Review of Killing Season (2013) by Nesbitt10 — 25 Aug 2013

A battle of awful accents coupled with slapdash cat and mouse intrigue, "Killing Season" is a thriller whose approach grows increasingly mundane, and renders itself completely forgettable. "Killing Season" is directed by Mark Steven Johnson "Ghost Rider" (2007), and the movie stars two cinematic legends, Robert De Niro and John Travolta, who star together on-screen for the first time ever. What could be an ultimate showdown of two acting titans with a storyline that closely follows "The Most Dangerous Game," unfolds into abysmal exercise of nonsense, and thoroughly disappoints given its potential.

Benjamin Ford (Robert De Niro) is a former American soldier and a Bosnian war veteran who now lives in a secluded cabin hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains. Emil Kovac (John Travolta) is a former Serbian soldier from the same war, who cannot let go of a particular run in he had with Ford. Finally acting on his obsession years later, Kovac uncovers Ford's location, and decides it's time to settle the score. After finding Ford and concealing his identity and motives from him, Kovac eventually reveals his intentions while out hunting with Ford, setting the stage for a struggle for survival. Kovac hunts his most elusive prey ever, but can Ford turn the tables on his Serbian hunter and make it out alive?

Quickly and to the point, the primary problem is the material, written by Evan Daugherty "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012). The movie promises an exercise in these two soldiers stalking and hunting each other, but ultimately it is nothing more than a series of graphic torture scenes with long-winded monologues, a series of power reversals, in which one gains the upper hand, just long enough for the other to escape. These reversals eventually happens with such frequency that it becomes entirely comical and ridiculous.

I was more than a little confused as to why a movie pitting Robert De Niro against John Travolta was getting such a limited release, but after watching "Killing Season," I completely understand.