4K/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Reviews, Featured, Home

DVD Review: “Kill Or Be Killed” Dies A Slow, Painful Death

[yasr_overall_rating]
 

In the autumn of 1900, outlaw Claude Barbee puts his ‘retirement plan’ in action, attempting to lead his train-robbing gang across Texas to recover a cash stash hidden after a botched railroad heist.

While “Kill or Be Killed” is an independent feature, and kudos to directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks for actually getting it made, the final product, sadly, is lacking in most areas. The movie gets lost in its own haste to try and satisfy fans of the genre, but instead of sticking with one good story, their intentions are misguided as they switch from stereotypical revenge western, to supernatural narrative, without ever giving the audience any sort of intimation. Imagine sitting down to watch “Unforgiven” for the first time and half way in, demons begin sporadically appearing throughout the movie. Kind of a head-scratcher, especially if there’s no allusion to it early on.

In 1900, Claude Barbee is freed from incarceration by his gang of outlaws where they proceed to make their way across Texas in search of hidden treasure. Claude and his men are truly vile, with one of them raping and unnecessarily butchering a young girl along the way but it’s not their actions that define how truly repugnant they are, it’s the script. While we accompany these men on their statewide trek, we never truly get to know them and therein lies the problem. As is the norm with any film, every so often, something must happen in order to move the plot forward but instead of any genuine attempt at character development, so we can at least try to understand them, instead, everybody in the film is relegated to stereotypical, one-dimensional characters that we’ve all seen a million times before.

While the movie was shot throughout the beautiful and majestic state of Texas, we view some spectacular sunsets and sprawling wide-open spaces but unfortunately, they’re the only good elements the film has going for it. The acting, for the most part, is amateurish at best but co-director and lead actor Justin Meeks, who plays the roguish but malignant Claude Barbee, at least appears to be having fun with his role. Most of the other characters exaggerate themselves excessively, and after a while, you hope the demon that is following their every move, would hurry up and take them all to hell with him.

Available on DVD and VOD March 1st

 
KILL-OR-BE-KILLED_DVD_HIC

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.