Review of Killing Season (2013) by Venetia D — 14 Oct 2013

A very poor and utterly disappointing movie, Killing Season has probably only one aim: to kill its audience with excessive amount of boredom. Improbable, unevenly paced and with absolutely nothing to compel, this movie is a huge flop, especially given the two iconic leading characters.

From the first minutes a more critical (and historically educated) viewer would raise his or her eyebrow when the NATO's ground activities in Bosnia are depicted. After a short introduction, it becomes clear that the story will be centered only on the revenge that Emil (John Travolta) is seeking from the former US Colonel Benjamin Ford (Robert De Niro). This intro, has is somehow compelling as the audience is expecting to see a movie in which two great actors will stand against each other, will perform and will deliver a classic and tension-filled one-on-one action. But unfortunately to my painful surprise (and probably of many others), Killing Season is nothing but a boring and annoyingly preachy and violent movie in which Travolta and De Niro change the places of the torturer and the tortured one. Without decent action sequences or script that gives the chance to De Niro and Travolta to perform, this movie has nothing, really nothing to offer, except for some beautiful mountainous sceneries.

De Niro and Travolta are definitely confused and fail to deliver any memorable performances in order to at least partially save the movie. Both of them seem to be very good matches for their roles (except for Travolta's ridiculous Eastern European accent), but unfortunately the story, the script and the whole directorial approach do not give them even a single chance to show what they are capable of.

In conclusion, Killing Season could very easily be classified as one of 2013's biggest disappointments, especially having in mind that this movie is the first time that Hollywood super-heavyweights as Travolta and De Niro team up for the first time on the silver screen. This movie has absolutely no value seeing it and better be avoided.