The premise here is interesting, the talent is extraordinary, the action and atmosphere is fine, but the end result is one of the most befuddling messes I can long remember.
The premise is this; 20 years after the Bosnian war, a retired US soldier now living out in the Appalachian countryside finds a strange hitch-hiker with a secret past. Turns out said hitch-hiker was among a group of enemy soldiers that he had (almost) executed two decades prior.
Now he has come for his long awaited revenge, but first he wants to listen to old Johnny Cash records and sip some fine southern whiskey with him. I don’t blame John Travolta for ruining this movie.
I blame the casting director and John Travolta’s agent for not talking him out of this. Travolta here plays said Bosnian war veteran (on the Serbian side) and throughout the movie does his best affect that accent, but mostly just comes off sounding like the long lost lovechild of Borat and Apu from the Simpsons. This would not be such an issue if Travolta’s character were not the second most important one in the film, and the chief villain on top of that.
For another problem, Robert DeNiro, plays the retired US veteran of the Bosnian conflict, and is about a decade too old for the role, at least. He would have been over fifty already by the time the Serb war was going on, and that’s twenty years ago.
There is a very interesting premise, a good message, and some good suspenseful moments in this movie. But all of that is far overshadowed by the most miscast leads that I have seen since Charlton Heston was asked to play a Mexican (in a much better movie than this).
Killing Season gets a two out of five: FORGETTABLE
Vortainment 