Review: KILL RATIO (2016) Is A Bygone Actioner With A Promising New Star

It’s easy to take for granted the golden age of DTV action we live in with filmmakers like Isaac Florentine and John Hyams bringing genuine inspiration to their films. Kill Ratio is a throwback to an earlier era; a time that most of us would like to forget…  The DTV dark age of the early 2000s.

British actor Tom Hopper (Doctor Who) plays James Henderson, an ex-CIA bad-ass who now works for a telecommunications company. His boss, Gabrielle (Amy Huberman), is trying to secure a major contract in a vaguely Eastern European nation (we’ll call it Movieslovakia) making its first steps toward democracy.  This boils down to entertaining local dignitaries in a hotel and shoving brochures in their faces. Things take a turn for the Die Hard when a coup breaks out and their hotel is overtaken by militants, and now Henderson has to use his kick-ass skillset to keep people safe and eventually wage a one-man war on the generic militants who threaten democracy.

First and foremost, this is a star vehicle for Tom Hopper. It’s always interesting to see American bravado as translated by a non-American (in this case British) actor. Hopper has a great screen presence and nails the action star thing like a champ. He projects the kind of wry charm that some of the best action heroes of the past have possessed. Without a doubt, Hopper shines from start to finish and is the best thing about this film.

They say the best way to elevate a hero is to challenge them with a great villain… unfortunately no one told that to the writers of this film.  The villains aren’t so much comically inept as they just aren’t threatening.  It feels like they’re going out of their way not to be too mean to our heroes for fear of causing an international incident (though they ARE complete dicks to the hotel staff). One of the biggest conflicts early in the film is whether or not someone can step outside for a quick smoke… seriously. The neutered threat makes even the most “tense” of scenes fall flat.  About the only thing they get right is the obligatory “how bad-ass is he?” speech about Henderson right before the third act (spoiler: he’s suuuuper bad-ass and deadly and stuff).

One of the most important things in a Die Hard clone is the location where the action takes place. Nakatomi Plaza became character unto itself and dictated a lot of the film’s feel. The battleship in Under Siege (one of Die Hard’s best clones) served the same purpose. By comparison, Kill Ratio’s hotel setting is just plain bland; looking about as interesting as a Ramada Inn. The film’s workmanlike cinematography does the film no favors either and much of the film is confined to boring hotel rooms and the lobby.