Tuer pour survivre

I hardly believe what I see, Neil Mc Donough, a usual supporting villain character, a heir of Lee Van Cleef, Robert Wilke, John Doucette, Skip Homeier, Jack Lambert.... So what a surprise for me to see him as an anti hero role, a professional killer wounded after a "contract" and then helped by a woman - a priest - who has "trouble" with mobsters. The following is very predictable, you can foresee it miles ahead. But it works for this good little B crime movie without any pretention. So please watch it as it is, don't expect too much, it is not a film destined to festivals, only streaming platforms and DVD racks. Some kind of modern times western with McDonough playing Jason Statham or JCVD as he was in the nineties.

Didn't co-writer Neal McDonough notice all the scenes where he needed dialogue, but instead just sat there twiddling his fingers or looking out into space? I actually felt bad that Christiane Seidel's character was yacking away non stop telling her story without any participation from McDonough to assist or compliment her dialogue.

Then you have co-writer and director Derek Presley who just kept the film rolling in those awkward long and dragged out scenes. Seriously, amateur hour writing and directing.

I'm a fan of McDonough, and although when he actually acted (instead of being quiet and twiddling his thumbs looking spaced out), he was good, but when you add the other cliched stereotype characters and their dialogue, everything just went downhill. Even Tommy Flanagan was stale and difficult to understand. The most annoying character though, was Christina Ochoa as Emilia, who's tough-girl act was phony, and as ridiculous as her random verbal diarrhea in another language (the viewer is expected to understand?).

To make matters worse, there was nothing new in this story that's been done many times over, starting in the 80's, and done much better, even back then. The pacing was horrible, and when added to the suspenseless, plot-hole-riddled writing and directing, the normally comfortable 95 min runtime felt endless. There was maybe 5 minutes of some sort of action towards the end, but that's it. Everything else was tumbleweed rolling by the deserted saloon town.

It's too bad, because even as cliched at this was, it could've so easily been much better had the right director and writers been hired. The best qualities were the very good and fitting score (surprising for a B film), and some decent cinematography and landscape shots. It's a generous 5/10 from me.

This is a TV-level, slow-moving action story with excellent actors who save the movie from being much worse than it is. Nothing special about the plot except it's mostly older people (e.g., McDonough and Flanagan) with far less-than-believable backstories. Like almost all of these B- low-budget films, it relies on the frustrating stupidity of the characters to extend the action, but I'm only deducting 1 point for that (since at least they didn't knock down a bad guy and then fail to take his gun : ) but also had to deduct a point for the silly female antagonist, a cliché cardboard player who's ridiculous evilness makes the whole thing less realistic.

The film gets a little slow but that makes sense because it's clearly inspired by old westerns like Shane and Hondo (two films with one cowboy guy protecting a woman and child in a dangerous west environment).

I'm a big Neal McDonough fan. Grew up watching Band of Brothers with my dad and later enjoyed him as a baddie in Walking Tall and Arrow. He was also in Resident evil, which I just saw and actually liked.

It was cool to see him be this western hero in a modern world.

Cinematography was awesome.

Loved the score.

Fun cast.

Some brilliant and fun action scenes (one with a spoon in a man's neck).

My only gripe is it was marketed as more of an action film and it's really a slow burn, which I do like a lot, but I can see action-fan boys and people who want carnage and gore throughout the run time to be a little let down.

Not at all as bad as these reviews are stating. Just a little slow but big payoff.

7/10.

I was going to give this movie a average 5 star rating, then as it went along it became a 4 star rating and by the end it was 3 stars.

Character development-none...for anyone.

Writing...25% of the movie is someone screaming out the other person's name.

Plot...god question, when you find out let me know.

Drama/thriller...you do not care who get shot or why. There is no sympathy for any character.

Smart decision...maybe one, that the movie ends in 87 minutes and not destroy two or more hours of your life. Besides that, the movie continues to make the wrong decision. Not a single person ever called 911, including law enforcement.

Direction...patheic....a shootout in the middle of town and no one notices? I have a head start and multiple vehicles but I decide to stay for and wait for the villians because of what reason? Don't know.

Acting...there are some capable B-actors, but they are working with crappy scripts.

Just skip it.