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Bounty Killer is a film based on a graphic novel, and this comes across nicely in the design of sets and construction of scenes.
As the world went to hell in a handcart, all the top executives escaped from the world with jetpacks, taking all the cash with them. Out of it all was born the Council of Nine, their aim to rebuild the world and give hope to everyone who was left. They issued death warrants to all the ne’er-do-well execs and thus came about the age of the Bounty Killer, who’d track them down and bump them off.
Starting off in present day San Dalloosa City, the two who are best at their game, Drifter (Matthew Marsden) and Mary Death (Christian Pitre), have completed their latest kill and take them over to Daft Willy (Kevin McNally) who disposes of bodies after all the bounty killers deliver them to him, giving them their fee in the process. Well, as the premise goes, “Bounty killers compete for body count, fame and a fat stack of cash.”
The basic premise is that there’s a fee out on Drifter’s head, but how and why? Meanwhile, Drifter’s out to find his informant Harry, another person with a price on his head, but they only let him live because he gets them access to more lucrative kills. Drifter wants to appeal against the death warrant to the Council, but no-one has ever done that successfully before, so how can he manage it?
There’s good support from Barak Hardley as Jack LeMans, a character I thought would end up being annoying and unnecessary, but he fulfilled his purpose without any issues, while ex-E.R.‘s Abraham Benrubi is also good as Jimbo, Will Collyer takes the role of annoying press photographer Billy Boom. While Gary Busey pops up as pantomime-style villain Van Sterling, The main baddie comes in the form of Terminator 3 star Kristanna Loken as Catherine, whose full relevance will be revealed later, but to me, she doesn’t earn her position as second in the cast list. That one is clearly and easily taken by Pitre by a country mile.
On other aspects, I love Daft Willy’s fax machine which prints out in colour, yet is designed like an old typewriter with a screen attached. It’s not the only ting which has a combintation of old and new technology in it.
Overall, Bounty Killer is a super-stylish high-octane blood & guns violent flick where the one-liners often come thick and fast. The men act all hunky and the women are dolled up to the nines, which befits the style of a film based on a graphic novel. Think ‘Mad Max meets Sin City’, although it sags a bit in the middle, probably not unlike the breasts of a certain older lady who’s in the cast.
Bounty Killer is out in the cinema now and released on Blu-ray & DVD on January 24th.
Cert: 
Running time: 92 minutes
Year: 2012
Released: January 10th 2013
Widescreen: 2.35:1
Rating: 6/10
Director: Henry Saine
Producers: Colin Ebeling, Jason Netter and Henry Saine
Screenplay: Jason Dodson, Colin Ebeling and Henry Saine
Music: Greg Edmonson
Cast :
Drifter: Matthew Marsden
Mary Death: Christian Pitre
Catherine: Kristanna Loken
Jack LeMans: Barak Hardley
Jimbo: Abraham Benrubi
Van Sterling: Gary Busey
Lucille: Beverly D’Angelo
Eve: Mocha Sujata
Daft Willy: Kevin McNally
Stewardess: Alexa Vega
Billy Boom : Will Collyer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.