The Killing Machine

While the plot is nothing new (government contract killer falls for one of his assignments), this Canadian-lensed action drama is a cut above the rest. The amazing, intense Jeff Wincott plays the contract killer, and the fetching, vulnerable Terri Hawkes is the assignment he falls for. The always dependable Michael Ironside is Wincott's shadowy boss, a government official of sorts who is told who to kill, if not always why. This low-budget actioner was filmed and produced with the care and attention to detail of many A-level productions. And Wincott is thoroughly believable as a killing machine who develops a conscience. The fight scenes are extremely well staged, and they are frequent. Some decent nudity and a couple of detailed sex scenes keep the attention from flagging between fights and shootouts. Kudos to the director/writer, who clearly knew how to get the most for his money.

This is a warning for everyone to stay away from this piece of garbage. The plot is simple. Jeff Wincott was once a hit-man, and after he died he was brought back to life to do killing for the government. This plot has lots of potential, but unfortunately it is totally wasted here. It just keeps getting worse and worse, and in the end I was supporting the bad guys, even though they weren't exactly the most charismatic bunch of people I've witnessed. Wincott delivered some great fighting and action in movies like "Martial Law 2", "Mission of Justice", "Deadly Bet" and even "Martial Outlaw", and that means that I got really disappointed when it turned out that this film sucked to the extreme on that level. Very bad fight scenes, nearly no action, and it sucks big time. I advise everyone to just pretend that this movie doesn't exist at all.

Ruggedly handsome DTV action pin-up, Jeff Wincott plays, Harlin Garrett, an amnesiac burns victim who regains consciousness in an austere warehouse space, discovers to his increasing disorientation that he has undergone plastic surgery, finding himself being closely scrutinized by the altogether disagreeable villain, Mr. Green (Michael Ironside). Harlin later discovers that he used to be a ruthlessly efficient hit man, now replete with a shiny new pretty face, looking not unlike actor, Jeff Wincott, he reluctantly finds himself ordered by his Machiavellian handler to kill, only this time Harlin's targets are seemingly innocent civil servants, whereas previously he would only assassinate those guilty of the most heinous crimes.

Fundamentally, 'The Killing Man' is formulaic PM Entertainment-style whizz-bang frippery, yet this fortuitously fast-moving, noir-ish actioner delivered some bone-crunchingly bellicose Kung Fu beat downs, and some enjoyably splattery shoot-outs, as dead-eye Harlin Garrett wends his inevitably bloody way to a corpse-strewn showdown, wherein the aggrieved, Garret fatefully changes allegiances, resolutely turning the tables on the shadowy, malevolent Mr. Green's far from gun shy henchmen and bringing them all to justice, his way! The steely presences of taciturn, Jeff Wincott and the menacing, Michael Ironside bolstering the B-Movie shenanigans herein, Wincott's enigmatic, morally conflicted killer, Harlin playing well against the Canadian icon's rapaciously immoral, Mr. Green!

While some folk have a tendency to over scrutinize B-Movies, I usually keep my expectations in check, and for me at least, this noisome shoot 'em up proved to be more than passable late-night brain melt. You have a credibly conflicted, action-ready, heavy-hitting hit man in Garrett and a tremendously 'hiss-able' villain in the glacial guise of the eminently loathsome, Mr. Green, contrasting rather nicely against a delightfully non-cliched damsel-in-distress with Garrett's perky love interest, Dr. Ann Kendall (Terri Hawkes), so I mostly kinda' dug it, the unsophisticated actioner temporarily took my mind off grotty life stuff, and sometimes that's all I need from a B-Movie!

Do not let the presence of interesting actor Michael Ironside, tempt you into watching "The Killing Man". This bad excuse for a martial arts film is tedious, contrived, and rather ridiculous. The story is nothing more than a series of encounters with Jeff Wincott as a programed, back from the dead assassin, eliminating those who could expose this country's involvement in a plot "are you ready?", that the U.S. government introduced the aids virus. Other annoyances include Wincott mumbling "What do you want from me?" countless times, sets that resemble an empty warehouse, a requisite strip club scene, philosophical discussions about killing and redemption, slow motion showcasing, and other total nonsense. Bad, and not good bad by any stretch of the imagination. - MERK

Jeff Wincott stars as Harlan Quinn a hit-man who wakes up to find that he's been declared dead and that he's been recruited to work for the CIA in killing anybody who's a threat to the government, this has all been set up by the mysterious Mr.Green (Michael Ironside) and his first targets include a homosexual advocate, a muckraking journalist and a female professor with information that the AIDs virus was manufactured. Dr.Ann Kendall (Terri Hawkes) is the last one of Wincott's list but he finds himself falling for his prey and when the time comes for the kill, Quinn ends up protecting Kendall from the assassins now gunning for them both in this intense thriller. Jeff Wincott gives an impressive performance and Ironside makes for a great villain which elevates this far above the usual output of this worn out hit-man genre.

4/5 Matt Bronson