Death Machine (1994). Director: Stephen Norrington – 5/10 (okay/decent)
There is much to like about film’s starting point and its overall setting, nevertheless, something seems to be missing to differentiate it from a myriad of other early to mid 1990s actioners. The primary issue appears to reside in that the flick never expands upon its premise to any satisfactory extent: in its proceedings, the movie predominantly treats of the nebulous concept of the perfect killing machine designed by an amoral defense contractor, but does not meaningfully delve into its motley subjects and ultimately fails to diversify the cartoonish tone of the production to any significant degree. Brad Dourif is excellent and so is the rest of the cast for the most part, but the narrative begins to stagnate badly in the middle section in that it grows rather repetitious in its disposition, as though at a loss for some solid ideas to introduce into the equation. Female protagonist’s backstory is gruesome, but does not really feel all that organic or all that well integrated into the storyline to begin with, coming out more distracting than genuinely enriching; the remainder of characters remain, by and large, one-dimensional, empty shells of human beings and the way they appear hollow almost seems to reflect the vacuity of the composition at large.
In the US, a BluRay is coming soon from Kino Lorber | Amazon.de
