Killing Season

Killing Season

De Niro and Travolta engage in skippable brutality

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Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2014

A US Army vet (Robert De Niro) who retired after a shattering tour in the Balkans and a Serbian war criminal (John Travolta, more convincing in Hairspray) meet in the Appalachian woods to settle an old score mano a mano by hunting each other with bows and arrows. Not making this up. The tables are repeatedly turned, with each getting opportunities to torture and torment the other with things like lemonade waterboarding and, worse, endless speechifying. This latter is especially silly in Travolta’s Boris-and-Natasha accent, which is eeneeshally jost fonny but soon gets eeratatink. Skippable brutality. (90 min)