Contract Killers

MOVIE DETAILS

Rating: 3.3 out of 10
Director: Mathew John Pearson
Writer: Michael Yee
Star Cast: Richard Alexander, Dallas Barnett, Renee Cataldo
Genres: Action/Crime/Thriller
Release Date: March 11, 2014 (United States)

Contract Killers

Jane works as a contract killer and is framed for killing her spouse; she is subsequently betrayed by her agency and ordered to be executed. She escapes and discovers that the plot extends all the way to the CIA’s director.

I was prepared for what the film had in store for me when the preview was for a Cuba Gooding Jr movie, a Dolph Lundgren movie and a movie called Sharks in Venice with Stephen Baldwin in the lead. So, like many other viewers, I did not expect much from this B flick and settled down comfortably. In fact what I got was a third rate amalgamation of the Bourne Identity that is not half as bad as the adverts that introduce it suggest.

However as is the case with most low budget z films Contract Killers begins with a loud bang. Jane (Frida Farrell) is engaged in a pleasant supper date with her husband. While their conversation tends to get lighthearted, poking fun over the cheap red wine, all of a sudden they hear a loud noise and both of them collapse.

When Jane gains consciousness, she finds her husband shot dead with the words “LISA” etched across his forehead, LISA being the last words he spoke. Suddenly FBI and SWAT teams surround her house and she is in a state of shock. Apparently, Jane is a contract killer for the CIA, but such help is useless because when she contacts them, they ignore her threats. They want her dead and Jane now has to fight for her life against police and other paid assassins and find out what made her the most sought after woman ever.

This is a budget version of the Bourne’s Identity but Justin Rhodes is great with making the film stylish and looks more expensive than it actually is. That is further enhanced by the fact that he cast it such as with no-name great actors including the titular hero’s love interest played by Farrell who gives quite an okay performance. Most of the movie she seems almost cold with little emotion but that is really a writing issue. In addition, having her make love with a stranger while searching for her husband’s murderer is in the least a blunder. Scenes like that confirm my belief that she was deliberately instructed to maintain such a cold demeanor.

Rhett Giles shines brighter than the rest as he plays the role of a character called Pernell who was one of the hitmen sent to eliminate her. There are times when he seems to be a poor man’s Nathan Fillion (and yes you should spend some time to consider that), but the man has a lot of charm and is definitely one of the best features of the film. It is hard to imagine that his early work included bad low budget films for the Asylum such as Van Helsing’s Way of the Vampire or Transmorphers. He deserves a better agent who can help him get out of the current straight to DVD phase. Nick Mancuso and Steve Boergadine already add a touch of significance to the film as highly ranked and corrupt CIA officers.

The script is in no way flawless. I had already pointed out the discrepancies about the protagonist, however, these are not the only things that are quite ridiculous. If the whole scheme was set up to eliminate Jane, what was the need to kill her husband and make it look like she did it instead of just poisoning her?

She looks like an ideal agent, has been in the game for ages with the plotters, and no clarification is provided as to why it is thought necessary to eliminate her in the first place. Last but not the least she must be held accountable for multiple innocent lives in cold blood. Why implicate her for a fresh murder which they could have easily linked her to one among the many she had committed? But this is a straight to DVD movie. Such questions are very often asked in the group.

Frankly, Paul Greengrass is to Rhodes what gold is to a wedding ring. Although he never apes the famous director it’s a safe bet that’s where his influences lie. One of the numerous benefits of reviewing DVDs is tantalizing the viewer with such little treasures. It won’t take the world by storm certainly, but it’s a lot of fun and introduces me to a director who certainly has the potential for a successful career.

It could have easily been a Jean Claude Van-Damme effort with the other roles reversed, but it tried to be something deeper. It’s not great, but then again, I didn’t think that it would be great at any time. All I wanted was a ride that was fun and the film served that purpose.

Besides the various film clips there is no special feature other than the Machel Montano music video starring Shaggy. Montano is the lead singer for the soca band Xtatik. Shaggy is the reggae singer. The song is Toro Toro. Of course, this is a cut version of the video the director intended which shows pictures of the song and pictures of the film, rather than the song video itself.

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