Hard Kill (2020) Review

Directed By: Matt Eskandari

Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Bruce Willis, Natalie Eva Marie & Texas Battle

Synopsis: When billionaire tech CEO Donovan Chalmers (Bruce Willis) hires a team of mercenaries to protect a lethal piece of technology, security expert and team leader Derek Miller (Jesse Metcalfe) finds himself in a deadly showdown with an old enemy. The mission becomes even higher risk when Chalmers’ daughter is kidnapped by a terrorist group who will stop at nothing to obtain the tech. Miller and his team must race against the clock to save her and protect the fate of the human race before it’s too late.

Review: The trailer for this looked like a fun cool actioner so naturally I had to check it out.

Jesse Metcalfe plays Derek Miller our lead hero in Hard Kill, which is an absolute throwback movie. I had not seen much of Jesse’s previous filmography apart from his role in Escape Plan 2 and Dead Rising. Jesse has the badass look to pull off the rough and ready mercenary and he makes his dent in the action genre.

This movie at times felt like Assault On Precinct 13, Die Hard and Under Siege. It had such an old school vibe to it. Plenty of shoot-outs and some cool hand to hand fights. A personal favourite is when Jesse goes one man army with a knife. It reminded me of the scene in Universal Soldier: Regeneration where Van Damme takes out some bad guys with his knife.

Director Matt Eskandari seems to be getting the best out of Willis these days with having him directed him previously in Trauma Center & Survive The Night. Willis seems to be so much more invested and having fun with his characters which is good to see.

Frequent Willis collaborator Texas Battle also stars as a fellow mercenary-now-suit wearing type. His character reminded me very much of Dillon from Predator.

Our main bad guy is portrayed by Sergio Rizzuto who to me, resembles Liam Neeson a little bit… Maybe. Anyway, Sergio plays The Pardoner and he has some history with Derek Miller. His character is ruthless and cool headed and not afraid to get his hands dirty.

Overall the movie is fun and action packed and the cast seem to be having a good time aswell. Jesse Metcalfe is a badass hero and i would like to see him in more movies like this. In Hard Kill we are treated to some fun action scenes and Willis is back to looking like he is once again having fun makes the movie worth the watch alone.