Killing Season

Name: Killing Season
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller, War
Released: July 12, 2013
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 25
Cast: Elizabeth Olin, John Travolta, Milo Ventimiglia, Robert De Niro

2013

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 59 Ratings

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5.1	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 59 Ratings

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Killing Season

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Movie Details & Credits

Millennium Films | Release Date: July 12, 2013 | R

Starring: Elizabeth Olin, John Travolta, Milo Ventimiglia, Robert De Niro

Summary: Two veterans of the Bosnian War, one American, one Serbian, clash in the remote Smoky Mountain wilderness.

Director: Mark Steven Johnson

Genre(s): Action, Drama, Thriller, War

Rating: R

Runtime: 91 min

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Critic Reviews

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Jul 11, 2013

Killing Season is like the Saturday morning cartoon version of a terrible movie: still bad, but at least colorful enough to go down easy. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Jul 11, 2013

With casting this unconvincing, no one is watching to get a lesson in the horrors of war. Read full review

The Playlist Gabe Toro

Jul 12, 2013

Director Mark Steven Johnson can’t seem to balance a tone here, which is a pity because for the most part he stands back and lets the two stars go at each other. Read full review

Andrew Schenker

Jul 11, 2013

Mark Steven Johnson's Killing Season is a hard movie to take seriously, which is particularly unfortunate since it deals with such weighty issues as genocide, the ethical compromises that everyone makes in combat, and the lingering effects of wartime decisions on participants years down the line. Read full review

Robert Abele

Jul 11, 2013

The pretentious, preposterous, dueling-dialect flameout called Killing Season has to stand as one of the biggest missed opportunities in iconic matchups. Read full review

Joe Neumaier

Jul 11, 2013

Travolta, who was more believable as a middle-aged housewife in “Hairspray” than he is as a former Serbian commando, has the accent down pat. But his Boris-and-Natasha-style syntax seems to represent Killing Season best. Just imagine that voice saying: Dees ees very seelly movie. Catch on cable TV, please. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Jul 11, 2013

De Niro mostly looks miserable and very tired (a document glimpsed on-screen hilariously claims his character was born in 1970) and prattles on endlessly about forgetting the past. Read full review

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User Reviews

JohnTravolta321

Sep 21, 2016

Killing Season is a movie that thrills and leaves you thinking. It is timely because the tension echoes many of the current situations going on in society. In their own right each of the two in the movie have their reasons (and justifications) for their points and places. In the end (sorry,Killing Season is a movie that thrills and leaves you thinking. It is timely because the tension echoes many of the current situations going on in society. In their own right each of the two in the movie have their reasons (and justifications) for their points and places. In the end (sorry, no spoiler here) the stark realization of the view from the other side really brings home the powerful moral of this movie. De Niro is his usual amazing self and Travolta delivers a nearly convincing eastern bloc persona. Well worth seeing.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

cb1502101

Dec 21, 2015

I came away with a different view of what was being said. Being a combat veteran (vietnam) I saw how the character isolated from family & friends espespecially at the end. Sadly I seen a lot of myself. The average person would have a hard time understanding that.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Basilone

Sep 11, 2013

I'm not sure how to put this in words but it felt like there were too many times when one of the characters managed to escape certain death only because of stupidity on the other guys part. I was really hoping for a good game of cat mouse where they actually outsmart eachother, instead theI'm not sure how to put this in words but it felt like there were too many times when one of the characters managed to escape certain death only because of stupidity on the other guys part. I was really hoping for a good game of cat mouse where they actually outsmart eachother, instead the cat just keeps releasing the mouse and tables are turned every time. Definitely not going to get any Oscar nominations, but worth a watch if you are bored. Just pirate it, even though I was disappointed I didn't feel like I was cheated out of 90 minutes.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DCEdmonds

Nov 13, 2014

"Killing Season" 10 Scale Rating: 3.0 (Awful) ...

The Good: On a basic level, the story isn't bad.

The Bad: The execution, however, was terrible. Straight-forward and dull, the film feels way longer than it's 1:30 run time. The nail in the coffin was John Travolta's horrid accent.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Nesbitt10

Aug 26, 2013

A battle of awful accents coupled with slapdash cat and mouse intrigue, "Killing Season" is a thriller whose approach grows increasingly mundane, and renders itself completely forgettable. "Killing Season" is directed by Mark Steven Johnson "Ghost Rider" (2007), and the movie stars twoA battle of awful accents coupled with slapdash cat and mouse intrigue, "Killing Season" is a thriller whose approach grows increasingly mundane, and renders itself completely forgettable. "Killing Season" is directed by Mark Steven Johnson "Ghost Rider" (2007), and the movie stars two cinematic legends, Robert De Niro and John Travolta, who star together on-screen for the first time ever. What could be an ultimate showdown of two acting titans with a storyline that closely follows "The Most Dangerous Game," unfolds into abysmal exercise of nonsense, and thoroughly disappoints given its potential.

Benjamin Ford (Robert De Niro) is a former American soldier and a Bosnian war veteran who now lives in a secluded cabin hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains. Emil Kovac (John Travolta) is a former Serbian soldier from the same war, who cannot let go of a particular run in he had with Ford. Finally acting on his obsession years later, Kovac uncovers Ford's location, and decides it's time to settle the score. After finding Ford and concealing his identity and motives from him, Kovac eventually reveals his intentions while out hunting with Ford, setting the stage for a struggle for survival. Kovac hunts his most elusive prey ever, but can Ford turn the tables on his Serbian hunter and make it out alive?

Quickly and to the point, the primary problem is the material, written by Evan Daugherty "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012). The movie promises an exercise in these two soldiers stalking and hunting each other, but ultimately it is nothing more than a series of graphic torture scenes with long-winded monologues, a series of power reversals, in which one gains the upper hand, just long enough for the other to escape. These reversals eventually happens with such frequency that it becomes entirely comical and ridiculous.

I was more than a little confused as to why a movie pitting Robert De Niro against John Travolta was getting such a limited release, but after watching "Killing Season," I completely understand.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

ponderflix

Feb 11, 2015

John Travolta plays the role of Vengeful Ex-Soldier who was shot during the Bosnian War in a war crime by some bad Americans shooting bad Serbian war criminals. Specifically it’s suggested he may have been shot by Robert De Niro who plays Colonel Benjamin Something. Now 18 years later,John Travolta plays the role of Vengeful Ex-Soldier who was shot during the Bosnian War in a war crime by some bad Americans shooting bad Serbian war criminals. Specifically it’s suggested he may have been shot by Robert De Niro who plays Colonel Benjamin Something. Now 18 years later, Vengeful Ex-Soldier has bought some American military personnel files off a bloke in a pub. One of the files is on Colonel Benjamin Something. “I have been waiting 18 years to do a revenge film with De Niro” says Vengeful Ex-Soldier to the bloke in the pub, who seems to be losing interest.

Imagine if you will, John Travolta attempting a Serbian accent. Imagine what that would be like for 90 minutes. Yep, it’s as bad as you just imagined. Travolta’s awful accent competes for ridiculousness with his ‘hair’ which at times appears to be a specially designed swimming cap and at others a bald head that has been very neatly coloured in with very black permanent marker.

This is so rubbish in so many ways, it seems so little effort has gone into the enterprise, that it has an active contempt for the viewer. It openly defies you to bother summoning the will to dislike it. Or sit all the way through it. I managed it in three chunks. Both actors seem to be putting in the bare minimum effort; the extended dialogue scene between the two in Colonel Something’s cabin looks like a half-arsed script read through/failed improvisation that got left in by mistake....The action is limp, the script is nothing, the performances are shambolic.

I expect this kind of nonsense from Travolta, but the disappointing thing is I have come to expect it from De Niro. It’s sad and perplexing to watch him drive nails into the coffin of a once brilliant career that already has more nails in it than it could ever possibly need. Nothing is getting out of that coffin Bobby, why are you doing this?

Full review at ponderflix on wordpress.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

asdasd33a

Jul 17, 2013

the plot summary goes like this
after some drinks and bonding two drunken males decide to bow hunt each other (wtf?!) in order to make each other "confess" What kind of drugs do you have to be on to come up with this stuff?

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

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