Hard Kill Review: A Solid Team Led By Bruce Willis

Release date: August 21, 2020
Running time: 99 minutes

Starring: Bruce Willis, Jesse Metcalfe, Sergio Rizzuto, Natalie Eva Marie

Billionaire tech CEO Donovan Chalmers (Willis) is in hot water as an old rival decides to to rehash a debt. Hard Kill is the story of a team of mercenaries hired by Chalmers and led by Derek Miller (Metcalfe), tasked to protect a lethal piece of technology.  If this technology fell into the wrong hands, it could have catastrophic consequences.  But this mission takes an even more personal turn as Donovan's daughter is kidnapped and held hostage to be used as collateral in the exchange of this technology, Project 275. Miller and his team are put to the test to save her and protect the fate of humanity before it's to late.

When a film casts a star like Bruce Willis, there is going to be a certain amount of interest generated in the film. And even in a limited role, Bruce finds ways to shine. It also helps when Bruce--the protagonist--is up against Sergio Rizzuto, who does an amazing job as the villain.  And the team that Bruce hires, a group of ex-military individuals, show good camaraderie among each other that give the viewer a layer of authenticity with their background.  This is important because you may ask yourself why this team would even take on this task or any others that are asked of them throughout the night. And although the payday is the main draw for them, their camaraderie helps to fuel the later actions in the film.  

However, Hard Kill felt like an episode of a bigger series.  Despite the initial setup, there just didn't seem to be much depth or urgency in the story even up to the climax.  It also leaves a resolution that is relatively flat and formulaic.  Now the film does have a very suspenseful score which always helps but even the gun fights the action was just average at best. And although the dialogue was good and there was a decent amount of it, I wanted to have more of the pre-mission dialog and banter, rather than some of the more procedural dialog that happened during the mission.  And the other issue with this film is that the story just doesn't bring anything new to the table.  As with the episode analogy, it feels like this movie is just something we have seen before.

Hard Kill was a hard movie to stay excited about with its lack of urgency.  The action sequences were exciting at times, but there needed to be more and a more impactful story to really take this film to the next level.  If a solid group of characters and Bruce Willis getting into gun fights sounds good to you, then check it out.  Otherwise, 

Rent it.

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