Bounty Killer (2013)

So do you like super sexy leggy femme fatales wearing stockings, knee high boots and a cute mini skirt ensemble whilst gunning down and slashing people with her boot spurs? course you do! Based on a graphic novel apparently we are back to the old apocalyptic Earth scenario with gangs of bikers roaming about the place ala 'Mad Max'.

The story is simple unoriginal and purely an excuse for bloody action. The world has been brought to its knees by the business world, titanic corporations hell bent on greed that set out to destroy one another but managed to wipe out the globe at the same time. Now the world (or is it just America) has been reduced to a waste land. The top business executives that initiated the mighty war have long since fled with the remaining wealth, but hot their tracks are the Bounty Killers, backed and supported by all the survivors, seeking revenge for the worlds ruin.

I do like this idea in general, the way the bounty killers are highly revered celebrities that rack up kills for money fame and kill count records. I also like the idea of targeting white collar suit workers (tie wearers) as the enemy and the fact that the corporate world brought down the human race and is now treated like prey, it feels right. Obviously the film has a cynical satirical dark humorous edge to it which works in its favor but I feel they don't quite exploit this advantage well enough.

The film does resort more towards the obligatory Tarantino-esque bloody fever pitch action...which is what its all about don't get me wrong but the plot had the promise of more intelligence if you ask me. Anyway the film is a graphic novel adaptation and it does exactly what it should by translating the kick ass gore to the screen in a truly gratuitous fashion, no holds barred, without a care in the world. Not to be taken seriously (naturally) the film is visually fun with a sexy scantily clad heroine, bizarre modified vehicles, lots of guns and flashing blades, face painted female warrior gypsies, people getting carved up, plenty of sex appeal and some nice animated interludes to fill in the gaps.

There does seem to be a lot of these fast food straight to DVD action filled splatter flicks these days. This whole concept of in your face over the top bloody action is very common place yet a tad mundane I must say, the visual style and characters all seem to be very familiar. You see this film and you know instantly where inspiration has come from, its not hard, but I can't help but feel a certain 'Kill Bill' kick started all this type of thing...the blood gore and costumes. Mind you saying that you could also compare this ultra sexy kick ass heroine to 'Barb Wire' and 'Tank Girl', you can see that vibe goin' on.

The one thing I don't really like here is the use of CGI blood and effects at times which spoils the fun, although there are some nice gruesome hands on special effects in there too. For the most part the film has good production values and is decent eye candy but I just hate the reliance on CGI when we know they don't have to.

I think violent mayhem and carnage sums this up pretty well, all delivered by a chick in a tight fitting outfit, so its one for the lads then. Totally crazy with larger than life characters (Gary Busey is a bad guy...say no more), bucket loads of goo, silly quickfire quips and ass. Plus points for visuals, some sweet real time gore effects and the whole idea, minus points for not taking that idea further, CGI bits and the fact they copy many other films. Its a cartoonish riot but everybody involved knows it so just go along for the ride.

Although Bounty Killer does suffer from an unhealthy bout of Can't-Decide-What-I-Want-To-Ripoff-Most-itis, at least the options for said ripoffery are some mighty fine pickin's.

A little Mad Max and a lot Doomsday (which to be fair was primarily a ripoff of Mad Max itself), a hefty dolop of Faster, Pussy Cat! Kill! KIll!, some straight up Machete and even a small serving of Tekken to go along with its metric fucktonne of Gearbox's Boderlands.

No actors or characters particularly stand out, sure they're all larger than life, but none of them are strictly speaking interesting. The world kind of is, but only in a very unoriginal kind of way.

It's post-apocalyptic and it's cheese-laden self important(/aware) exploitation, which are both things I'm a sucker for, but this Corman-esque piece fails to be completely satisfying. It most certainly has fantastic elements, and clearly some very good taste, no to mention it's the top tier out of the woeful B-movies I've seen in the past month, but that doesn't make it good.

But "not good" is far removed from unwatchable, and it's one of the few movies I've seen recently that I put some genuine thought in to about maybe watching again one day.

43%

-Gimly