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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: 12/11/2012
Director: Raimund Huber
Cast: Gordon Liu, Johnny Messner, , Joe Lewis, Tim Man, Ammara Siripong
Year: 2012
Purchase from Amazon
The Movie:
A number of elite assassins, the best in their field, are kidnapped and brought to an inescapable facility in Bangkok Thailand. The purpose: a game of death. A mysterious man explains to them they are all to fight one another until only one survives, with matches decided upon by numbered items in their possessions. They all have different specialties and they come from different worlds (an American demolitions expert, a monk-type hothead, the obligatory hot chick, an ex-professional fighter), but at their cores they are all born killers.
Not everyone is complacent to wait for a turn in the next death match. Gabirel (Johnny Messner) the American, knows this will not end well for the victor, so he works on Som (Ammara Siripong) to form an alliance and try to break out. After some bodies stack up, she agrees to work with him and try to escape, and along with The Kid (Tim Man), they fight their way to the big boss, Snakehead (Gordon Liu). From there it's a big showdown between the good murderous psychopaths, and the rotten murderous psychopaths.
Entertaining enough, with lots of action, violence, and testosterone to please most slam-bam-thank you ma'am action hounds, Kill 'Em All has some style to it to help make it at least fun to sit through. But let's face it…this is nothing more than a live action video game with a story even the passive video game player will recognize. Fight bad guys to the death, but work through the low-level ones first. Then get to the mid-level bosses, and once you dispatch them, go on to the big boss of the game.
Acting-wise, things are pretty straightforward. Obviously some of the actors are trained in fighting techniques, and some are not. The fight choreography is pretty typical, but there're certainly some cool segments to drink in, especially with Gordon Liu fighting. The fight scenes are fast and frantic, with lots of quick edits and shaky cam, but since that's the norm now, what are you going to do? Suck it up one supposes.
It's a simple movie: take a basic and uninspired story, stick to a classic video game formula, throw in some movie cliches, a woman with an amazing body, and mindless fight scenes and you have a brainless winner. A fun brainless winner though.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The picture looks very nice in high definition, with a 1080p image, and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Colors and skin tones look spot-on, and the detail is sharp. The black levels are nice and deep and there is nothing out of the ordinary to note. It presents a very pleasing image that shouldn't disappoint. A 5.1 DTS-HD MA track handles the sound chores adequately, using the surround capability well. The volume never gets too obnoxious and the dialogue is easy to understand.
Extras…a trailer for the feature. Pretty bare on that aspect.
The Final Word:
It's a fun movie that you'll probably forget about after you watch it, but a fun movie to zone out too nonetheless.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
