I can’t say that Assassin’s Bullet is the worst Christian Slater film I’ve ever seen. After all, the 96 minutes I spent with Alone in the Dark is 96 minutes I’ll never get back. But this film is nowhere near his best. In fact, while doing a little research during the film I figure that True Romance was his last relevant starring role. Who Is Cletis Tout? was a great film, but I think I may be one of the few people that actually saw it.
In Bullet Slater plays Robert, a badass FBI field agent guy who left the US to hold up in Bulgaria after his wife died. His retirement is brutally interrupted when a deadly assassin starts taking out high level Islamic terrorists and Ambassador Ashdown (Donald Sutherland) asks him to find out who the assassin is and stop them.
While Robert begins his investigation he meets a belly dancer named Ursala and starts to fall for her. Meanwhile Roberts buddy, Dr. Kahn (Timothy Spall) is seeing a patient named Vicky (Elika Portnoy) who is having trouble remembering her past.
SPOILER. It seems like it’s supposed to be a big twist ending that Vicky and Ursala and yes, even the assassin are the same person, but Portnoy has such a unique nose and facial structure that it’s very, very obvious that the blond the red head and the dark haired woman are all the same person. It’s so obvious that it makes the rest of the film frustrating as Robert takes forever to put the pieces together. And when the big reveal comes at the end you’ll just be thinking, “Yeah, duh, I already knew that. So what?”
Besides the obvious twist, there are many other problems with this film. First off the story has been done to death. There are elements of La Femme Nikita in here that just make you long to watch that instead. The acting is pretty bland. You expect more for Slater and Sutherland, but neither really delivers anything exciting. However the worst is Portnoy who brings nothing to the three characters that she plays. Also the chemistry between Slater and Portnoy is all but non-existent. Also, Portnoy is a terrible belly dancer and she does quite a bit of it in the film. It’s a little hard to watch.
For an action film the action is very bland which surprised me as the director, Isaac Florentine, has directed not only several other action films, but dozens of episodes of Power Rangers, which if nothing else, had lots of action.
Lacking the needed action to make it a good action film and any amount of interesting drama to make it a good thriller, Assassin’s Bullet really has nothing to offer any genre. Unless you’re a completest when it comes to Slater or Sutherland, I recommend spending your hour and a half with a different film.
The film is presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen format and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. This movie looks like a bad made for TV movie. If that is what it’s meant to be then it looks and sounds fine, but if it’s meant to be a real movie then it is seriously lacking.
Behind The Scenes: (20 min.) Um, why does this film have a 20 minutes making of? I guess it shows that everyone involved was happy to be a part of it, but it doesn’t make you like the film any more.
After seeing Alone In The Dark I knew Slater would do just about any film that was handed him, but I really do expect more from Sutherland. Perhaps that’s a little naïve on my part. Who knows? Either way, this was not a good movie and I couldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Arc Entertainment presents Assassin’s Bullet. Written by Hans Feuersinger and Nancy L. Babine. Directed by: Isaac Florentine. Starring: Christian Slater, Donald Sutherland, Elika Portnoy and Timothy Spall. Running time: 91 min. Rating: Rated R for violence. Released: August, 14 2012. Available at Amazon.com.
