Killing Season

Killing Season (2013)

Runtime: 90 minutes (although the last 10 are some of the slowest moving credits you'll ever see)

Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson

Starring: Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Milo Ventimiglia, Elizabeth Olin

From: Millennium/Nu Image

As I mentioned last night, I saw that this movie is being streamed for free on Xbox this weekend so I decided to take them up on the offer. I had heard about it before from a messageboard, where several people had seen it and there were mixed reviews. I don't think I would have ever paid to see it so this was perfect for me. The director being the guy who wrote and/or directed such “classics” as the Michael Keaton Jack Frost, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and When in Rome did give me pause, for sure.

The plot, stolen from the IMDb: “Two veterans of the Bosnian War -- one American, one Serbian -- find their unlikely friendship turn tense with one of them reveals their true intentions.” To elaborate, Travolta is the Serbian. Yes. His Abe Lincoln facial hair, almost shaved head and hilarious attempt at what he thinks is a Serbian accent: hilarious. He decides to hunt down De Niro's character in order to gain revenge for what happened in the 90's.

The highlights include the two old men doing shots of Jaegermeister and talking about the 90's, De Niro sometimes trying a Southern accent, De Niro telling dirty jokes, someone being waterboarded WITH A PITCHER OF LEMONADE, and other funny/wacky moments.

The movie isn't awful (I've seen far worse 2013 movies, that is for damn sure) but it isn't great. It's average, which was better than what I was expecting. There are some stupid moments and things that just don't make a whole lot of sense. I am not surprised given the director. I enjoyed the wacky and silly moments, sure, but it takes awhile for it to get going. I won't complain about the scenery (a lot of it is set in the woods), as it is very scenic and pretty; it was filmed in Georgia.

I do enjoy the idea of the movie being mano a mano, two guys and two guys alone doing battle against each other in the woods and the weapons aren't usually more high tech than a bow and arrow and sometimes they have to create makeshift weapons on the spot with random materials that are nearby.

The movie is more even-keel than I expected. I mean, there's ambiguous moments and you'd expect old Bobby De Niro to be the hero but it's not as clear at that in this movie. That was interesting, although I know that some people did not like how it ended and it is understandable. I was not upset with the ending except that it seemed like they dragged it out too long, and yeah I do agree it could come off as being implausible after what you had seen before that point.

Overall, it was average. I was expecting it to be worse but if they would have done some things different and cut out the nonsensical elements, I would have rated it higher. As is, at least it's not a long movie and you may think it is good yourself... or you could think it was worse than I thought. It's one of those movies where it could be quite polarizing.

I won't be back until Tuesday night.