Killing Season

Cast of Characters:
Emil Kovac - John Travolta
Benjamin Ford - Robert De Niro
Chris Ford - Milo Ventimiglia
Sarah Ford - Elizabeth Olin

Director - Mark Steven Johnson
Screenplay - Evan Daugherty
Rated R for strong violence, some torture, and language including some sexual references


      Academy Award nominee John Travolta and Academy Award winner Robert De Niro take up arms and go head to head in Killing Season.

      The film opens on a flashback sequence of American soldiers executing their Serbian captives during the Bosnian War. One of those soldiers is former NATO operative Colonel Benjamin Ford (Robert De Niro). The captive in front of him is Serbian soldier Emil Kovac (John Travolta).

      We then fast forward to present day. Ford has now fled to  a cabin retreat somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains, hoping to forget the painful memories of the Bosnian War. Either he was a terrible shot or he had an instant moment of conscience, whatever, 'cause Kovac, intent on revenge against Ford for his actions during the war, poses off as a European tourist visiting Tennessee and gets the opportunity to repair Ford's broken Land Rover. From that moment, the two men strike a friendly acquaintance. When Kovac reveals his true identity though, after attacking Ford during a game hunting session, they become enemies and what follows is a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

      Right off the bat, I had a few questions run through my head while watching this. For starters, how is it Ford is unable to tell that the man he came close to executing back during the war is standing right in front of him? No question, though, was more glaring than this. At what point did the casting director here believe John Travolta would make a credible Serbian? Seriously, how is that? It doesn't even sound right on paper. There have been certain performances in entertaining films where the accents were subpar yet forgivable. Sean Connery in The Untouchables (for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and John Lithgow in Cliffhanger are two in particular. Can't say the same here 'cause Travolta wishes his accent could be considered subpar. That would actually be a step up... a mile high step up. Hearing him go, "Iz goz huntzing babushka kushka hushka vodka!" with that forced Serbian dialect sounded as bad as hearing two stray cats mating all night while Bob Dylan sings folk versions of Lady Gaga tunes to the right of them and to the left is Nicki Minaj reading War and Peace. No matter how much he tried, it still sounded like the "Sandy! Oh my Gowd! I feel so egg-zited!!!!" Travolta. Then we have the story, and wow, what a slow paced, monotonous mess. It was just an hour of watching Travolta and De Niro take turns torturing each other... and the viewer. Plus, the first time Travolta has De Niro in his sight, ready to take the shot and boom it's all over... No, he wants to talk. He wants his confession. What is it with killers in film where they feel they have to have their "big speech". Boom! End it already! Then De Niro gets his turn, and you'd think, okay, this guy just got tortured from the worst sounding Eastern European ever. He ain't taking no shit from anyone anymore. It ends right now! Well, no 'cause then De Niro wants his turn to talk, and we rinse and repeat again with Travolta. Then by the end of the movie when De Niro has Travolta down and it fades to black, you're thinking, okay someone has to pull that fucking trigger or else I will... on the both of them... Hey, look at that, it fades back in with Travolta alive and well... 'cause De Niro still wants to talk!!!! What the hell?! These people don't wanna kill each other. Why the hell is this called Killing Season? It should've been called Two Guys Air Out Their Bottled Up Inside, Repressed Memories About Each Other for Roughly Ninety Minutes. The final scene between the two features a rather anti-climatic joke told by De Niro that has Travolta going, "Iz don'tz getz itz... but I still feel so egg-zited!!" Yeah, you don't get it. That sums up my thoughts on Killing Season, but the anti-climatic aspect is rather fitting.

      Let me just say that both Travolta and De Niro are fantastic actors, yet here their talents are wasted on a terrible script. For most of the movie we get a back and forth torture fest like some Hostel film, but then by the end we get the token message on "Why are we doing this?" Yes, good question. Why are you doing this? I will admit the cinematography by Peter Menzies, Jr. is rather spectacular at times, but like Travolta and De Niro, it's just more talent wasted. I give Killing Season a D (★).