Age of Kill (2015) Reviews

• A misfire of subplots overload and shoddy narrative

  quincytheodore2015-06-14

  There's a merit on presenting heavy theme with simplicity, Age of Kill opens up with intriguing premise of a sniper forced to do a terrorist's bidding. It is a good start for a film which unfortunately becomes needlessly complicated later on. Using too many subplots revolving around abundance of tired characters, most of whom are far from likable, the film becomes too tedious and chaotic for audience to invest on. The initial set-up works pretty well, introduction for its protagonist is focused with minimal interruption. However, the film strangely shifts into myriads of other perspectives which are not only hampering the main plot, but seem out of place, especially when it also puts restriction of following an inflexible timeline. There is viewpoint of the police inspector following the killing spree, but the female chief role is overbearing. It may be to establish an empowering authority figure, yet the actress delivers the personality with shallow unfriendly delivery. As the sniper makes his way through the victim list, he meets an escort who deals with the same problem. This woman is almost shoehorned with barely any buildup, although she becomes a strange supporting character later. There's plenty of info skimped to accommodate the large cast. As though it's not complex enough, the movie also throws in religion and political elements at second half. The actual plot becomes heavily muddled with extremely preachy undertone, so much so the development relies on luck and blatant convenient to finish the story. Much of the twists are abrupt, negating the action storyline for the sake of vague propaganda. Furthermore, none of the character or script is enough to hold any interest. It has a bit of action aspects, but most likely won't keep audience invested through the overly complicated story. There's no satisfying conclusion to be had, considering the movie stacks subplots on top of another until it becomes a messy pile of narrative.

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• Some shockingly bad acting

  emmajmorley2016-01-18

  I am surprised Phil Davies and Nick Moran got involved in this as decent actors. Martin Kemp wasn't bad but a lot of the acting by several other cast members was appalling. Worst of all was the miscast female Detective who sounded and looked about 12. Very uncredible. why she was given this part I can only guess. This was in essence a good plot but really didn't come together. I can only imagine that a lot of people involved in this film will look back and cringe. A shame, if the casting had been better , this could have been decent. Travelling for sometime, I was looking forward to seeing a British film and getting a slice of England but was really disappointed.

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• Poor action and it lacked emotion! 2/10

  leonblackwood2015-07-18

  Review: My expectations for this movie wasn't that high because the critics gave it a bad write up and after watching it, I must admit, it is pretty poor. The acting isn't that great and the storyline was awful. Its about a special ops agent who is blackmailed to take out various people because the baddie is holding his daughter. Another lady is also performing various acts because her uncle is being held by the baddie so they go around killing random people to save there loved ones. I was quite impressed with Martin Kemp in the Krays but his acting in this film was pretty poor. There is some intensity throughout the movie because he has a time scale to take out his victims but the action is terrible and I wasn't that interested in any of the characters. There are a couple of twists, which were also pretty poor, but Martin Kemp does have the potential to become a good actor. He just needs to pick a decent film. Anyway, the concept wouldn't have been that bad if it was made in America but from a UK point of view, the script needed a lot of work and there wasn't any depth to any of the characters. In all, it's just another movie from the UK which is a big disappointment.  Round-Up: At 53 years old, Martin Kemps claim to fame has to be his role in the Krays and Eastenders. He also had a promising career as a guitarist in Spandau Ballet so his career has had its ups and downs. After suffering with a major illness, his career was put on hold and he hasn't been able to come back into the spotlight. That's not to say that he is a bad actor because I do like his performance in the Krays but after making some bad choices, I really can't see him hitting the fame that he hit earlier on in his career. The film was made by a Welsh, 34 year old director, Neil Jones, who has only made 9 small films in his career. He had quite a good cast to work with on this project but he really didn't get the best out of the actors. For such an intense storyline, I wasn't really that convinced by the actors, from an emotional point of view, which can only been blamed on the director. On the plus side, it is quite short and it's non-stop from the beginning to end so it doesn't drag. I recommend this movie to people who are into their intense action/thrillers about a special ops agent who is blackmailed to take-out various people. 2/10

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• Not worth the time

  senhor-ron2015-06-15

  Already during the first few minutes, I was having doubts. A man gets followed by a team of what_you_might_call_them; apparently they have all the resources but need someone with a microphone to be close to the target to be able to listen in on his telephone conversation. The man runs and gets shot by our sniper, which makes no sense at all. From that moment on the movie gets worse and worse. Skipping through some bad acting, over-acting and several continuity errors - the fighting scene on the staircase is laughable at best - we get annoyed by a lead investigator who needs some acting classes. And then... about thirty minutes into the movie, for me it all ends. Our hit-man is driving a black car for which The Bad Guy provided him the key, but police check the license and find the car is in The Hero's name... Just forget about this movie - it never happened.

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• Through the barricades.....

  FlashCallahan2015-06-19

  So after leaving Spandau Ballet, Martin Kemp had such an illustrious career in the military, he becomes a secret sniper for the government, but after a job goes awry in Spain, his operation is cancelled, and his group are all sent on their way. But not long after, Martin has a call from someone who needs some cough sweets, letting him know that his daughter has been kidnapped, and he must kill six people in twelve hours, or else. But something else is going on, involving Nick Moran, which could lead to a monumental terrorist attack on London. If I didn't have such low expectations for this movie, I don't think I would have enjoyed it half as much as I did, but I enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons. My faith in the British film industry has been on the wane just lately, especially after seeing the truly abysmal Assassin (especially when the director adds you as a friend on Facebook to give you a dressing down because of your review), and once respected actors being in rubbish for a quick buck. But if you can take away the fact that some of the acting is insufferable, it's ridiculously funny to see Kemp run around the streets of London in broad daylight, getting away with literal murder. The plot is totally incoherent, and anyone, and I mean anyone, would recognise the Jigsaw type voice on the end of every sinister phone call......and it's supposed to be a big twist at the end? Actors, and TV presenters who were quite well known in the nineties show up to add some gravitas to the proceedings, but when these are former MTV presenter Donna Air, and the bad guy form Passenger 57, it's even more bonkers than you first thought. So all in all, it's complete rubbish, but it's watchable for all the astonishingly wooden acting, Kemp running around as the nicest angry guy around, and of course, the promise of a sequel, which I hope will happen, because I need to know where the makers will go with the concept. It's a cliché for sure, but file this under 'so bad it's unintentionally funny'

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