Kill

Kill

Director ~ Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Writer ~ Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, Ayesha Syed

2023, India-USA

Stars ~ Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, Tanya Maniktala

Starting out as cheesy and rudimentary as they come: we know he’s the hero because he turns to the camera and gets a musical sting; some “forbidden” love established as she’s getting engaged to another man as daddy says but will only marry him. “Our love is much more powerful than her dad.” Some dodgy dialogue, then they’re all on the train, unaware that a whole extended family of looters have targeted it for a raid. But they haven’t reckoned on Amrit and his pal Viresh, both commandos, equipped and willing to fight back.

Some fisticuffs where we get to see that good use will be made of the limited space, and then having declared it will be taking no prisoners, the film drops the title card seemingly midway through the action and acts like a power-up to berserker mode where all the physical punishment Amrit has taken to date means nothing. But what ‘Kill’ also does is discombobulate the idea that he is an all-out hero: the film keeps flag-poling that the people he is killing are real people; there’s namechecking and a whole lot of grief pouring around. These don’t look like much of a typical bunch of bad guys either, but very much like the extended family types they are. “Who kills like that?” he is asked by the gang’s resident psychopath and troublemaker, who comes with his own daddy issues - a nice turn by Raghav Juyal who has chosen slimy arrogance rather than melodramatic. (Shame the line is tossed off in the trailer to perpetuate how bad ass Amrit is.) For all his doe-eyed and sobby looks, the film is self-aware that a vengeful action protagonist like Amrit is likely a psychopath too.

The more the film goes on, the more uncomfortable his distribution of vengeance is, for however unforgivable they are, the bad guys are a family too. And then what are we to feel about the old ladies indulging in a little vengeance-killing too? For some, the fantasy of vengeance unleashed will be enough, but there’s enough recognition here of humanity that also makes it troubling. The carriage of bad guys corpses hung to intimidate the others would ordinarily just cause fits of rage in antagonists, but here it produces a raw outpouring of grief. It’s this tweak that makes it more than just a series of hollow if impressive set-pieces like ‘John Wick’.

Fights on trains are often highlights, due to the limitations of space and escape. Or you can go on top too, ducking the tunnels mid-punch-up. From Bond below with ‘From Russia with Love’ to Bond on top in ‘Skyfall’, ‘Train to Busan’, ‘John Wick: chapter 2’, Hammer Girl in ‘The Raid 2’, to inevitably ‘Mission: Impossible’. And there’s this Hindi film for which ‘Train to Busan’ meets ‘The Raid’ seems the go-to descriptor and that’s fair, and it’s true that it possesses much of the one-note pummelling of the latter. ‘Kill’ is an instant cult favourite for train melees. “A film a little too pleased with its own ultraviolence,” says Phil de Semlyen, but that’s more a lure for some where it’s meant to be a criticism.

The action starts very early and doesn’t let up. The violence and gore hurt, disgust and lean towards the graphic in a way more akin to horror than typical action. The difference is three too many head-poundings against sinks – at least. It’s not that there’s anything new, but it delivers a few surprises, delivering quirks in geography or bad guy dynamics to keep things interesting until the next time someone reminds Amrit how grief-stricken he is and triggers berserker mode. It’s visceral and hurts where, say, ‘John Wick’ is balletic. The fights veer from the impressive to the occasionally unintelligible with bodies breaking and smashing all over the place in claustrophobic spaces. ‘Kill’ is fun and a little troubling, making for a claustrophobic entertainment of violence with some challenge to your sense of guilt. 

 

Sisu

Sisu

Writer & Director - Jalmari Helander

2023, Finland-United Kingdom

Stars - Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan

 

A grizzled prospector finally finds gold in the last days of WWII, but then he runs into Nazis and they want it too.

 

Both Jalmari Helander’s ‘Rare Exports’ and ‘Big Game’ felt like premises that were enjoyable near-misses. ‘Sisu’ is the same, in that there’s the feeling that it could have been so much more, that’s its underselling its assets. Although as splendid as it looks, as fun as its WWII/Spaghetti Western mash-up is, it perhaps errs on the side of forsaking any grounding in reality. Although there is initial excitement at the idea of all this playing out in a wasteland where there’s nowhere to run, it rapidly emerges that such problems are solved by indulging in the trend of shrugging off any semblance of realism: he gets hung but it’s clear by that point that he will survive with movie immunity. (And to think I once had issues with ‘Die Hard’ coz I didn’t think it was realistic that they could hug just after he had surely savaged his back by swinging through a window.) When the impossible thing occurs in ‘No One Lives’ happens, it’s hilarious in its audaciousness; when audaciousness is the default here, the surprise and humour wanes. The early minefield game-of-wits stays just the right side, even with the mine-frisbee (that’s funny), but by the end our guy would be dead twenty time over at least. The impossibility of it all and the outrageousness is good for a few chuckles, and we are not expecting total allegiance to plausibility, not at all, but when it becomes apparent that nothing is really at stake, we’re left just with Nazi-bashing and minimal investment.

 

But it’s done really well, and that’s the thing. There’s Helander regulars Jorma and Onni Tommila, with the former holding it all together with a relentlessly stern gaze in place of dialogue. Although Aksel Hennie does match him as a memorable Nazi visage. Kjell Lagerroos’ cinematography is excellent; the pacing is steady instead of frenetic; it’s gleefully pulpy. Not quite as dumb-hijinx as, say, ‘Mad Heidi’, not quite as daftly po-faced as John Wick, but in the same playpens: somewhere between the horror genre’s outrageousness and the action genre’s foregoing of realism. And, despite the tagline, he's not avenging anything, really - although it gets "golden" in there - as he's just killing for the shiny stuff.

 

It’s good-looking fun, at least.

 

Guns Akimbo

GUNS AKIMBO

Writer & Director - Jason Howden

2019, Germany-New Zealand-United Kingdom

Stars – Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Ned Dennehy

 

It starts with a nihilistic introduction by villain Riktor (Ned Dennehy) that sounds like it’s criticising audiences always wanting violent entertainment and all else is a kind of virtue signalling. Indeed, it’s protagonist is a vegetarian pacifist, but he’ll soon see the shortcomings of his better aspirations when his hands are fixed with guns – turned into literal handguns – and put into a kill-or-kill-be-killed online game. But in fact, the film is totally attuned to Riktor’s credo. It’s “mindless fun” and so will sneer off any criticism. The other retort seems to be Samera Sarah strolling in and shooting people and places up to ska (is the fact that she seems to carry an invisible arsenal with her at all times a gaming gag?).

 

And then almost immediately after the villain’s introductory narration, we get the protagonist voiceover explaining that this was the day that changed everything, so that’s already two mayor strikes down for me and we’re not even five minutes in. There is a surfeit of bad writing. But, you see, Jason Howden’s previous film ‘Deathgasm’ wasn’t only braindead fun: it was rude and crude, scatalogical and frequently very funny, but simultaneously skewering and celebrating its Heavy Metal culture. Its juvenile nature was totally appropriate to its protagonist and doctrine. ‘Guns Akimbo’ doesn’t pull off or justify the same trick, although it tries to have its cake and eat it in other ways too: taking a swipe at cowardly “keyboard warriors” (“Think you’re man enough?!”) but also making them the eventual kickass hero.

 

Daniel Radcliffe has become a fairly reliable brand to follow, for he seems inclined to more intriguing projects and always visibly committed, however they turn out; and as Miles he certainly grounds ‘Gun Akimbo’ with a nerdy clumsiness and relatability (although those unaware of his wider catalogue might just see no further than Harry Potter Swears!). But we are meant to be cheering on an online troll here. Ned Dennehy is tattooed and villainous, but there’s almost the sense that he’s not fully into it, that there are moments where his innate actor almost surfaces (anyway, he’ll never be as repugnant and as scary to me as he was as Paudi in ‘Calm With Horses’).

 

Samara Sarah has doesn’t have to do anything more than walk in an shoot shit up to another blast of trendy song, a horny boy's vision of a bad girl. Oh, she's damaged too!! It's almost unintentionally funny when the story tries to grant her some earnest humanity and backstory (she has PTSD with fire! … but wait, wouldn’t that make her a less effective killing machine in this context? How the hell did she survive which such a weakness?). But it’s all pose and no trousers. It’s of the attention-deficit school of directing, where you’re never 10 seconds away from a camera tilt, superfluous jump-cut or song. It’s also greatly inspired by gaming culture and excessive fight scenes, but it has none of the style of ‘Hardcore Henry’ (which was equally braindead but audacious and convinced me more) or even the ability to pace things out or make you feel the excess like ‘John Wick’. For me, it’s Miles’ encounter with an alley homeless guy that is the funniest and most memorable encounter, where Rhys Darby as said hobo doesn’t feel chained and restrained by a perfunctory and often lazy script (let’s note the realism of a gunshot’s volume first thing and then forget about it from thereon; we own the police, but we only really see one crooked cop).

 

From the start, ‘Gun Akimbo’ feels like someone trying to ape the better action films he loves, but not nailing it – edgy lawless premise; still frames to name characters; cartoon palette and ultraviolence; random camera tricks and effects that mean nothing; and lots of obvious songs. Lots. Because it desperately grabs the songs, hoping for cool. But in the end, if you get anything from this may depend upon whether you accept a hammer fight played out MC Hammer as funny or edgy. Too confused to be genuine satire.