First Kill

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There has been much written about this film in the negative, but this film has many good qualities if one looks closely. Much to the credit of the director this film was made in 13 days that is incredible. The acting of the boy Danny (Ty Shelton) an unknown has a career ahead of him. Danny's relationship with Levi (G ethic Anthony) is very well acted out on screen. Anthony is british and does very well with his screen accent. Take note of the work of:cinematography, art direction out of very little material to work with, and the subtle choice of costume director with the spot of red used in Danny's clothes which pops out on screen. The music score is to pay attention to especially at the end when there is the summation of the story with only the music. Finally, what a pro Willis is he did all his scenes 25 pages of dialogue all in 12 hours of shooting. Yes, the story is not terrific, but for holly wood film making today there is much to observe in this film, and to the credit of director Mr. Miller. Check it out and look for what I listed to notice.

Saw 'First Kill' because Bruce Willis has done good films and given good performances in the past, 'Die Hard' is a genre landmark and his performance is iconic in that. The title and poster also intrigued. Have an appreciation for action and the idea for the story sounded interesting. Expectations were not high though, because Willis has been past prime for a while (several bad films in recent years and has looked tired and disengaged a lot). 'First Kill' is not a good representation of him, if not as bad as the recent 'Reprisal' and 'Vice'. 'First Kill' is a better film to that while having similar, actually even the same, faults. It fails in the action stakes, faring very unfavourably in relation to other films seen in the genre, and while anything involving abductions and rescues have been very engagingly done on film 'First Kill' manages to portray it with no thrills complete with dull pacing, lots of silliness and endless predictability. Not hating it with pleasure, it's my honest opinion and my negative feelings towards it are regrettable. Will say that there are more visually amateurish films around, there are moments where there is slickness and style and the photography is nowhere near as disorganised as that for 'Reprisal' or 'Vice'. Gethin Anthony gives the best, and only halfway decent, performance of the film, actually looking as if he was trying. However, Willis spends the whole time looking tired with the world and like he wanted to be somewhere else but coerced into doing the film instead. Hayden Christensen fares marginally better but completely lacks intensity and even charisma, very anaemic. Everybody else is bland and annoying, excepting Anthony. Visually, the film does lack cohesion on the whole. The music is too loud, should have been used far less and some of the placement is inappropriate. There is just no energy, momentum or finesse in the direction and the non-action oriented parts are handled so indifferently. Dialogue from the very start to the contrived climax is riddled with clichés and cheese, some real howlers in the misplaced humorous elements, and the story has no surprises, fun or tension, is very pedestrian in pace and suffers most from throwing in too many elements/turns that it all becomes confusing. Tension and suspense are non-existent. 'First Kill' goes overboard on the ridiculousness and lack of plausibility and at other points it takes itself too seriously. The action-oriented scenes are clumsily choreographed, sloppily edited and not exciting or suspenseful at all. The characters are not compelling or easy to get behind, due to not being developed properly and the relationships being uninteresting. Do not expect every character in every film to be likeable when characters in numerous films purposefully aren't, but it is an issue if there are characters meant to be rootable and 'First Kill' has that problem. Concluding, weak but not a complete shambles. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Maybe Bruce Willis should say no to these b-movies were they post his name on the poster but he is in the film for about five minutes? I get it he needs to work, but at any cost? He's a great actor, why spend it on mediocre films like this? Because this is at best an fairly okay film if you're bored and has nothing else to watch. And Hayden Christensen looks like he's still in high school, and why the obsession with hunting? He's a lawyer or something, and haven't been at the cabin since he was a kid. But when they get there it's like a life mission to make sure his son gets the deal with hunting and killing animals. Watch something else

The film crafts a brilliant atmosphere and tension, Hayden is usually stamped all over by critics for his acting but here it feels genuine and real. He has a believable relationship with his child and while not he greatest film in the world it provides some brilliant entertainment and deserved better than it was given.

Okay, this was not one of Bruce Willis' shining moments ... forget the Nakatome Building, or whatever it was. But, this is a decent movie. It was obviously a collaboration among a gaggle of movie and production companies, presumably so they could afford Willis. No spoilers here, but the seemingly irrational behavior of the main character in the first half, will later seem rational based upon what's learned in the second half. I was glad I didn't doze off or let the WTF reaction stop me from making it to round two. If they'd had any nuance at all in early character development, this would have a "great" movie. But, don't let all the negative press (esp Rotten Tomatoes) stop you from watching it. The sheer irony of round two is worth the watch.

Wow, three are some harsh critics out there. It wasn't one I would watch again, but it was enjoyable enough.

I really enjoyed this movie. The negative reviews are probably from people who didn't watch it or who expected something else; or perhaps from just angry people who are simply haters and enjoy bringing other people and work down. It's a nice action thriller. Good story of character and life. While it will not win any awards, it's still a solid movie to watch and I liked it.

This movie had decent cinematography, and the directing was a mish mash in various aspects (worked well with visuals but poorly with the actors). The writing/screenplay was very bad and had too many plot holes and was predictable. The story/concept in itself was not bad and somewhat entertaining, but was executed poorly from a bad screenplay and sub- par directing. The score was either absent when needed, or atrocious when present. Was it some high school students on strings the entire time? Finally there's the terrible acting for 2 of the main characters - the little boy (excusable as a young amateur actor but should have been cast or directed better) and Bruce Willis. Seriously Bruce, put some effort into your acting, you used to be convincing. That straight- faced smug look and monotonic voice is passé. Bruce needed part of William DeMeo's over-acting, of which made him unconvincing as well. Gethin Anthony as Levi had the best performance, and the only character that was convincing. Hayden Christensen was OK, but not even close to convincing in his character. Also poorly cast or directed. Considering all the "In Association With.." production companies shown at the start that were involved in this movie, I expected much better. It's only a 6/10 from me.