First Kill - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

First Kill

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I really kind of feel sorry for Hayden Christensen. He got a bit of a bad rap from the Star Wars prequels for some pretty hammy acting, much of which was largely George Lucas’s fault. He’s not a horrible actor by any stretch of the imagination, but after Episodes 2 and 3 he got himself into some crummy films and kind of faded from the limelight. That doesn’t mean he quit acting, but after bombs like Jumper and Takers he got relegated to doing indie films with low budgets and poor directing. I really liked him in Awake and even in American Heist (which was a crummy movie outside of Hayden), and he’s a generally agreeable guy in his roles. He just is stuck in films that really don’t do much for his career, so I tend to wince when I see he’s headlining a film, just knowing that it’s not going to be great. Sadly the same thing goes for Bruce Willis. But instead of loathing the film because it’s going to be crummy, it’s loathing the film knowing Bruce will just call it in. It seems like the last 7 or so years Bruce Willis has gone from blockbuster star to a DTV hero who phones in his roles worse than John Cusack and Stephen Seagal. Mumble a few lines with a bored expression on his face, wait for the director to yell cut, then collect a paycheck. First Kill takes a tired old crime drama with a paper thing plot, then plops Hayden in the middle of it with Bruce Willis snoring his way through his lines. Wrap that up and what do you get? Yeah, a rather boring flick that just doesn’t do anything to make itself palatable to even DTV audiences.

Will (Hayden Christensen) is your typical finance mega guru. He is a powerhouse at the office, but an absentee family man. His young son Danny (Ty Shelton) has become distanced from him, and is getting bullied at school regularly. His mother is a bit of a milksop and begs Will to get more involved in his sons life, but at the same time cries and wails that Danny shouldn’t be taught how to stand up for himself either, spouting lines like “don’t change him from who he is!” (cuz we all know bullies will respect the guy who lets them pound him into the ground). Will decides that the best idea is for them to have a family hunting trip up in his little old po-dunk home town. Heading into the woods for some father/son bonding, the two accidentally witness a murder which turns lethal for them as well. Danny is seen at the murder and Will is forced to use his hunting rifle on the murderer. The only thing is, the dead man is a cop.

The original victim of the cop, Levi (Gethin Anthony), turns out to have been involved in a robbery that happened a few days ago, and was being set up as the fall guy. Kidnapping young Danny until Will can bring him the key to the money that was dropped during the initial scuffle, the hooligan high tails it back to his hideout with hopes that Will will come through. Will does his best, but there are more dirty cops, and the only one that he can trust is the chief of police, one Captain Howell (Willis), who has been their family friend since before the finance guru was born. Now it’s a matter of who can trust who, and if Will can get that money up to Levi before it’s too late.

First Kill isn’t really THAT bad of a film. It’s just horribly cliched and acted. In fact, the first 45 minutes were not that bad. I enjoyed the twists and obvious turns, but it wasn’t THAT bad. Then the second act begins and you start seeing the cracks in the armor. There’s an obvious twist around the 3rd act that everyone saw a mile away, and it doesn’t help that Willis looks like he’s almost laughing at the script as he talks. They try to make Levi a sympathetic villain, and to a certain extent he is, but it comes across as pretty laughable really. The twist was one that you couldn’t HELP but see from first 5 minutes of the movie, and I am left wondering if they were even TRYING to hide it.

The big problem with the film is Willis, but Hayden is partially to blame here. He’s quite believable as the distraught father, but his relationship with Danny at the end is pretty week, and Ty is not exactly the bastion of children’s actors. The one plot point that REALLY was frustrating was the minor pacifist message that was blasted throughout the film by Will’s wife, and was OBVIOUSLY crammed in there to make the message more humanist in nature. Thus the final confrontation between the main villain and the father and son comes across as ludicrous and cringe worthy at best. It robs us of some of the elation and excitement, leaving you going “seriously stupid?” when the inevitable happens. Poor dialog, poor acting, and a cliched script leaves the film on the weaker end of DTV flicks (although not as bad as some that Willis has been involved in lately).




Rating:

Rated R for violence and language




Video:

Lionsgate does a pretty solid job on most of their low budget DTV titles. Usually I’m very impressed with the digital productions they put out, and First Kill follows in that pattern. The digitally produced shoot looks clean and clear of any major imperfections, and even small problems of banding and lightly washed out black levels is never that bad. Just intermittent and mild. Clarity is nice, with good details in the forest backdrop, and close ups of faces. There is some mild softness and light overly exposed white levels, but it’s not enough to detract from a solid Blu-ray presentation.





Audio:

The single 5.1 DTS-HD MA track does the job just fine, with a stable sound field that doesn't really stand out as being overly fantastic, but isn't really flawed either. The dialog for the film is crisp and cleanly replicated in the center speaker, and the surrounds get some good ambient activity during the forest sequences. Usually with twigs snapping, birds chirping, or the crash of 9mm fire during the gun battles. LFE is tight and powerful, adding weight to the action sequences and a little bit of boom to the ominous sounding thriller score. It's a good all around audio mix that does everything asked of it easily, but doesn't really excel at anything.




Extras:

• Director's Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• "Behind the Scenes of First Kill" Featurette
• Extended Cast/Crew Interviews

Final Score: ​

I hate to say this, but Bruce Willis on the cover of a movie pretty much guarantees that it’s going to be awful these days. I may have to retract that statement with the remake of Death Wish, but so far I’ve pretty much given up on any movies that he’s starred in due to the poor quality. First Kill isn’t the worst of the worse, and is mildly passable, but it really isn’t worth anything more than a rental if you’re bored on a Friday night. Audio and video are both solid presentations, and the extras at least passable. Still, it’s one I would relegate to Netflix or Redbox only.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Bruce Willis, Hayden Christensen, Ty Shelton
Directed by: Steven C. Miller
Written by: Nick Gordon
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 102 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 5th, 2017

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Meh Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will skip this one..