First Kill (2017)

The Age of Commercialism

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

First Kill appears to be a straight to video drama thriller starring Hayden Christensen and Bruce Willis. The film isn't quite good as it is quite bland, with typical acting and nothing in which truly stands out. Some thrills here and there but overall nothing in which hwe have not seen before. A lot of camera zooming in with its close ups which was noticeable. The plot is okay but things become unrealistic. First off, Hayden and his son witness a near murder, then decide to bring in the victim into their home o take care of him and help his wife to heal him, and once it occurs, the victim suddenly becomes rogue and targets them, eventually hostage the son.This is another film where Bruce Willis is quite sleep walking through the film which was also noticeable, as his acting wasn't much up to par. The trailer originally saw when this film came out made it quite intriguing but of course trailers tend to do that. Overall, First Kill is only a quite decent thriller but doesn't offer anything new. As it shows how far both star actors Hayden Christensen and Bruce Willis have fallen off.

The weirdest thing about this movie is that the only guy you end up really feeling any sympathy for is Levi - strangely, because Levi is one of the bank robbers and the guy who kidnapped Danny. But, overall, he seemed to be a pretty decent guy. Otherwise, Danny's dad decides to make him a man by making him kill a deer, you have corrupt cops around every corner and a story that really doesn't seem to make very much sense. And the worst part of it is that for the most part there's very little suspense involved. Most of the movie deals with Will (Danny's dad) trying to get Danny back after Levi kidnaps him. But Danny's not in any danger. He and Levi spend most of their time playing video games together and you never get the feeling - not even once - that Levi is even remotely interested in hurting the kid. So there's no suspense. You just watch, hoping that it's going to somehow redeem itself as the story goes on. But it really doesn't. It drags on and on, and then when it ends, strangely it ends far too fast. After everything that happens Danny and his mom and dad just get in their vehicle and drive back home. Seriously?Aside from Bruce Willis and Hayden Christensen there's no particularly wee known names in this, and Willis and Christensen didn't really seem to bring their "A" game either. It's really not worth the time to watch it. (2/10)

A decent movie, but I'm not too picky. The strange thing to me is the reviews, so many people hating on it giving it 1 star for some political reason. First we have people on the left whining that it is "Pro gun" and "pro hunting". Like that is some kind of bad word when talking about a movie based in a country where 1 in 3 people own a gun, and 2 out of 3 support the right to do so at some level. Getting triggered over a dad teaching his son to use a 100 year old bolt-action rifle is a bit silly. The dad didn't force the kid to do anything, he was trying to bond with him and give the kid some confidence by going back to the roots of what humans did to survive since the dawn of man. I like guns but won't hunt, but I sure don't look down on those who do. My dad took me deer hunting when I was a kid. He didn't make me shoot one, but I did. I learned something about myself that day, and am glad to have had the experience. I'll let others kill my meat from now on, however. That's just me. People judge others for the strangest things these days, from both sides of the spectrum. The dad had a somewhat weak, but better-than-nothing safety talk with his son about the 100 year old bolt action rifle. Apparently that is soooo horrible to some people. I guess you shouldn't teach a kid that a knife is sharp, either? Let's cover them in bubble wrap and send them to their "safe space". Then we have someone from the right whining that it is "anti gun" and "anti cop". Well, not really. There are bad cops out there. Sure, the vast majority are good. But, it's just a movie. They took the time to show the dad give a C minus level gun talk to his kid. I think if it was anti-gun, they would have skipped that and had the kid have some kind of accident with the gun, then have the mom give a rant about how she hates guns. Another complaint from the right: The robber had a bit of a sad story that made you relate to him on SOME kind of level, that doesn't mean the movie is trying to make you feel sorry for criminals. But it's true they aren't all totally evil. Being able to relate on a small level doesn't mean you think they shouldn't pay for whatever crime. It helps to understand the motive behind crime so they can be addressed and prevented as much as possible. If you dehumanize all criminals, you can't fix the problems that help create them. Unless a movie is totally in your face politically I just don't get too excited. This movie definitely wasn't trying to send some kind of political message about guns, cops, or any of that.

The ONLY redeeming thing about this movie was, that I didn't pay to see it. I got it from the library. But, it is 2 hours I will never get back. Willis is horrible in this. To be fair though, his lines are meager and of few syllables. The casting of this film is abysmal. However, what's worse, is the cinematography: the whole jiggle the camera and shoot only close-ups style is so yesterday. It's nothing but a distraction. The only bigger distraction might be the so-called "music". It's that new-age mood garbage and it plays throughout the entire film like tinnitus. I will echo the sentiments of other posters: this is THE worst film of the last 10 years, by far ! It should be seriously considered for MSTK3 fodder in the future.