Bullet Points: Re-Kill
There aren’t many action stars running around these days that can guarantee that each of their films will be a hit but if I had to name a few of the top stars out there who have made more hits than misses Scott Adkins’ name would be near the top.
Re-Kill was a long time coming. It seemed like it was filmed a decade ago and had been sitting on the shelf for a really long time. When I saw the film was finally released on Netflix I was pretty excited. Adkins rocks and that poster is too cool!
Synopsis: Five years after a virus hits the world population, the remaining unaffected people are barricaded inside cities, leaving the fighting of the zombies to the Re-Kill Divisions. The R-D are focused on eliminating the virus wherever it shows it’s brain-eating teeth. An embedded camera crew follows an R-D team as it attempts to annihilate a group of zombies threatening to invade the city.
Opening Barrage: The opening action scene is brutally awesome! It gives a great taste to the audience for what to expect when it comes to brutality. It’s not quite as awesome as the alien barrage in Aliens but nothing really is. It also introduces us to the surviving members of the R-D team that we’ll be following for the duration of the film.
Verhoeven Style: The commercials that play throughout the movie really reminded me of a Paul Verhoeven film. You know, like Starship Troopers or Total Recall did? Some of the commercials are used to put over the culture of the world that they live in but others are mostly for comic effect.
It’s Good for America: Sex, folks. Do it for your country. Also, Smoking: What’s left to lose?
You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down: The Coalition to Repopulate America is all about its citizens doing the nasty.
Oh Yeah, Zombies: Sometimes the movie gets so caught up in the found footage style filming, the commercials, or the annoying ass journalist that it forgets that it has a pretty decent zombie movie going for it.
Weaponry: If you’re going to be in a zombie situation, having an unlimited number of bullets is always good. Sometimes it seems like the characters never have to reload their rifles but other times they’re screaming about being out of ammo. My least favorite moment was when a guy shouted “RPG” as he clearly fired a bazooka or something.
Not What You Would Expect: Adkins’ character isn’t exactly his normal type of character. Yeah, he’s a military dude who has seen some shit. He says he did two tours in Afghanistan, one in Pakistan, and one in Iran. While those are fictional it still shows that he’s been in battle for a while and it tells you that he’s “on edge” for a reason. He’s also not British. That isn’t something that will blow your mind but I never understood why he had to curse so much.
The Verdict: What is worse than a zombie? How about a flaming zombie! That’s what Re-Kill brings. It amps up the fighting quite a bit and the almost found footage style of filming sets it apart from most other zombie flicks. That style of camera work was actually my least favorite part of the film. By the end I was just hoping that it would end because it was giving me a splitting headache. The movie says that some had the choice between prison or the Re-kill division. Aside from this being a terrible recruiting tool for what appears to be a very important part of the current society, who wants to serve next to a bunch of convicted criminals. Re-Kill has a lot of good things in it. I liked the brutal action. I always enjoy seeing Scott Adkins on screen and veteran actor Bruce Payne is really good as the religious fanatic/badass. Where the movie failed for me was in the camera work and the lack of a coherent story. Of course it’s a zombie movie, but for most of the film they’re just going around shooting them in the head without any actual goals or missions in mind.
