By now, you would think that the prolific B movie producing team of. Randall Emmett and George Furla would have managed to improve SOME of their skills producing direct to DVD efforts, but "Hard Kill" doesn't prove to be an improvement over most of their other movies.
With their frequent movie actor Bruce Willis, you probably know what to expect. For starters, this is yet another Willis/Emmett/Furla exercise where the extremely and notoriously lazy Willis just lent his acting services for a couple of days for a few million dollars, meaning that he doesn't appear all that much. Actually, I can't say Willis lends his "acting services" because he doesn't make ANY effort to act at all. He sits down for most of his limited scenes, and when he talks he seems to come across as heavily medicated.
In fairness to Willis, none of the other actors in the cast come across as even remotely competent in their performances, though the somnambulist performances by all may come from the fact that the dialogue is downright terrible, full of cliched statements and awkward utterances. The rest of the screenplay is bad as well, setting 90% of the movie in one particular abandoned factory, and with plot turns you'll see coming a mile away.
So why am I not giving this movie just one star out of ten? Well, director Matt Eskandari does occasionally rise slightly above the limited budget, bad script, and confined location. The movie is well lit and photographed, and he manages to throw in a few somewhat interesting camera movements and angles. Had he managed to make the action sequences good, and the pacing exciting and suspenseful, there MIGHT have been a chance the end product could have been passable. However, Eskandari can't rise enough to make the action and atmosphere sparkle.
In other words, if you are even just slightly familiar with Willis/Emmett/Furla collaborations, you will know exactly how this particular effort will come off even before you start watching it.
With their frequent movie actor Bruce Willis, you probably know what to expect. For starters, this is yet another Willis/Emmett/Furla exercise where the extremely and notoriously lazy Willis just lent his acting services for a couple of days for a few million dollars, meaning that he doesn't appear all that much. Actually, I can't say Willis lends his "acting services" because he doesn't make ANY effort to act at all. He sits down for most of his limited scenes, and when he talks he seems to come across as heavily medicated.
In fairness to Willis, none of the other actors in the cast come across as even remotely competent in their performances, though the somnambulist performances by all may come from the fact that the dialogue is downright terrible, full of cliched statements and awkward utterances. The rest of the screenplay is bad as well, setting 90% of the movie in one particular abandoned factory, and with plot turns you'll see coming a mile away.
So why am I not giving this movie just one star out of ten? Well, director Matt Eskandari does occasionally rise slightly above the limited budget, bad script, and confined location. The movie is well lit and photographed, and he manages to throw in a few somewhat interesting camera movements and angles. Had he managed to make the action sequences good, and the pacing exciting and suspenseful, there MIGHT have been a chance the end product could have been passable. However, Eskandari can't rise enough to make the action and atmosphere sparkle.
In other words, if you are even just slightly familiar with Willis/Emmett/Furla collaborations, you will know exactly how this particular effort will come off even before you start watching it.