Summer Love

With every review warning people away from this film, one would have to have some kind of masochistic streak to want to watch a film like this. However, my reasons are more to do with the fact that this used to air on cable rather frequently for whatever reason. However, I never saw the film through, only the last 15 minutes, and the last 15 minutes are quite a trip.

It's a film that sticks with you but not really for good reasons. However, the final 15 minutes -- if that's all you saw -- will leave you equally confused and intrigued. And so for years I have thought about this film because I had no idea what was going on. It was frequently advertised as "starring Val Kilmer", and who wouldn't want to see a Western starring Val Kilmer?

Well, I can thoroughly say that his is not a good film. But to be fair, the cinematography is not bad and the audio design is passable. The problem is that everything else is terrible. The acting is terrible. The editing is horrible. And it has some of the worst pacing in movie history.

The plot here is basically non-existent. That's why the IMDB description is so sparse. The whole conflict within the movie is also embarrassing, as it all transpires from a misunderstanding. And then devolves into a bloody mess for literally no good reason.

It all culminates to that finale I talked about at the start of the review. Is it worth watching for the final 15 minutes? Heck no. Is it worth watching for Val Kilmer? No, because he's not actually in it.

The movie tries to be non-linear at times, showing things in the past and then zipping back to the present, and then showing things in the future and then zipping back to the past, but none of it works. The dialogue is atrocious and none of the characters explain anything or have anything interesting to say.

There are no proper action sequences -- even the final 15 minutes isn't a proper action sequence, and how it resolves itself doesn't make a whole lot of sense and will leave you scratching your head as to what you just watched.

Also, Karel Rodan looks good as a gunslinger, but doesn't get to do much gunslinging, and doesn't say a word. It could have been a compelling character but the writer/director had no clue what to do with him. A real shame and a real waste for sure.

I wish I would have read more reviews and more opinions about this movie before I rented it. A waste of money. A waste of time. Very little dialog. The dialog was hard to understand in every way. The storyline and plot were both weak. The only thing that was nice at all was the cinematography.

The characters were interesting. At the same time you will spend so much time trying to figure things out, because of the lack of dialog, that you will be rewinding the movie a lot.

Do not watch this movie. It was a mess and will leave you feeling like a mess.

You will say, what the heck was that, when the movie ends?

Ever wish there was a movie where Val Kilmer plays a dead corpse? Like...the whole movie? Well you're in luck, because in Summer Love he does just that. It's funny because there aren't even any flashbacks, any death scene or any instances where he's alive. He's just a dead body for the whole. friggin. movie. Now you might think what a lazy, pay cheque collecting half ass move, but let me assure you that stuff isn't easy. I've played a corpse in films for maybe minutes at a time after I've bee killed, and that was bad enough. Thinking about having to lie still and do that for an entire film gives me hives. So kudos to Val who sticks through it like a champ, spending every frame all rigor mortis-ed up and dead as disco. The film was released in North America unde the DVD title 'Dead Man's Bounty' a decidedly more genre title than Summer Love, which is all part of an effort to label it as a violent action western. It's It's a western, alright and it's plenty violent. But action? No sir. It's slower than the service I get at McDonald's and very, very European. Most of the actors besides Kilmer are Polish, kind of like Eastwood waltzing around with a bunch of Italians in a spaghetti western. I guess the term for this one would be perogy western. The lead actor is actually Czech, the ever awesome Karel Roden, playing a perpetually wounded and apparently mute gunslinger who arrives in a dinghole of a town with Kilmer's body, looking to collect his bounty. The town is a sour, miserable, derelict place, populated by bad tempered, booze gulping men, and one much abused whore (Katarzyna Figura). The sheriff (Boguslaw Linda) is a stumbling, incapable drunkard whose first thought is to rob anyone who passes through his town. Roden silently navigates this cesspool outpost, keeping Kilmer near and his guns at the ready. Not much actually happens in the film, mostly everyone just sits around drinking and mumbling incoherently to themselves in tones that no doubt sound poetic to their heavily inebriated minds. The whore gets slapped around a whole lot which will no doubt put some viewers off, if they aren't already asleep. The 'Summer Love' title comes from the chorus of a song which is played in an opening sequence that proves to be one of the few sparks of life in this fairly dead affair. Kilmer's trademark peppiness is nowhere to be found because... well... he's a dead guy, and the rest of the cast are basically drunk western zombies who have all lost their scripts. Morbidly fascinating, never enjoyable, startlingly bad.

I have to agree with a previous reviewer. A good western can be made in any nation so this is no reflection on Poland. I also love a good spaghetti western but I was very disappointed with this one. It looks like it was easy fast money and an easy fast credit for Val Kilmer so he was smart to take the job since it was only one day. I hope the next western I see that was made in Poland will be better. It looks like the actors did the best they could with what they had. Hang in there everyone.

I mean, come on! Now my countrymen have started to make westerns! Is it not enough that our cinema sucks already? Now you need to infect English-language movies with Polish acting and no sense whatsoever? Please, stay away from this movie, do not waste your eyes on it. A 5-year-old baby could make a movie that makes more sense. I am from Poland and I am ashamed this title might actually be watched by you. Please, I am begging you, do NOT watch this movie and if you do, do NOT judge Polish people and Polish movies based on what you see there. We had some good movies in our history and we had some bad ones but this one - it is like nothing worse that I have seen in my entire life. Keep away!!!