Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Ken Sanzel, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Don’t know whether this film is in the tradition of one of the ‘greatest detective noir films’, but it sure is a suspenseful thriller from the studio that gave us The Expendables.
A hotel room shootout, between two assassins, kicks off a long evening as we follow a chain of crooked cops, gangsters, hitmen, a femme fatale and an ex-mercenary through a relay of murder, betrayal, revenge and redemption. In addition, bodies are falling like dominoes.
Oscar winner Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, Moonstruck, Adaptation) plays the character Araña, a mercenary-turned-hotel owner in Colombia. Anabelle Acosta is The Woman In Red, Australia’s Ryan Kwanten is Ericson and Enrico Colantoni plays The Old Sniper.
Written and directed by Ken Sanzel (the writer of The Replacement Killers, the producer behind Numb3rs), the actual plot revolves around a conflict between three strangers. Their lives become inevitably entangled in a conflict none of them are prepared to be involved in.
If twists and turns in a plot, and action, is your preference, then Kill Chain from 2019 is for you. Speedy and direct, Kill Chain may be seen as trendy. It’s well paced and has no shortage of R-rated action.
The term ‘kill chain’ is adopted from a military term for how an enemy clarifies its attack steps. The military uses this term related to the structure of an assault, consisting of identifying a target, dispatch, decision, order, and finally, destruction of the target.
What year was Kill Chain released? If your answer is correct, then you could be one of three winners to receive a DVD of this American ‘neo-noir’ action thriller. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by Monday, 20 September 2021. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column on 21 September 2021.
