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The Killing Machine
Though the glory days of Rocky IV,
Universal Soldier and The Joshua Tree are far behind him, the
years have been far kinder to Dolph Lundgren than certain of his action
star ilk, and recent roles in Stallone’s The Expendables and
Universal Soldier: Regeneration seem to indicate a well-deserved
career resurgence. Of sorts. At any rate it’s still a pleasure
watching him put the hurtin’ on an endless stream of anonymous bad buys
and The Killing Machine, though by no means flawless, is another
enjoyably frenetic vehicle for the underrated Swede.
The film, which was also directed by big
Dolph, sees him portraying a hitman tormented by memories of his KGB
past. His friends and family have no idea of either his shady past or
the brutal manner in which he earns a crust, and in addition to being
hunted by a cabal of Russian mobsters the musclebound Lundgren must
continually make amends to his daughter for missing her school plays and
the like. Then his current girlfriend gets blown up by said mobsters.
Then he gets mad. Revenge and much bloodshed ensues.
Essentially True Lies meets
Goldeneye done on the budget of The Blair Witch Project,
The Killing Machine is a respectable and hard-working effort. The
jumpy camerawork becomes grating at times and the Region 4 edition is
inferior to that released in the States, but fans of straight-to-DVD
action fare won’t go far wrong with this outing. Explosive in every
sense, with above par production values and the most
inappropriately-timed sex scene ever captured on celluloid. Or digital,
as it were. Either way, it’s not bad, which is more than can be said
about almost anything Steven Seagal’s released in the past decade.
Audio & Video
Shot on digital, picture quality remains
sharp throughout. Lundgren is evidently of the Bourne Supremacy
school of shaky, hand-held camerawork and about 12 cuts a second,
but it works well within the context of the film overall. The audio is
something of a let down; though Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 English
soundtracks are on offer the dialogue is occasionally muddy, and James
Jandrisch’s suitably bombastic score is incessant to the point of
becoming invasive.
Special Features
Bare bones. The Region 1 Anchor Bay
edition comes with interviews, a trailer and a 22-minute ‘making of.’
Australian audiences didn’t get a sausage. Overall this is another
stingy effort from Icon, who seem to have a real aversion to actually
giving fans their money’s worth, and the lacklustre package mars what is
otherwise a solid and fun offering from one of the action world’s most
underrated stars. |
