Kill Ratio

Oh well ... B-movie action. I mean one should know what to expect right? I guess so. But this Die Hard in a Hotel bargain bin thing really doesn't cut it. The main actor really does not have enough charisma to carry the whole movie. The story is simple enough, there is also action involved, so I guess there are a few things that be put on the plus side of the equation.

There's a bit of nudity and a lot of action. There's also a lot of CGI, that tries hard to look as real as possible. But short from going "bang bang", the shots fired from guns are obviously not real. Now I know, I shouldn't have time to judge that ... but what else was I going to do?

The lead dude is cool and Amy Huberman, along with another gratuitous chick who gets killed, does a pretty good job of being tasty in this absolutely ridiculous story that is borderline campy. Got through it in 4 or 5 installments. Somehow it was an ok experience for a B minus movie.

camera-work and sound OK. Character buildup - zero. Sound effects in fight scenes - exaggerated.

big plus: gratuitous nudity.

heavy on the stereotypes - rude Russian generals, Hero American cold-blooded CIA, emotional eastern European women.

and why are these people speaking English 90% of the time but sometimes they do speak whatever the hell their language is supposed to be?

Did not expect much in the first place before watching 'Kill Ratio'. It sounded interesting, but it did look like a not very well made, ridiculous and by the numbers film with not particularly good actors. Saw 'Kill Ratio' anyway out of curiosity, being intrigued by the idea and having been a lot of low-budget films recently (most not very good to put it lightly).

'Kill Ratio' turned out to be more or less, make that exactly even, what was expected. Except worse. It started off pretty well, giving off the sense that maybe the film won't be bad and be better than it seemed. This didn't stay for long though and it is something of a shame. After the opening, the film went down south catastrophically very quickly and never recovered or improved. Actually got pretty much worse as it progressed.

On a visual level, 'Kill Ratio' looked shoddy. Drab and simplistic, with haphazard editing, far from slick photography and very artificial-looking and overused to the point of abuse effects/CGI.

The sound/soundtrack are intrusive and obvious and the direction has no sense of atmosphere or pacing, nothing to be thrilled by and nothing much engaging.

Script is awkward-sounding and ponderous, with lines that do make one cringe. A lot of it is gibberish and juvenile, with a stilted improvisatory feel that shouldn't have made it past draft stages.

On top of that, the story goes through the motions with no tension, suspense or thrills, a lot of intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, implausibility and pacing so dull that it makes a reasonably short length much longer. The action sequences are more preposterous and by the numbers than they are thrilling or fun, a big problem for a film so heavy on this aspect. The terrible way they look also hinder them.

Characters are basically every stereotype in the book it seems and are one-dimensional caricatures with no likeability or development and with the inability to behave logically. The acting is very poor all round with a very uncharismatic lead for one.

In summary, bad film in almost every way. 2/10 Bethany Cox

'KILL RATIO': Three Stars (Out of Five)

A low-budget B-action flick; about a badass American covert operative, that's trying to defend the president of a poor European country against a ruthless military takeover. The film stars Tom Hopper, as the heroic badass, and it costars Amy Huberman, Lacy Moore, Nick Dunning, Brian McGuinness and Luke Pierucci. It was directed by Paul Tanter (a veteran of the genre), and it was written by Steven Palmer Peterson (a debut screenwriter). The film reminds me of the type of bad B-action flick I grew up on (one of the less memorable ones though); so in some ways it's kind of nostalgic, but it's mostly just bad.

Hopper plays James Henderson, a highly skilled (and somewhat witty) U.S. covert operative; that's on assignment in a small European country (with an unstable democracy). The country has recently elected a new President (Moore), who promises to bring new hope to the people there. The general of the corrupt country's military, General Lazar (Dunning), wants to do away with the new democracy though; by killing the President, and anyone else that gets in his way. He didn't count on James Henderson though (of course).

The film is exactly like so many 80s action movies that I watched as a kid, the kind that used to play repeatedly on TBS (most of them starring Chuck Norris or Dolph Lundgren). Hopper is definitely charismatic in the lead, and he thinks he's pretty funny. He doesn't have what it takes to be a big star though, but he could definitely keep doing direct-to-video movies like this (and TV, which he's already doing). The director and writer should probably stick to this genre as well. The movie is mildly entertaining, but I think you have to be a pretty big fan of the the genre to even get that out of it.

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