7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A tenderfoot from Philadelphia, two misfit gamblers on the run, and a deadly preacher have a date with destiny in a boom town gone bust called Big Kill.
Starring: Jason Patric, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christoph Sanders, Scott Martin (XII), K.C. ClydeWestern | 100% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
We may be at a point where the so-called “revisionist western” has “revised” itself right back into “traditional western” territory, at least if Big Kill is any indication. While often intentionally jokey in a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid kind of way, especially with regard to the bantering interplay between two of the main characters, Big Kill tends to exploit tried and true western tropes instead of attempting reinvent the (wagon?) wheel. The results are surprisingly spry, at least for those willing to wade through a few undeniable clichés. The film opens in what almost plays like a send up of the ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with interlopers Travis Parker (Clint Hummel) and Jake Morgan (Scott Martin, who also wrote and directed) surrounded by a small but aggressive Mexican army force led by General Morales (Danny Trejo). It’s obvious that Travis and Jake are just basically “good old boys”, though they’ve evidently divorced the General from some funds, and one of them is actually in the process of deflowering the General’s daughter, leading to expected consequences. The two hightail it out of Mexico into Texas, surprised to see that the General is so intent on bringing them to justice he’s broken international law by simply crossing the Rio Grande (or whatever the rather smallish river that is shown is supposed to be), continuing the chase the two to a small cavalry encampment they happen across. When the commanding officer of the fort, Colonel Granger (Michael Paré), informs the General he’s on the verge of starting a war, the General unhappily retreats, but it at least appears for a moment that Travis and Jake aren’t totally out of the woods, since the Colonel wants them to stick around until he can figure out what to do with them. When an east coast dandy named Jim Andrews (Christoph Sanders) shows up at the fort, all bets are off, though, once James reveals his brother owns a saloon at an Arizona boom town known as Big Kill, something that sparks the interest of Travis and Jake.
Big Kill is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative technical data on this shoot, but my assumption is this was culled from a 2K DI of a digitally captured source. This is often a very scenic film, even if Big Kill itself looks decidedly like an old school backlot. Some of the best fine detail emerges in the really impressive and often very colorful costumes various characters wear. Everything from bright oranges to lime greens are exploited, and often pop with excellent saturation. Detail on fibers and the like is similarly precise looking. The palette looks natural throughout and many of the wide vistas (seen mostly in the opening moments of the film) have nice depth of field.
Big Kill features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that provides some big swells of surround activity courtesy of Kays Al-Atrakchi's enjoyable score, but which has some kind of odd sounding moments with regard to dialogue at times. I'm not sure if perhaps things were post-dubbed and ambient differences are part of this, but there are moments where the dialogue sounds kind of boxy, on the "dry" side (i.e., lacking reverb or "space"), with what sounds like just slight distortion in the upper midrange. That particular anomaly aside, there is nice placement of ambient environmental effects in the many outdoor scenes, and elements like gunshots reverberate clearly and with quite a bit of force.
No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray disc.
I was kind of surprisingly engaged by Big Kill. This is a film unafraid to travel western roads that are veritable rut fields, a la the Oregon Trail, having been gone down so many times before. I kind of wish Martin had gone for even more of the gusto in some of the hints he drops in terms of references to other westerns, not to mention a kind of cheeky attitude that I personally feel might have been pushed even a bit further. Big Kill may not do anything new, but it offers some fun performances and a generally breezy approach to its subject that feels unexpectedly refreshing. Technical merits are decent (audio) to excellent (video), and with caveats noted, Big Kill comes Recommended.
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