Kill Shot - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Kill Shot



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Whooooooo boy. I don’t think that I’ve been able to sit through something like this for a looong time. I usually give these “super commando” indie films within the bubble of “it’s good enough for what it is”, but Kill Shot takes cheese and over indulgence to the next level. The film opens with a fairly serious opening scrawl that lets us know that after the pull out in Afghanistan that the drug trade (specifically related to poppies) is booming thanks to the United States influence no longer keeping a lid on things in the middle east. Then we immediately segue into a scene where a bunch of commandos dressed in airsoft gear (and carrying some hilariously slapped together weapons) are hunting down a mysterious “package” that was with the missing pilot of a downed aircraft.

Simultaneously we meet our hero, Jackson Hardison (played by writer Rib Hillis), an ex Navy Seal whose daughter recently died, his wife was caught cheating on him, and needs money badly. He’s given a job in the form of taking hunting rookie Kate (Rachel Cook) into the Montana mountains to bag her first Elk, and bury her father’s ashes. Things go haywire in less than a day when Jackson finds the case full of cash that before mentioned super commandos are tracking, and decides to keep it. Only thing is, the mercenaries want it more, and they’re willing to kill both Jackson and Kate in order to get their money back.

The movie itself is stupidly simple. Jackson and Kate have to take advantage of Jackson’s Navy Seal training and get off the mountain alive. This means hunting them, getting hunted, and of course setting traps in order to thin the her so to speak. That being said, the overall plot doesn’t prepare you for just how baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad this movie is. As I said above, I’m usually willing to give some leniency for low budget action films due to the fact that they can’t hire the John Wick choreographers and writers, but Writer/Actor Rib Hillis is going for Razzie award of the year for this baby. The dialog is utterly ATROCIOUS, and I mean ATROCIOUS. We get immeasurably cheesy lines while Rib stares into the camera such as “It’s just you and me Frog Man, and I eat Navy Seals for breakfast!” (seriously, did he just steal the Green Beret line from Arnie’s Commando?), and “when you can’t see the target, you become the target”. Or Rachel Cook’s Kate spending about 20 minutes of the movie running around in a flannel shirt and black cheeky panties, or camo pants (which Jackson was carrying in his ruck sack that was MAGICALLY form fitting to a 5 foot 2 inch girl) and black bra. Not to mention the absolutely HILARIOUS imagined “half-way” sex scene that happens at the mid point of the film that was so stinking hilarious that I rewound the film, drug my wife into the room just so the two of us could go into peels of laughter.

Then there’s the action. Spoiler alert. If you’re not a gun guy, or someone who’s into military style action, then this portion is going to get a bit nerdy for you. Action is all over the place, with a couple of decent action sequences, but most of it being very cookie cutter. And the guns themselves. Oh boy, you can tell that this was shot on a shoestring budget for sure. They were all looking like they came out of the director’s personal gun collection, and he threw whatever he had in his safe at the actors to use. They’re running around with a couple of basic AR 15s in semi auto, and an AR pistol (that gets re-used for like 3 different scenes with different actors) with a brace on it (ironic now that the ATF has made braces illegal), and they all carry the same Makarov looking pistol as well. Then there’s the bad girl running around in tight black leather and using one of those glock carbine conversion frames for her Glock pistol. A pistol that she uses to make long range shots at Jackson and Kate, only for her to pull out a Scar 17 later!!! Where in blazes was THAT when they were running through the brush! I just couldn't shake the feeling that we were watching an air soft battle on TV rather than actual gun fight.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The 1.78:1 framed Blu-ray looks pretty solid too. It’s got that “digital documentary” look to it in bright daylight sequences, but a sort of gritty and noisy look when things get dark. The best scenes in the entire movie will be some of those far away shots looking over the icy Montana landscape, but close ups in the wilderness can be really revealing as well. There were some definite grain spikes here and there, and some weird flicking debris type look in a few second shots (that was really weird). Black levels are decent, with only minor banding, but colors could be muted sometimes due to the softness of some long shots. Overall it looks pretty good, and some moments look truly great.









Audio:

The audio is about on par with the video score. It’s a solid enough 5.1 DTS-HD MA track for a super low budget film. The bass is pretty timid, but still shows up for a few action sequences. Dialog is crisp and clear, and I only had a few moments were voices got lost (it sounded like some post work ADR being applied in those scenes). Surrounds are mild, but still get some usage in the Montana wilderness, though hilariously so, the main score sounds like a Wish.com version of the Terminator score!












Extras:

• Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score: ​

I honestly laughed myself hoarse throughout the entire 93 minute run time. Rib takes himself WAAAAAAAAY too seriously, and the movie is going for that super duper commando hero character that just doesn’t pan out at the end. Even the “twist” ending was telegraphed a mile away. Honestly, this is one of those movies that so bad that it’s almost good. Or at least in this case, hilarious to watch because it is THAT bad. The Blu-ray looks and sounds ok, but no extras and a story like this? Yeah, I’m recommending a full on skip unless you have about 6 shots of bourbon to go along with the movie.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Rachel Cook, Rib Hillis, Xian Mikol
Directed by: Ari Novak
Written by: Rib Hillis, Ari Novak
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 112 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: August 15th, 2023

Recommendation: Skip It