On viewing Out Of Death, you have to ask yourself the question ‘does Bruce Willis owe some very bad people a lot of money?’ because outside of losing a bet to appear in the most movies in a year you really do have to wonder what on earth he is doing appearing in films like Out Of Death.
Still grieving the untimely death of her father, photojournalist Shannon Mathers (Jamie King) spreads his ashes in the woods when she witnesses a cop (Lala Kent) shooting and killing an unarmed henchman during a drug deal. She captures the whole scene on her camera before being discovered. Shot at, scared, helpless and on the run, she races her way through the woods with no recognition of her location. Distracted by the violent noise of the attack, Jack Harris (Bruce Willis) a newly retired police officer who is relaxing at his cabin, saves Shannon just in time and the two narrowly escape into the woods. Not sure of whom she can trust, as more dirty cops arrive to help hunt her down, including the brutal town sheriff Hank Rivers (Michael Sirow), she decides to rely on Jack, her only real chance to fight back the corrupt police and bring it to justice.
Out Of Death opens with a flashback sequence before the opening credits even roll, other than letting you know that Willis will be turning up, makes no sense whatsoever. But the film happily carries on its way, with some of the most shambolic acting and utterly awful musical cues throughout, which is even more concerning as the director, Mike Burns is listed as song writer and has been a music supervisor for over 25 years, so you’d think he’d get that at least right.
From the ridiculous title, to the lacklustre action, Out Of Death is not an easy watch. For anyone making it past the first 30 minutes thinking it might get better, spoiler alert… it doesn’t. Burns seems to clearly think he’s directing some sort of Taratino-esque thriller with chapters and titles placed in to break up whatever momentum the film might have grasped throughout.
Bruce Willis seems to be appearing in a new film release at a rate of one a week currently, this being the latest. Jamie King however is the films glimmer of hope as she is clearly trying to lift proceedings, but is mired down in the clunky direction and Willis sleep walking through every scene he’s in as if he’s off to the cash office at the end to pick up his cheque and payoff whoever he needs to.
Out Of Death ultimately will come and go, it will sit on Willis resume, but it’s certainly not one you’ll want to investigate anytime soon.
Out of Death will be available on Digital Download from 2nd August
