Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Bounty Killer Blu-ray Movie Review

Cheerful Bloodshed

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 25, 2013

If not for the pervasive digital sheen and graphic novel transitions, Bounty Hunter could easily be mistaken for a lost treasure from the golden era of OZsploitation chronicled in the 2008 documentary Not Quite Hollywood, where films were driven by gratuitous nudity, senseless violence, car crashes, martial arts and copious gore. As it happens, the film's all-American creative minds, cousins Henry Saine (director and co-writer) and Jason Dodson (co-writer), are devoted fans of The Road Warrior, one of OZsploitation's greatest achievements, and they've included a memorable homage to that film's concluding chase sequence. But Saine and Dodson also love Death Race 2000 and their homegrown Roger Corman school of cheap thrills. The Corman aesthetic is everywhere visible in Bounty Hunter.

Saine worked for many years as a graphic artist on such mainstream projects as Will & Grace, That '70s Show, Entourage and The Office. During much of that time, he and Dodson were mapping out the idea of Bounty Hunter, which began from the simple, rebellious notion that corporate criminals seemed to get off more than they were punished, and wouldn't it be interesting if a vigilante went after them? Developed first as a graphic novel, then as a short film, and finally as a feature, Bounty Hunter acquired an elaborate plot composed of familiar genre elements, of which the sole purpose was to provide numerous opportunities for the aforementioned nudity, violence, crashes, martial arts and gore. The trick with such concoctions is to maintain the illusion of coherence while moving so fast that the viewer never has time to think too hard about whether it fits together, because ultimately these stories never bear close scrutiny. They're not meant to.

Despite its hodgepodge of accents and a setting that could pass for the outback, Bounty Hunter was filmed in Southern California, but its effects work was outsourced all over the world, no doubt to contain costs. A brief theatrical release in September 2013 netted mixed reviews from a handful of critics and the viewing public. I suspect that one's reaction to the film depends very much on the attitude with which one approaches it. Bounty Hunter is an exercise in pop style, much like Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, and it hasn't a serious bone in any of the bodies it piles up as casually as a video game. Unlike Quentin Tarantino's genre indulgences, however, Bounty Hunter has no subversive undertow or verbal pyotechnics to suggest something deeper, as in Kill Bill or Django Unchained (to name just two examples). It's a popcorn exploitation film, but as many failed examples can attest, those aren't easy to do well—and for once, someone's done a decent job.

The film opens with a razzle-dazzle action sequence in which our lead characters, Bounty Killers Drifter (British soap star Matthew Marsden) and Mary Death (Christian Pitre, in her first major role), invade a fancy business celebration atop a high rise to execute a warrant on a wanted man, Trevor (Ivar Brogger) . The sequence is an ideal introduction to Bounty Killer's tone and visual style, because it's all weaponry, death-defying acrobatics, cool quips and a high body count. The primary story point is that Drifter and Mary are a couple, and mayhem is their idea of foreplay. An additional story point is that Trevor and his buddies are celebrating a business turnaround they think is imminent.

Enter a narrator who explains, with the help of some clever graphics, how the world was almost destroyed by a war between massive corporations that reduced much of the earth to a wasteland. In a manner that recalls Judge Dredd, a Council of Nine arose from the ashes, recruiting and training Bounty Killers to exact justice from corporate criminals. Top-ranked Bounty Killers like Drifter and Mary Death have become popular heroes. Their pictures appear on magazine covers, and fans seek their autographs. In the town of San Dalloosa, crowds of fans await outside the Chop Shop & Bounty Supply Store run by Daft Willy (Kevin McNally), hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite Bounty Killer. It's Daft Willy who hands out the warrants from the Council of Nine, and it's also Daft Willy who logs in the corpses of the completed jobs and pays the bounty to the Killer who executed the warrant.

To digress for a moment: Saine and Dodson never try to explain how the wrecked world of Bounty Killer manages to manufacture sophisticated assault weapons, limitless ammo and the fancy tech that allows Daft Willy to scan victims, communicate with the Council and pay rewards. And what about the obviously professional publications that chronicle the Bounty Killers' exploits? There are reporters, but no sign of printing facilities, distribution centers or any of the other machinery of print journalism. And who provides the stable system of currency, backed by full faith and credit, that allows bounties to be paid? The reality of a decimated world would be more like Bartertown in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome—but that's the difference between serious sci-fi and a goofy actioner like Bounty Killer. The latter shrugs off these kinds of questions, because no one cares when the adrenaline is pumping and there's violence to be done (not that there's anything wrong with that).

At Daft Willy's, Drifter acquires his comic sidekick, Jack LeMans (Barak Hadley), a post-apocalyptic nerd who's the ultimate Bounty Killer fanboy. All Jack wants to do is be Drifter's gun caddy. At first he's not very good, but eventually he learns, and he's an instant butt of jokes. He also looks hilarious (really) getting doused with blood and viscera, especially at the conclusion of an elaborately choreographed fight that involves the defusing of a bomb.

Something is amiss in the Bounty Killers' world. A shady organization of "yellowties" (Bounty Killer slang for corporate lackeys) led by a mysterious woman named Catherine (Kristanna Loken) and her henchman, Van Sterling (Gary Busey), has hatched some sort of plot against the Bounty Killers and possibly the Council of Nine itself. Its methods include lucrative offers of corporate endorsements for a property known as "Wasteland Resorts", forged warrants (including one for Drifter himself) and sneak attacks by armies of thugs. Who are these people and what are they after? The answers require a trip into the pasts of both Drifter and Mary, back to the facility where they first learned to become Bounty Killers and the local saloon, the Thirsty Beaver, where everyone blew off steam after a hard day's training. An almost unrecognizable Beverly D'Angelo does a wonderful turn as Lucille, owner of the Beaver, who remembers the hotshot trainees from their younger days.

Bounty Killer does turn out to have a coherent story, but it's such a mouthful that multiple flashbacks are required to fill in all of it. In a running joke, every time someone asks Drifter a question, he answers: "It's complicated!" The trick with this kind of narrative is to convey all the essential information without slowing down the breakneck pace, and Saine manages to pull it off by making his flashbacks as lively as his present-day sequences. Most silly shoot-'em-ups run out of steam by the end, but Bounty Killer keeps hurtling forward at full throttle.

Did I mention the gypsies? Drifter and Jack are captured in the wilderness by a fearsome tribe who paint their faces in the style of the Mexican observance of Dia de Los Muertos and are ruled by a ruthless queen, Mocha Sujata (Eve). The queen tortures Jack for information about . . . well, it's complicated.

Bounty Killer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bounty Killer was the first full-length feature shot by David Conley, whose principal experience to date has been as an editor, which probably came in handy for the elaborate choreography of the film's action sequences. The film was digitally acquired on the Red system, which routinely produces excellent results on Blu-ray after appropriate manipulation in post-production. ARC Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is no exception, despite the film's limited budget and often obvious digital effects (notably in the so-called "Badlands" sequence). The image is sharp, detailed and bright, often exceptionally so to reflect the intense sunlight of a world without an ozone layer (as noted by one character). Even the interior scenes are rarely without some amount of light, and the Red system's ability to capture fine detail allows those interiors to be seen even with low illumination.

The color palette runs the gamut from the yellow, bleached-out wreckage of the old world to the brightly saturated hues preferred by show-offs like Mary Death for her wardrobe and signature vehicles. The gore is brightly red, and the gypsy face paint is also vivid. Director Saine may be depicting a world ravaged by war, but he also knows that his primary obligation is to entertain the viewer with the equivalent of a live-action video game—and post-apocalyptic drabness would be a bore.

The Blu-ray has presumably been sourced from digital files, and Red footage compresses well. The average bitrate of 23.01 Mbps is adequate for avoiding artifacts.

Bounty Killer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Given the pandemonium on screen, one would expect a louder and more thunderous impact from Bounty Killer's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. There are plenty of gunshots and explosions, but none of it challenges a system's dynamic range or reaches deafening heights. It's almost as if the mix was pulled back slightly, and trimmed at the top and bottom ends, to preserve a sense of the cheesy B-flick aesthetic that first inspired director Saine and co-writer Dodson. Surround activity isn't lacking as bullets fly, glass shatters and vehicles roar, but it's not the kind that makes the listener's head twist from side to side following individual effects. It's a subtly mixed track, where the surround effects are almost subliminal.

The dialogue is clear enough, although some of the hammier accents (e.g., that of Abraham Benrubi) are occasionally a challenge. The score by Greg Edmondson, who did both Firefly and King of the Hill, supplies the right combination of adventure story and cartoon excess. Clarence Murray's "Let's Get On With It" adds an a extra jokey tone to some of the shootouts, and Sara Bareilles recorded two original songs, "Kill" and "Gonna Getcha", which capture Mary Death's attitude perfectly.

Bounty Killer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:12): The strength of this EPK is its honesty in capturing the gung-ho attitude of everyone involved. Of particular note is that Saine and Dodson began writing the story long before the financial crisis of 2008. They cite the Enron scandal as their initial inspiration.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 1:28).



• Additional Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers (in 1080p) for Sweetwater, Big Sur and Vehicle 19, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Bounty Killer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The true spirit of grindhouse cinema may be impossible to recreate today except as nostalgia, but a film like Bounty Killer creates a contemporary equivalent by marrying video game aesthetics to a kind of witty pop culture awareness that never takes itself too seriously. Approach it in the goofball spirit with which it was made, and I suspect you'll have fun. Look for something more serious, and you'll be disappointed. Recommended, with appropriate caveats.