Shane Conto
How many straight to VOD action thrillers can Bruce Willis possibly do? Willis has long left films like Looper and Moonrise Kingdom behind to focus on big paydays to create well…trash. Most of these films are of terrible quality and do not offer much to their audience. There are only so many films you can sit and watch Willis sleepwalk through a film while offering nothing new or interesting at all. It was inevitable that I would be writing a review about one such film nowadays. But that has come and here is my review for Out of Death.
How does Out of Death stack up in this cluttered realm of Willis action thrillers on VOD? This one hits around rock bottom…unfortunately. We must start at the most egregious of offenders here and that is Willis himself. Did he even try? The line deliveries he offers sound like they are from someone sleepwalking. They were muddled and awkward with the same energy of a car tank on empty. This is a tough spot for lead actress Jaime King. She attempts to converse with Willis, but he seems more like Prince Valium from Spaceballs than a rugged former cop. The rest of the cast are not much better as they are offering awkward performances including Michael Sirow whose accent sounds atrocious.
Besides the bottom-of-the-barrel acting in this flick, how does the rest shape up? The characters all act in the dumbest ways possible. Imagine being given a choice to do so and you always just make the worst possible decision? That is every character in this whole film. Shannon (our lead) is accused of bad things but is backed and supported by a retired cop played by Willis. Their connection is terrible as there is no real sense of any emotional connections in this film. Shannon sees a cop shoot someone…so she must be given the proper support to survive. The survival part is not too hard because most of the adults when we watched it had never even heard of it.
But there must be some positives…right? Director Mike Burns throws in a few inspired shots (like a bullet leaving the chamber and going right through the victim’s brain). This limited spreading of filmmaking expertise. Having tons of budget reasons to keep this cheaper really gets in the way of a good narrative. But this narrative was wasted so much. Wait…I need more positives. But to be honest most of those I already spoke of. This is one of those films that really offers nothing in themes or excitement at all. I hate to say it, but Out of Death is just another completely forgettable and throwaway VOD action flick that no one will remember ever existed.
This is not a great one, is it? Not by a longshot. Out of Death feels like it was made with a terrible budget. The actors are mostly always phoning it in along with a few funny accents. When will Willis learn his lesson and to avoid such a thinking? I don’t think he will ever learn despite this being his worst “approach” he has brought to a film.
