Even today, at the age of 70, most of us
still consider Robert DeNiro one of our greatest living
actors. Even today, at the age of 70, when Mr. DeNiro
clearly no longer gives a flying f@#k about what he will do
for his million dollar paycheck, he is still great. One
thing though, and this is just a little note to future
filmmakers who wish to cast my man in a movie, and you will
want him because his name is Robert DeNiro… nix any
requirement for him to have an accent. Just don't do
it. Not that Mr. DeNiro can't do it, but you, the
filmmaker, just have to get him to commit to it. Good
luck with that. Take this movie for instance, Mark
Steven Johnson's 'The Killing Season' also starring John
Travolta. Apparently Mr. DeNiro had a southern accent in
this movie, one he used roughly 12% of the time, and only on
certain words. He'll say 'mah' instead of 'my'.
And that's about it. Now John Travolta playing a Serbian
National also had accent and to his credit his accent was
consistent and it was unwavering. However the issue
J.T.'s accent is that the man has such a unique vocal tone and
cadence, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was Vinny
Barbarino pretending to talk like a Serbian National.
The movie itself, accents aside… well… I've seen better from
both legends.
During the Serbian ethnic cleansing massacres of the early
90's, a group of American soldiers stumble upon one of the
most horrific things that anybody would ever want to
see. When the soldiers put down the offensive of those
responsible for these atrocities, instead of sending them to
some POW camp, they send these clowns to Hell!!
Unfortunately, one of them survived, this being Emil Kovac
(Travolta). Twenty years later Kovac has found out who
was responsible for the execution of his compadres, and his
own attempted murder, one retired Col. Benjamin Ford (DeNiro)
and he's about to make a trip to the great American Northwest
to do some hunting.
The years haven't been all that great to the
retired Colonel who has removed himself from society and just
lives off the land deep in the woods. His estranged son
would like to reconnect with his old man, but Ford is a
tortured soul living a tortured life all by himself.
Then he sees the man walking in the woods who helps him with
his car, and while Ford is one surly bastard, he takes to this
guy, invites him to his home, serves him a meal with Kovac in
return giving my man a fine beverage from his homeland.
They hit it off so well, they even decide to do some hunting
the next morning.
Oh well, so much for that. There's hunting going on all
right, Kovac and his bow engaged in hunting poor Col. Ford is
what's going on. Now this is about the point that 'The
Killing Season' turns into a high brow version of 'Saw', and
gets a little silly. Kovac is torturing Ford, Ford turns
the tables and now Ford is torturing Kovac. Until Kovac
turns the tables and starts torturing Ford. Repeat,
rinse, dry. And eventually we will get to a scene where
these two actors get to do what they were actually hired to
do, because running through the woods chasing each other and
torturing each other wasn't it.
Beautiful to look at with all of its sweeping natural vistas
and long, loving shots of wildlife, 'The Killing Season' has
taken a bit of a critical beating long before I got a chance
to watch it, and unfortunately I do believe this is one of
those instances where this beating is largely justified.
Now I'm not of the mindset that 'The Killing Season' is not a
gawdawful film as we do have DeNiro and Travolta in tow, and
Mark Steven Johnson is an experienced director, if not a
particularly revered film director. The launching point
for our narrative provides a solid base for a very good story,
but the execution is what I think was lacking. The
constant 'turning of tables' eventually became
ludicrous. I mean both of these men are supposed to be
seasoned warriors, both are obviously veterans of the art
torture, but yet neither of these wise veterans of war was
able to properly secure the other to keep themselves from
getting smashed in the face with nearby 2x4's or nearby
hunting knives or whatever. It just got plum silly after
a while.
I can say, however, that at least 'The Killing Season' didn't
bore me. I probably didn't buy into Robert DeNiro's
character, at his age, sprinting through the woods, hopping
over rocks, falling off of cliffs into waterfalls and
surviving… and it is a little odd that the younger Travolta
did little of that stuff… but it was action and it was
reasonably well shot. I probably could've done without
some of the torture, and I would also imagine that a seasoned
special forces army veteran, once he has his pursuer disabled,
would finish him off. Say instead of running away into
the woods like a scared sissy so we can get more chase, hide
and seek. But I did enjoy Robert DeNiro's final speech,
accent still fading in and out, because he is still such a
good actor that he can sell you on his character even when
he's barely trying.
Clearly 'The Killing Season' is a disappointment on almost
every level that it participates on, and while the talent
involved can't rescue this film, it does salvage enough of it
to keep it watchable.
