Killing Season (2013)
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Movie Info
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. (c) Official Facebook- Rating:
- R (for strong violence, some torture, and language including some sexual references)
- Genre:
- Mystery & Suspense
- Directed By:
- Mark Steven Johnson
- Written By:
- Evan Daugherty
- In Theaters:
- Jul 12, 2013 Limited
- On DVD:
- Aug 20, 2013
- US Box Office:
- $27.7k
Cast
-
Robert De Niro
as Benjamin Ford -
John Travolta
as Emil Kovac -
Milo Ventimiglia
as Chris Ford -
Elizabeth Olin
as Sara Ford -
Kalin Sarmenov
as Serbian -
Diana Lyubenova
as Elena
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Critic Reviews for Killing Season
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (18)
It's not worthless, but it's not good. As a genre film, it's too ambitious; as an art film, it's too obvious.
The pretentious, preposterous, dueling-dialect flameout called "Killing Season" has to stand as one of the biggest missed opportunities in iconic matchups.
If you've always wanted to see Robert De Niro forced to thread a steel rod through an open wound and then strung upside down by John Travolta, this is the movie for you.
Tables keep turning, traps keep springing and the actors keep acting, acting, acting.
The sight of Robert De Niro and John Travolta sharing the screen for the first time reps the one and only selling point of Killing Season.
A drawn out cat-and-mouse game never catches fire.
It wants to be a war-is-Hell 'coming home' story, but it ends up playing like a cheap action flick starring two men who are obviously too old to be running through the woods beating the living crap out of each other.
Comes full up with heavy-handed signifiers, from Ben's choice of reading (Hemingway...) to a hammered motif of lapsed Christianity (the climax takes place in a rotting church) that underlines the theme of living with the sins of the past. [Blu-ray]
... establishes some mild tension but never generates any sort of meaningful insight into post-war trauma.
Badly written, ineptly staged, horribly acted, historically suspect and boring beyond belief ...
Playing out like a brutally graphic Tom and Jerry skit at times, Killing Season lacks the atmospheric tension necessary to keep us consistently engaged.
Derivative and bizarrely graphic, Killing Season is nothing more than another forgettable entry in two ongoing filmographies that desperately need more inspired professional choices.
This barebones time-killer from the ruthlessly frugal folks at Millennium Films announces its intentions from the title on, and its two stars...seem glumly game to scowl their way through the proceedings with the professionalism of a mercenary...
Killing Season is competently put together, yet the woefully hollow dialogue and the predictable plot developments make for a pretty bland flick.
Horrormeister Eli Roth would get a charge out of the torture scenes.
Make no mistake, for all the deferred killing, this is still a bloody affair, one which takes a grotesque glee in arrows being shot through faces and impromptu torture sessions.
let's just call this Grumpiest Old Men and get it over with
"Killing Season" could have been made 20 years ago and looked the same. It's a time capsule to an era of humbler stupid movies.
Calling this film a cat-and-mouse game would insult felines and rodents, both of which are much smarter than this movie.
Audience Reviews for Killing Season
I admit I was excited seeing this but I was also very wary. Robert Deniro is a legend and I often like John Travolta too in certain roles so the potential of them together in a survival/action/horror was intriguing but straight to video...red flag right there!! The reviews for this film were awful and most of them were so angry that the film was so historically and politically inaccurate and I will fully admit ignorance on the matters of Bosnia and Serbia and the entire war and conflict going on there so for me it wasn't about what facts were right or wrong. I had no choice but to watch this for entertainment. It was twisted and disturbing and violent and had a really graphic message about morality and war that I think made the film had at least some depth and complexity. This was NOT a bad film whatsoever. It wasn't done perfectly that's for sure and it had some ups and downs but it was a solid action/horror/thriller. It was really the perfect length because you could only watch the power shift between the two actors so many times before it started to feel just a little stale but the action scenes were well done and the script was very good.
Robert DeNiro could probably make almost any film good. I actually think he's hit a stride now even in his senior years because the guy is just electric on screen. Both of the main characters in this film are incredibly flawed and twisted men for various reasons. Neither is truly the hero. DeNiro scenes are terrific especially his speech at the end of the film which was moving and powerful. It seems a lot of reviewers are really hating on John Travolta and to each their own but he's a versatile actor who has had a lot of ups and downs. I think his performance in this film was solid. His accent seems really awful at times but I don't know the dialect from that area so I don't know if he really nails it or if its horribly done. The character is still captivating and determined and him and DeNiro actually have really great chemistry together which certainly helps the film. With any two lesser actors this could have been far less interesting but the two of them are great and I'm standing by that!!
5 Stars 10-23-13
Super Reviewer
A well-crafted, wonderfully character driven and slick piece of action movie making. It's one hell of a thrilling and intense action movie. It grabs you and draws you in completely with its story and characters, expressing intimate details of what they went through and what they are willing to do. Director, Mark Steven Johnson finally crafts a movie worth watching and shows some solid crafts. Robert De Niro and John Travolta are absolutely magnificent. They are on screen together for the first time and they carry the movie all the way through with their compelling chemistry, fight scenes and stripped to bare bones character development. De Niro and Travolta show here why they are great actors and why they can play almost anybody. They deliver tremendous star power and excitement to the piece along with some well-done action sequences.
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Killing Season Quotes
- Chris Ford:
- Why, this car is Auto-matic. Its System-matic. Its Hyyyyydro-matic. Why, its Greased Lightning!
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