6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
After a massive shootout, a mysterious stranger (Van Damme) arrives at a local hospital on the brink of death. Then, a foreign gang brazenly comes to the hospital to hunt him down. His nurse, the sole surviving witness to the follow-up shootout, must face an FBI interrogation that unlocks a plot of international intrigue and revenge. With enough twists and turns, KILL'EM ALL will keep you guessing until the final bullet is fired.
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Peter Stormare, Maria Conchita Alonso, Autumn Reeser, Daniel BernhardtMartial arts | 100% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Well, here's another direct-to-video Action bore starring the once-venerable Jean-Claude Van Damme. Though the actor rarely does anything decent anymore, his once-storied career saw him star in disposable, but very entertaining, studio films like Hard Target and Kickboxer (and Cyborg, one of this reviewer's favorite guilty pleasures). Now, aging but still unquestionably fit and capable, he's found his niche in the low budget DTV arena, churning out garbage films like Kill 'em All for a quick buck in exchange for his marketable mug and name. By this point, most movie fans should know not to expect the world from these sorts of movies. For every kinda-sorta gem there are a hundred throwaways. Make that 101. Director Peter Malota, a former stuntman and stunt choreographer who worked with Van Damme on some of his most popular movies (Universal Soldier, Double Impact), makes his directorial debut here, and it shows. While the movie is by no means a complete amateurish disaster, it's too dependent on forced style that diminishes rather than compliments the film's meager, practically nonexistent narrative structure. Add in a bad script, sluggish performances, and dull action and the movie never even stands a chance.
Kill 'em All was digitally photographed, the norm for contemporary DTV flicks. It looks fairly good, if not a bit straightforward and unassuming. Everything appears more-or-less fine; nothing looks extraordinary, and nothing looks extraordinarily bad. The only serious negative is a preponderance to display noise, even in well-lit and clean hospital background hallways. It can get fairly intensive even in good light, with lower light pushing even more. Otherwise, details are solid enough. Sweaty faces, bloody wounds, clothes, and odds and ends around the hospital enjoy a satisfying level of depth and detail. Sharpness and clarity are maintained throughout. Colors are adequately vibrant, never too loud and never too toned down. Red blood is a major standout, and Suzanne's blue shirt is one of the regular hues. Backgrounds are largely monochromatic and dull. Black levels don't struggle too much with depth or an unwanted push to brightness. The transfer is hardly a revelation, but it suits this film well enough.
Kill 'em All features a fairly basic, but good quality, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. These sorts of lower budget movies obviously often lack the sonic production values of superior, larger budget films, but it does OK with what it has to work with. Music doesn't extend incredibly far into the back, and certainly not aggressively. Clarity and spacing up front are fine, offering good instrument separation and detailing and an adequate low end push. Gunfire likewise does just enough to satisfy. It does well in presenting different calibers from different distances that always give the movie a fairly realistic flavor, though certainly gunfire in a hospital corridor would be much more dynamic and punishing than what is presented here. For a movie soundtrack though, it's adequate. A few mild atmospherics creep in to keep things balanced. Dialogue is clear enough (beyond a strangely tinny moment in a stairwell at the 42:40 mark) with good prioritization and center positioning.
Beyond a few trailers for other Sony releases, this Blu-ray release of Kill 'em All contains no supplemental content. No DVD or digital versions are included, either.
Kill 'em All is a throwaway movie. It's technically overdone, narratively vacuous, and depends on the worst case combination of bad style trying to overcome no substance. Van Damme fans with a high tolerance for bad moviemaking (and they should have built up an immunity at this point) might find the movie enjoyable enough, but for anyone else, this is a big, fat skip. Sony's featureless Blu-ray does at least offer capable video and audio.
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