Ever since he lost his young daughter, Jackson Hardison’s (Rib Hillis) and his wife Sarah (Xian Mikol) have been drifting apart. So when he comes home from a mountain climbing trip to find his wife sleeping with another man, that’s the last straw. He takes a job from an old friend at a wilderness park in Montana, serving as a guide for a new client Kate (Rachel Cook), who wants to go on the hunting trip she never got to take with her father, and bury his ashes along the way. While out in the Big Sky wilderness, Jackson stumbles upon a body hanging from a tree, with a briefcase full of cash at his feet. After he picks up the briefcase, he soon discovers that about a dozen heavily-armed, professional commandos have been combing the forest looking for their lost treasure, and are now hunting Sarah and him down to get it back. He’s going to need to use his training as a former Navy SEAL to take down these terrorists if he’s going to make it out of this wilderness alive.
While the premise of this film sounded great, the execution was so disappointing. The film starts off extremely slow, following this young girl endlessly walking across the Afghanistan landscape carrying a large sack. As she passes a woman on the road, she drops a smaller leather bag, that contains a walkie talkie, which the leader of the commandos, Dina (Mara Ohara), picks up and uses to call the rest of her team to let them know the briefcase is on its way. The girl then drops off the larger sack containing the briefcase to some Afghani soldiers in a truck before Dina’s team attacks, taking them out retrieving the briefcase. Why Dina didn’t just get the briefcase directly from this little unarmed girl in the first place is beyond me, and this type of logic continues throughout the film.
The dialogue/acting and action sequences are also quite sub-par. These commandos are supposed to be these heavily-trailed professionals and yet it feels like they went to Stormtrooper Shooting Academy, missing everything they spray bullets at. And when any bullets do manage to hit a target, there’s no blood or evidence of it—the target just falls to the ground. Punches and hits in close combat also fail to hit or look realistic. A little more successful was the film’s homage to Ethan Hunt and the Mission: Impossible movies as we first meet Jackson and he’s climbing an icy mountain solo, and then the camera pans out to show how high up he is. Speaking of this, the visuals of the film look fantastic. The Montana backdrop is bright and beautiful, and captured with an excellent level of detail. Had I not known I was watching a Blu-ray, I would have sworn this was a 4K release.
The filmmakers try to give Jackson this deeper backstory, with him constantly having flashbacks to show his time in battle, how he lost his daughter, and how his marriage fell apart, but I found these to be a bit jarring, and took me out of the moment of the action. The worst offender was a fantasy fake-out with Jackson going down on Kate as they are right in the middle of trying to run away from the commandos. In regards to that, parts of this film felt very much like a ’90s or ’00s exploitative action TV series/movie, with Kate in her black lace panties (because of course she dressed like this to go camping/hunting) as the commandos find them, and is then forced to run down the mountain holding a gun, and with her cheeks hanging out.
While I really wanted to like this film based on the premise, I found it too predictable, even when it tries to go for some twists and turns, and the action sequences did not feel believable. I was also quite disappointed in how they chose to end the movie.
One of the positives is that Well Go’s Blu-ray release looks amazing, with a stellar clean, clear picture throughout that really captures the natural beauty of the Montana setting. The dialogue is generally clear throughout, though there was one scene where something was on fire, and the dialogue became a bit overpowered or garbled by this burning sound.
Well Go’s Blu-ray release is barebones, just including the film’s trailer and some previews for three other Well Go releases as bonus material. The disc comes packed in a locking HD keepcase, and doesn’t include a digital copy. Our review copy did not include a slipcover.
What’s Included:
Film: (1:33:16)
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Blu-ray:
- 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English DTS-HDMA 5.1, English Stereo
- Subtitles: English
Extras:
- Trailer (1:13)
- Previews
- Warhorse One (2:21)
- Bone Cold (1:33)
- Forgotten Experiment (2:28)
Final Thoughts:
Kill Shot had a great premise with so much potential, but the execution was a bit underwhelming. It starts off a bit slow, the action sequences aren’t really up to par, and the ending is a bit disappointing. While I was expecting a big, tense action movie, what I got felt more like one of those action films from 20-30 years ago you stumble across on basic cable on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Fans of the film will be pleased by the excellent picture quality of Well Go’s Blu-ray disc, but first time viewers may be better off with a rental.
Kill Shot
$14.99 (as of October 31, 2024 17:39 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Kill Shot
44% Off $24.98 $13.98 (as of October 31, 2024 17:39 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Kill Shot
$12.99 (as of October 31, 2024 17:39 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
