Posing as hunters, a group of terrorists is in search of $100 million that was stolen and lost in a plane crash en route from Afghanistan.
“Kill Shot” is not one of those movies that’s so bad it’s funny; it takes itself way too seriously and forgets to have fun along the way. Films like “Sharknado,” “Piranhaconda,” and “Aztec Rex” are bad films that are at least entertaining and can poke fun at themselves. “Kill Shot” is just straight-up narcissistic. It thinks it is significant and all-important when it is nothing more than amateur hour. The acting, directing, and writing are all so inept they make Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” look like a modern masterpiece. I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie this unremarkable.
The film tells the story of Jackson Hardison (Rib Hillis), a wilderness guide and former Navy SEAL who agrees to take a new client, Kate (Rachel Cook), on a hunting trip in Montana. No sooner have they begun their trek across the barren wilderness than Jackson discovers a briefcase filled with $100 million. He returns the case to Kate when a dangerous terrorist group suddenly fires on them. Together, they must try to outsmart the bad guys and escape with their lives. And the money.
While the actual story itself is halfway decent, its execution is where it goes down in flames. Not one member of the cast can act. The film’s stars, Rib Hillis, and Rachel Cook, both former models, get by on their good looks and nothing else. Mr. Hillis, in almost every scene he’s in, comes across as a poor man’s Clint Eastwood, while Ms. Cook fares no better, being upstaged by her clothing. In one scene, while both characters are camped in the cold, snowy wilderness, she leaves her tent wearing only a tight shirt and underwear because all normal people acquit themselves in such a manner when they are camped in below-zero temperatures.
The opening occurs in a snow-covered mountain region of Afghanistan, where the film’s antagonists ambush a military truck. A woman named Dina (Mara Ohara) leads them; she opens fire on the vehicle and sheds her Afghan burqa in slow motion, only to reveal tight, black leather pants and an armless vest. Why do all the women in this film walk around in preposterous outfits, contradictory to their surroundings?
The fight scenes are unintentionally hilarious; none depict realistic hand-to-hand combat. So much for a movie that takes itself so seriously. We are introduced to one of the main antagonists, a supposed bad-ass named Maximus, played by former UFC fighter Bobby Maximus, who resembles Vin Diesel’s Riddick in “The Chronicles of Riddick,” and we are led to believe that he will wipe the floor with Jackson and Kate. Bulging biceps, no-nonsense demeanor, ready to shred our protagonists to pieces, only to have his ass handed to him by Kate after she elbows him in the face and kicks him to the ground, with him running away whimpering like an injured puppy.
“Kill Shot” obviously had a decent budget; that much is evident as the movie, for the most part, is beautifully filmed, with some impressive drone shots, but that is all it has going for it. I never like to overly critique other filmmakers or actors as I am one myself, but Mr. Hillis and Ms. Cook do not possess the necessary onscreen charisma required for audiences to relate to them. Not once did I ever believe anything that came out of their mouths or that they both liked each other and having both started their careers in modeling, it would probably be best if they stuck with that and let real actors do the acting.
For a supposed action thriller, “Kill Shot” has neither credible action nor thrills. What it does have, is an assortment of unrealistic characters performing harebrained and outlandish maneuvers that provoke unintended laughter instead of the earnestness I’m sure the filmmakers intended.
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