Rambo it Isn't
After returning home from his deployment in Iraq, discharged Lt. Samuel Drake (Chadwick Boseman) is struggling with his every day life as a cabbie and even attending the counselling sessions led by Marshall (Billy Zane) does little to help with those struggles and memories of what went on over in Iraq. But Samuel finds himself approached by two executives from a private military contractor who wants him to track down Sgt. Devin Carter (Tory Kittles), an AWOL Marine, and kill him. It seems that Devin is trying to take down those who work for the military contractor whilst he also knows what went on in Samuel's past and could expose him.
"The Kill Hole" comes across like another one of those movies where the idea was better than the final product which is down to a combination of reasons rather than just one dragging it down. It is a shame because the basic idea of one war vet suffering with the memories of what he did being hired to hunt down another who to survive has gone rogue is full of potential even if the idea isn't a new one. There could be great action between two trained killers, there could be depth as their individual trauma is investigated and of course there is the conclusion to this which is not as clear cut as most movies are. And in fairness "The Kill Hole" does explore much of the potential I mentioned.
But sadly "The Kill Hole" is at times a painfully tedious movie which tries to be insightful with its dialogue but only ends up as I said tedious. Now for me part of the trouble is down to Mischa Webley as this is Webley's first full length movie either as writer or director and this is full of those fillers which you get in those directional firsts, those shots of the sun making its way through the trees or the way the branches of a specific tree look when you look up. Whilst some might appreciate the artistic nature of these shots and the slow pans of the skyline it felt out of place to me.
There is though one other thing which I wonder may have been the case and it's the old chestnut of budget not allowing the vision to happen. What I mean is that there is some exciting action in "The Kill Hole" and as I said it has some nice ideas but this ends up a dialogue heavy movie and a lot of that dialogue is dull. Maybe it was intended as a dialogue heavy movie but that doesn't excuse the fact that the conversations failed to get you gripped by what the characters are saying.
What this all boils down is that whilst on paper "The Kill Hole" sounded like it could be an entertaining take on the soldier story movies covering various angles of the trauma of war but the final product didn't come close to the level of entertainment I was expecting.
