Review: Hard Kill

Mercenary/soldier Jesse Metcalfe is met by tech billionaire Bruce Willis and Metcalfe’s former soldier buddy Texas Battle (now Willis’ security head). They have a new gig for Metcalfe and his Black Ops security team (which includes Natalie Eva Marie and Swen Temmel). Willis has a new AI technology that could prove dangerous if in the wrong hands. Unsurprisingly, it has fallen into the hands of a smug mercenary/terrorist known as ‘The Pardoner’ (Sergio Rizzuto) who has also kidnapped Willis’ scientist daughter (Lala Kent) for good measure. Metcalfe, his team, Willis, and Battle all rock up to an agreed meeting place where ‘The Pardoner’ requires Willis to provide him with the access code for the new tech in exchange for his daughter (who invented the tech). Unsurprisingly, shooting ensues…in between lots of talking.

 

This review was originally posted before the announcement of Willis' illness/retirement and certain comments are obviously no longer relevant. Nonetheless I'd rather add these words than subtract anything, perhaps as a reminder that we don't know someone's personal circumstance.

Another day, another forgettable excursion into Bruce Willis’ late-career lack of give-a-shit. This 2020 Matt Eskandari (“Survive the Night” and “Trauma Centre”, both featuring Willis) action-thriller is far from the worst of Willis’ post-theatrical release career, but it’s still a waste of the man’s talents and your time. Seriously, you could very easily see any number of slumming actors in Willis’ role – Christopher Lambert, Mel Gibson, Steven Seagal, Vinnie Jones etc., and aside from Seagal (who sometimes doesn’t even loop his own dialogue in post) I’m not convinced those actors wouldn’t put more investment into their performance than Willis does here. Once again the man just turns up, says his lines, collects his money.

 

The rest of the cast is admittedly not brilliant either, but Jesse Metcalfe (boy did his career bottom out after “Desperate Housewives” ended) and particularly the underrated Texas Battle (one of the better soap opera graduates of recent years in my opinion) at least show Mr. Willis how to give half a shit about your work. An actress named Lala Kent is woefully miscast as Willis’ supposed tech genius daughter, and WWE’s Eva Marie is her usual robotic self, just with a different fake hair colour. Sergio Rizzuto (who has more credits as a producer than actor) isn’t threatening enough for his villainous role. However, he shows enough acting talent here that one suspects he could be effective elsewhere. Also, am I the only one who thinks he’s a mixture of Bradley Cooper and Liev Schreiber? In terms of villainy, Rizzuto seems more corporate sleazeball than creepy rogue mercenary, but overall I still have to say he comes off third-best here behind Battle and Metcalfe, and the rest aren’t even in consideration. Admittedly it’s not entirely their fault as the dialogue supplied by screenwriters Joe Russo and Chris Lamont (who have teamed up several times, mostly for short films) is sometimes ungainly and unnatural-sounding. In particular, watch Eva Marie and co talk about ‘Project 725’ and try not to laugh at how forced is sounds coming from their mouths.

 

Although not completely terrible, this film’s quality matches the performance given by Bruce Willis: Lacking. It’s uninspired. The action is fairly competently handled, but that’s seriously faint praise at best.

 

Rating: C