mistake of a movie. I feel obligated to petition legislators to make a law for it to be illegal for any and all production of this crap to continue.......

Pretty poor in all respects

[rjsdavis1 · 1/10 · 22 October 2014]

This film is really poor.

The main actress, India Eisley, is completely mis-cast for an action role. She looks like she couldn't slap her way out of a girlie fight in a nightclub toilet, let alone take on any of the vicious nasties that she encounters in the film. Her pout screams "spoilt brat" and is more akin to a young lady that didn't get the right manicure for her poodle somewhere on Sunset Boulevard than any sort of supposedly drug- dependent action heroine (sic).

What on earth was Sam Jackson thinking when he joined the cast? I guess they all get it wrong from time, and thankfully for him, his role is fairly small - I wonder how many people would have passed this film by had his name not been on the billing? He was on decent, if not epic, form in his limited role.

The action scenes are poor, the fight scenes are excruciatingly slow and very obviously staged (badly) and none of the actors look convincing doing or saying anything. Even the bad guys come across as being somewhat weak and pathetic - shouldn't actors thrive on playing a really mean villain in a film? The villains don't seem to have any menace at all.

Chuck in some beaty music that is meant to make some of the basic Parkour based scenes look dramatic with a few wisps of smoke thrown in for added "drama", and you've got a recipe for disappointment. 4.3 is a somewhat generous score - I wished I hadn't wasted 90 minutes of my life watching this utter tat.

Tries too hard for shock value

[Floated2 · 2/10 · 22 September 2021]

Kite is a film which is quite gory and violent for the sake of shock value but it adds very little. The story of this film has been done many times before and has been done better. Nothing is new here and the plot feels rushed. Lack of overall interest. Lack of suspense and thrills. And lack of intriguing characters.

By the time the predictable twist arrives in the end, we don't exactly care. Samuel L. Jackson must have done this film as a favor to the director (originally was directed by David R. Ellis who passed away prior to completing the film- directed Jackson in Snakes on a Plane. So there's a connection there).

Overall this film isn't worthwhile, and those top 7/8 star reviews are not believable. Kite is simply a mess of a film (whether you are familiar with the anime source material or not), and would be best to avoid.

Decent action movie

[rik-vanoijen · 7/10 · 22 October 2014]

Reviews on this seem to range between worst ever and careful analysis of the movie compared to real live. Hello? It is an action movie, with futuristic elements to boot. Also, most reviewers have suspiciously only reviewed 1 or 2 movies and an IMDb account for several weeks or months. I call those reviews in doubt.

Is it a great movie. No. But neither are most movies by Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stalone and basically anything by Michael Bay. And still, most of you watch it. Quite frankly I rather watch this than yet another Die Hard franchise movie or something out of the Expandable series which is basically recycling for has-been actors.

So what DO we have here. Just a nice action movie, manga remake such as Aeon Flux or Ultra Violet, while the style is more reminiscent of Leon or Banlieu 13 (both by Luc Besson), but without the quality of either of the latter. Just a nice movie on a Saturday night or a rainy day with friends watching a cute naive girl kicking the crap out of some guys. Don't analyze the characters or the story, as you wouldn't with the majority of these kinds of movies, and you'll be OK.

Kick ass

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 17 August 2016]

Kite is an adaptation of a Japanese anime. It is a low budget film shot in South Africa and set in a futuristic multicultural Dystopia after a financial meltdown where trafficking of children for sex is a valuable currency.

Sawa (India Eisley) is a covert assassin addicted to Amp, a drug which makes her forget and out to get revenge on the Emir, the man who killed her parents. Her father was a police detective involved in the investigation of human trafficking.

Sawa hunts down the men operating the flesh-cartels and she is assisted by her father's friend, Detective Aker (Samuel L Jackson) and she kills her targets in a variety of brutal ways including a vibrator used to fire a bullet.

This is a low budget, grungy looking film with one big star cameo appearance but the violence is badly edited and the main villain, the Emir is dealt with two thirds of the way through the film. This means there is a further mystery to be solved. Well if you are addicted to a drug which makes you forget, you are susceptible to stories told by someone close to you. It really is a no brainer who the other villain is going to be.

The film lacks the style and verve of Luc Besson's Nikita or Leon or the energy and humour of Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass. The film is uninspired, let down by a poor story and the way it is presented on screen.

Colorful, Flashy, Violent, and Slick

[LeonLouisRicci · 8/10 · 19 January 2015]

If You Like the Films of Luc Besson, the Kick-Ass Movies, Girls With Guns and Comic-Book Style Ultra-Violence than This One's for You. Very Colorful Template and Some Rousing Action Makes this a B-Movie Worth a Watch.

Incredibly Cute Young Heroine with Wigs, Make-Up, and Wardrobe Straight Out of Japanese Anime. This is a Dark Tale of Flesh Peddling, Drug Inducement, and Survival Among the Worst of Humanity.

Flashy with a Club and Dub Soundtrack this Makes for Some Sleazy Entertainment for the Pulp Minded and has Enough to Offer Grindhouse Fans and Cult Movie Enthusiasts. It Rarely Disappoints and Delivers the Goods.

Underrated Low-Budget Kicker that is Exploitive Entertainment Extraordinaire. It's Slick, and is Better than its Reputation.

Nothing wrong with this one

[pave-mayerl · 7/10 · 15 November 2014]

Seeing a 4.3 rating on IMDb, I did expect that something must be wrong with Kite, but found it to be an overall good movie.

Story, Acting, Camera and Setting are without major flaws, and within the genre the story is quite believable and has no obvious holes.

The ending even holds some surprises, and there are a number of memorable scenes.

So why the low rating? My theory is that there are a number of factors:

• The mainstream audience may have a problem with the soundtrack which can be annoying if are not at least a little into dubstep (I found it a prefect fit for this movie)

• To purists the characters may be not cool enough; they are too vulnerable, too human and fail too often be bad-ass uberheroes

• The mainstream may find the setting too dark, while purist may not like the brightening elements in the story

It might have been a masterpiece if the film makers would not have tried to please the mainstream. It almost seems as if there was a struggle between those forces who wanted to appeal to a wide audience and those who wanted to go to the extreme. The mixed result seems to keep many people unsatisfied, although I regard it as well above average.

I can recommend to watch it and make up your own mind. I believe that "Kite" will be more appreciated over time and find its audience.

Nothing really good to say about this except that it is nice to see a female lead in this type of movie.

[cosmo_tiger · 3/10 · 27 October 2014]

"How do you know who he is?" Sawa (Eisley) has become an orphan after her parents are brutally murdered and she wants revenge. With the help of her father's ex-partner Karl (Jackson) she starts off on a series of revenge killings but when the truth comes out Sawa isn't sure who to believe. I wasn't aware that this was an anime show until after the movie was over and looking back it makes sense. As far as this movie goes though...it just wasn't good. It is just so slow moving and not really exciting at all. I found it really hard to pay attention to and struggled to make it through. I was hoping that the end would make it worth my while but I was wrong. I hate sounding this harsh on a movie since I couldn't do any better myself but for me this was just bad all around. Overall, nothing really good to say about this except that it is nice to see a female lead in a this type of movie. Hopefully they will find a better vehicle for female action stars than this in the future. I give it a D+.

Terrible action and storyline! 2/10

[leonblackwood · 2/10 · 26 October 2014]

Review: What a terrible movie! The acting is extremely poor and the movie seemed cheap and not really thought through. I got fed up with trying to follow the predictable storyline and the girl that played the lead just didn't do it for me. Basically, its about a young girl whose trying to find out who killed her father, with the help of Samuel L. Jackson who was her father's partner in the police force. The young girl goes round taking down crime bosses, with ease, just to find out that the culprit is closer than she thinks. From the beginning you know exactly what's going to happen, so it was pretty badly written and directed. The scenery looks really cheap and I really don't know were the director found these terrible actors. Samuel L. Jackson must have done the movie as a favour to the director because I can't see him reading the script, thinking that it was going to be amazing. Personally, I think that it was a total waste of time and money and I just hope that they don't try and kick off a franchise.

Round-Up: What the hell is Samuel L. Jackson doing in this terrible movie. He certainly doesn't need the money, so there must be a hidden agenda, why he agreed to have his name tied to this film. The leading character has only starred in a couple of TV series and she made a brief appearance in one of the Underworld movies. At the age of 20, she really needs to get a move on if she wants to make it in Hollywood because this movie doesn't do her any justice. The same goes for the young boy, who also wasn't that great in the film, so it's obvious that the director casted Samuel L. Jackson to try and get an audience. Sadly, I doubt that people will even rent it on DVD because it's really not that good.

I recommend this movie to people who are into there action/thriller movies about a young girl trying to find out who killed her father with the help from Samuel L. Jackson. 2/10

I turned this off after 20 minutes.

[Cinemaniac1984 · 1/10 · 1 March 2015]

You know you're watching a bad movie when you immediately dislike it after 5 minutes and then in hope of the movie improving it doesn't after 20 minutes. Then when you have lost all hope that this movie will improve you immediately turn off the movie. Kite is one of those movies that has the dishonour of being one of those bad movies that I have pressed stop after 20 minutes. Yes, this movie was so bad I could not go a minute further.

Kite seemed like Kick-Ass (2010) meets Mad Max (1979). This movie is unpleasantly and unappealingly violent and the action scenes were also very poor and unexciting.

Apart from the little known cast, what on earth was Samuel L. Jackson doing in such a rubbish movie?! Looks like he needed a bit of extra money to pay the bills and to keep up his work ethic.

Unless this type of movie appeals to you, don't bother.

1/10.

Completely misses the point

[deathshadow60 · 1/10 · 23 May 2017]

An R rated Kite is a bit like making a PG rated Robocop. The original is a Hentai -- that's pretty much the only reason it even existed is to be Porn.

There is no deeper meaning, the original is a graphically explicit "story" about an underage girl's sexual abuse by a pair of serial rapist cops. The presence of a "story" or even a SETTING is window dressing.

You remove that from the movie, and there's nothing left because everything else in the original was an EXCUSE to fill the rest of the time.

What's next, a PG rated version of Urotsukidōji? A G rated version of Akira?

Ghost in the Shell starring ScarJo? Oh...

bad

[FeastMode · 2/10 · 14 March 2021]

There is nothing here. nothing of value. the action scenes were awful. the editing was terrible. the story was useless. i don't really know how this movie got released. (1 viewing, 3/14/2021)

Just no.

[brianjc-00142 · 1/10 · 5 October 2019]

The film itself as you probably know is based on a brilliant anime film revenge story. The anime is way better. The thing that also griped me is you simply cannot make a x-rated film with sex, gore, torture scenes into a pg-13 film. It doesn't work.

A young girl hunts down the people who killed her parents

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 12 January 2017]

Set in a future where the state has effectively collapsed after a financial meltdown where cartels trade children and what law enforcement there is is corrupt or ineffective an eighteen year old girl is determined to bring down 'The Emir', the leader of one such cartel. She is Sawa, the daughter of a police officer who was orphaned when her parents were murdered when she was twelve. She is looked after by her father's former partner, Lieutenant Karl Aker. Sawa is also hooked on a drug known as 'Amp', which blocks much of her memory. As Sawa works her way through the cartel, Aker cleans up any evidence that could point to her. After one confrontation she meets Oburi, a young man who tells her that they were once friends.

I must say that I have not seen the anime that this film was based on so can't say how this treatment compares. That said I enjoyed this a bit more than I'd expected given its rating here. When we first see Sawa, wearing a vivid pink wig and watching clothes I wondered if perhaps the creators were just a little too keen to make the film look like a live action anime; thankfully that wasn't the case… if anything it looked too grim rather than excessively bright. The story might not be the most original but as revenge thrillers go this wasn't bad. India Eisley does a solid job as Sawa; a character that is tough but still has enough vulnerability to make the viewer think she is in real danger much of the time. This clearly isn't Samuel L. Jackson's best film but he does a fine job as Aker. The rest of the cast are decent enough although some are clearly better than others; many of the villains are a bit too over-the-top but they never last very long. The action scenes were plentiful and fairly brutal with plenty of blood spilt and a few wince inducing moments. There is a twist that many viewers will probably spot in advance but thankfully it is neither too obvious nor is it too unlikely. Overall a decent enough revenge thriller; not a must see but worth checking out if it is on TV or in the DVD bargain bin.

Too dull to stay afloat.

[ghostjunk · 2/10 · 28 September 2015]

In a corrupted society and flawed justice system, one detective decides to take matters in his own hands. Fueled to rid the city of its crime, he trains a young orphan to become his ultimate killing machine. With no memories of her past, she embarks on a series of missions that end up leading her closer to the reality of how she came to be such a violent, cold-blooded assassin.

Based on the 1998 cult classic anime of the same name, it's quite clear that director Ralph Ziman tried and unfortunately failed to re-create the stylized and innovative look its animated counterpart offered. Any form of creative cinematography is absent and the lack of attention to the characters makes it hard to really care about anyone or their outcome. It's got some pretty colorful characters and sets that do help give it a bit of spunk, but the flaws cut in way too deep for even Samuel L. Jackson to heal. This is all the proof you need to know that hyper-violence and fast-paced action alone can't make up for a dull script or the absence of genuine artistic creativity.

Much like waiting in line for a flu shot, Kite will make sure you're left completely bored out of your mind before its uninspiring plot reaches its disappointing end. Hate to give such a poor rating, but this is one flick that completely dug its own grave.

Hard to Understand the Ratings

[j-a-julian · 8/10 · 9 March 2019]

India Eisley? Samuel L Jackson? ... and it gets rated a 4.4???

Did anyone watch this? It's an 8 just based on watching India. Must be some political Hollywood thing I don't understand.

Low budget European feeling action movie. I liked it.

[siderite · 7/10 · 27 October 2014]

The story is based on a Japanese manga/anime that I intend to see momentarily. Without seeing it, though, I can hardly compare it with the film, so my review is for the movie as a standalone.

The first feeling I got when I started watching the movie is that it must be a Luc Besson film. It felt the same way: international cast, a very young female killer and the dreary violence that is usually met in European films. I am still amazed that it is a US/Mexico production.

The acting was also particular. I wouldn't call it bad, just different. India Eisley is incredibly cute, but she is playing this kid killer who wants to avenge her parents. She is an addict for a drug that erases the memory, so she doesn't even remember the parents in the name of which she exacts revenge. She is not a perfect killing machine, instead she is always close to death and only luck and sometimes a mysterious boy are keeping her alive in several occasions.

The world is somewhat similar to the first Mad Max movie, only not a desert, but what is left after "the banks fell and the governments collapsed". Slightly more appropriate for the times than an post apocalyptic world or one caused by shortages of oil.

Overall I enjoyed watching it. The action scenes felt very real, and even if the girl had fighting skills, most of the time it was just about surviving or running away and she got her ass handed to her more than once. No fancy wire-fu, no huge explosions, no rain of bullets. The twist at the end was pretty obvious, I practically waited for it since the beginning of the film, and the boy's character was full with inconsistencies, yet these were not enough to make me regret watching.

Bottom line: the imperfections of the film, the way it is always slightly off recipe, made it worth watching. It is not a masterpiece, but certainly one of the (re)new wave of film making, where actors and directors are starting experimenting again and expressing artistic vision. More of this, please! And India... she's only 21, but she looks like jail bait. The contrast of her childish beauty to her character was another great asset of this movie.

This Movie is Even Worst Than Dragonball Evolution!

[xgray-03873 · 1/10 · 28 April 2016]

I don't even want to even think about this movie at all because I don't know what this was supposed to be at all. Does it even want to be a faithful adaptation of the anime OVA or does it just want to waste Samuel L. Jackson's time and talent?! Because if this movie was trying to make me get into the anime, then it is clearly missing the point of the original. The writing is just terrible, the plot makes no sense at all and the fact that it has little to nothing to do with the anime is just one of the many reasons why I despise Hollywood making god-awful live-action U.S. film adaptations based off of Japanese anime shows and movies.

Bottom line...this movie sucks!!! Don't bother watching this movie and stick with the anime, instead.

Everything is great in the movie except the script which tanks it all

[gpsychos2-239-278464 · 3/10 · 6 May 2015]

This movie just lumbers along to an oft used no surprise ending..

Its a shame because EVERYTHING in this movie is GREAT except the story..

The visuals,cinematic,acting,etc are all mainstream quality!!

The story just sucks all that down into an irretrievable void of boredom and watch watching wondering when it'll all be over

These reviews HAVE to be 10 lines? Seems a little excessive especially when you've already spent a portion of your life on a particularly disappointing movie

Hopefully this saves some of you from a grueling 2 hour snore fest

again?

[G3NSVRV · 1/10 · 7 August 2021]

This is again one example of how a failure/new director takes their own story and change the movie title for some japanese anime/movie even realizing that does not make any sense with the original plot, and of course do this for the sake of views; more people paying to see what this is all about, more income. Same happens to dragon ball evolution and other movies like Ghost in the Shell.

Shady hollywood strategies

anyway, the movie does not make any sense with the original story, KITE is a revenge movie.