Actors: John Travolta, Robert De Niro, Milo Ventimiglia
Directors: Mark Steven Johnson
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: Millennium
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Run Time: 90 minutes
Film: 2 out of 5 stars
Extras: 1 out of 5 stars
When I heard about “Killing Season”, I was drawn to it by its lead cast Robert De Niro and John Travolta. I figured I can’t go wrong with both of them. Well, I was wrong. The film starts off well but then really takes a turn for the worst about 30 minutes in where it just gets repetitive and boring. I have to admit, I found myself checking my email more than watching this film after a while.
I read a few other reviews and they all critique Travolta role and Serbian accent but I actually liked it. Maybe it’s because I just give the guy credit for playing all these different roles. I mean come on, he’s played a woman in “Hairspray” and now a Serbian soldier. The guy has balls. De Niro is just De Niro as usual, just a bitter old man. Nothing special. I was taken back by how brutal some of the violence was, which even made me turn away. Not enough to make me watch this again though.
Official Premise: Deep in the Appalachian mountains, a reclusive American military veteran (Robert De Niro) and a European tourist (John Travolta) strike up an unlikely friendship. But when the tourist’s true intentions come to light, what follows is a tense battle across some of America’s most forbidding landscape proving the old adage: the purest form of war is one-on-one.
Millennium delivered a fine Blu-ray release. The 1080p transfer was sharp and really captured the beauty of the Appalachian mountains. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 worked with the opening scene and the high tension action between our duo. In terms of special features there was not much here. There is a quick behind-the-scenes featurette, which briefly goes into the production. I would take a pass on this one, unless you really need to hear Travolta with a Serbian accent.
