Too much of everything

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

CONTRACT KILLERS is a generic indie action film that hails from New Zealand. The plot is about a greenhorn hitman who finds himself targeted by a veteran assassin, with a battle of wits between the pair ensuing. It's a film bogged down by dark, cheap photography throughout and the usual indifferent performances and predictable scripting that this genre is known for. The one highlight is that the actors show off some good moves in the fight scenes, but these scenes are spoilt by a cameraman who shakes his camera around for no reason whatsoever. A static camera combined with precise editing would have produced better results.

See the beginning, sleep, wake, turn off...if only I had done this...So we see a very predictable plot unfolding before our eyes, the acting is almost wooden...there is so much gun fire from guns which seem inexhaustible of bullets...we see armoured men blasting away with machine guns, unable to hit a barn wall...the "kung foo" action sequences are staged...not amasing...this is what I would describe as a "B" movie, the one before the main feature...to give it a 2 is actually more than deserved...To sum up is what I said at beginning, see the beginning, fall asleep, wake turn off...don't waste your time or money going to see a film which perhaps should not have made it from the cutting room floor..

In short, this movie is bad. It's not awful, but it's somewhere between "bad" and "terrible." Here's why: The biggest problem this movie has is that the characters have no depth, all of the other issues are secondary to this, but the characters lack any real emotion.Now, character depth is one thing, but the movie itself is simply bad. The special effects are terrible, they remind me of Rambo (the first one), but even that movie had semi-realistic muzzle flashes.The audio track for the firearms in this movie is completely wrong. The small caliber pistols sound like large caliber pistols, and the rifles sound like 22s. I'm sorry, but this is 2014, there are numerous audio tracks of guns being fired, it's not that hard to make a realistic shootout in 2014 when everyone and his brother can use over the counter software to make a realistic shootout on their own PC.Finally, the story.I didn't want to write about the story, not because it's dreadful, but because like the characters, and the special effects, it's very unremarkable. Within five minutes of the movie starting, you will already know how it ends, the space in between is just a homogeneity of poor acting and poor effects. But the story is your run of the mill boy + girl + crisis story.If you have seen any recent action movie where the hero rides off with the girl at the end, you've likely seen all you will see here.

Contract Killers (2012) is a good action film for those who like fast cars, guns and martial arts fighting scenes. Good camera work and nice music score to go with it, nice build up of tension towards the end with a couple of nail-biting moments thrown in for good measure.I'm looking forward to what Director Mat Pearson will come up with in the future, this enthusiastic and talented guy shows a considerable amount of promise in the film industry in the future. To be able to produce a quality film like Contract Killers on such a tight budget makes me think that his films will be totally awesome when he has some serious funds to play with.