Kill (2023)
End of the line starts here.
Now I know what you are thinking folks - why isn’t he doing the other “get to mars” movie? Well, primarily I wanted to give a little bit of breathing room between the two and a more fight-oriented movie was requested for tonight to go along with the Chinese food dinner that was getting dropped off. Far be it from me to turn down requests from providers of food, so I threw out three options from the back log and “the one with the train” ended up winning out. Get ready for a ride on the murder train, tonight’s flick earns it’s name Kill.
Like, seriously, there is a lot of kill in this movie, holy smokes. Our plot takes place on a train, and I’d like to point out that some of the stuff I like about movies from a foreign place to what I’m used to is they always keep you on your toes when it comes to whats going happen. It’s often hard with Hollywood flicks to ever feel like someone is going to be in danger, because if it isn’t a horror movie most likely the hero is gonna be fine. With a foreign flick - or also some of the indie scene homegrowns - those heroes are just as likely to get roughed up and added to the body count - and this movie has a lot of that too it - when the action starts, we never know whose going to make it out, even if we know who isn’t. Oh, and we also don’t get a title drop until about halfway into the movie. Our main is a commando, and he’s back from a mission and off to romance his love interest with the help of his brother in arms. This leads to the fateful train, where a large family of robbers happen to cross paths and everything goes wrong.
The actors hit the beats quite well. Being the kind of movie where I’m mostly reading it to understand what’s being said, I really can’t talk much about their line deliveries - but as far as body language people are doing a wonderful job. Surprisingly, perhaps, that even kicks over to the bad guys of the movie. With the amount of violence that befalls this train, there isn’t a face on it that doesn’t end up with some tears or blood on it, so the fact people are really selling the more emotional parts is a great bonus. The chemistry between our two commandos is great, striking up memories of the old Army of Two game I used to have fun with - complete with duo fighting and striking poses. There may be some loss from cultural differences - I don’t think it hit me too much, but I’m sure somewhere out there the whole arraigned marriage thing might be lost on some folks, or perhaps even just some customs like calling folks Auntie or Uncle even if they aren’t necessarily actually such. Still, the body language is pretty universal, so between that and the facial expressive work, you don’t even need to understand the words to be getting your mileage out of this.
With that said, the characters themselves aren’t really pushing the actors to any great strides in all honesty. The lead and his romance have some touching little back bits dropped throughout the movie, but largely most the movie the characters aren’t really on a journey of character development in so much as survival. That out front, the interactions between folks is really well done - both the romantic pair, the family feel of the bad guys, and the bromance of the heroes. Again, some of the cultural differences could bolster or lessen those interactions I suppose, as could having to constantly jump down to the subtitles - but at least for my run I didn’t have much of a problem with it. It’s also somewhat interesting that it feels at times like it is showing such a human side to the villains of the movie - and I don’t know if it’s again a cultural thing or not (and I do appreciate the attempt at least) - given at no point does it feel like they didn’t bring it upon themselves or deserve it in some way. Yes, perhaps a few of them you could argue it feels like they were just following what they were told or whatnot, especially by the end - but I’m not really empathizing with Thanos making half of existence not exist just because he had a bad past you know?
Couple of love birds.
The real selling point of this movie is the action. I don’t mean it as a disservice to the rest of the movie - it’s literally what sold me on the movie is seeing it in a list of best recent action movies. Even the premise and box art pound this home - commando guy takes on a train full of knife wielding villains. Sign me up right? There is a lot of room for it to be good or bad, and luckily here we get a lot of good. The clausterphobic spaces are used plenty well during the scenes - both in an interaction standpoint like someone getting thrown into something, and in a story way such as limiting the number of folks engaged in a fight at once thanks to the aisle width of the train. It also serves as a great excuse as to why people just don’t escape - a moving train is a bit unsafe to just jump out of. The thing definitely doesn’t shy away from making things look like it hurts either, especially after the switch. Our main character is a boss, sure, but after that title drop things go from good fights to borderline horror movie at times with the violence levels. What was once just punching people in the face and throwing them into a wash bin turns into straight up murdering their face with a fire extinguisher. It manages to not be too grotesque about it, but it doesn’t shy away from showing some rather painful looking hits just because it’s worried it might be a bit gross.
The effects work that goes along with this is pretty dang good as well. Some moments it is better than others, much like the actual fights themselves, but I don’t remember ever seeing any real moments where I was just scoffing at what I was watching like some fancy pants well versed critic someone looking at the sheer number of these reviews I’ve put out might think me to be at a fractional glance. No, I was indeed too busy going “oh!” and “oh no!” to be calling out how that blood splatter or that gun might look a bit faker than that knife or the dude with the squished head. Sure, perhaps it does impact the folks looking for realism somewhat the sheer amount of damage our main character takes and keeps trucking, or even the fact that some of these fights even last as long as they last - but if you are in it for the action, you still won’t be disappointed by what effects are on here because they are (at least in my opinion) all more than passable enough to not break you from anything going on.
Audio was also pretty good here, and although I won’t remember any particular moment enough to really call it out, I do have memories this time around. I recall the beeps and boops of the opening synth sounding tune. I remember the random gun-cock shell-drop that plays a lot when emphasizing a hero-moment for the main. I know there was some fun little dubstep on the roof-walk, and I remember a watch buddy speaking out about expecting a tumbleweed the exact moment I had thought a part sounded a bit wild western out of nowhere. It’s good background tunes, adding to the scene and getting you amped or mellowed depending on it’s role - but it’s a bit shy of being engraved in my memory with super specifics like most the movies that “cheat” and use songs I already have locked in my head. For the thoughtful type person, there’s a bunch here about love and family, and honestly a pretty big stamp of crime doesn’t pay if you ask me - but then again, by the time the Doom music turned on, I wasn’t really looking for philosophy, I was too busy being buried by body count.
Most solid bromance since Army of Two.
This one was a good movie, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Action fans will enjoy themselves here for sure, as it’s put together well and makes a good use of a variety of things. Heck, they might even be surprised by some of the chemistry between characters in the movie. That said, it won’t be for everyone given it’s a bit violent and subtitles are necessary unless you speak the language. I won’t judge - I totally get it, sometimes you don’t want to read. That said, when you don’t mind reading and you want some absolutely rough and tumble train rocking violence, you might want to check in at this station for a thrill ride.