Out of Death

Out Of Death is the latest instalment from Ily Films that brings Bruce Willis back to your screens as a bereaved cop taking timeout in a mountain retreat only to find himself caught up in the middle of a corrupt police department’s drug cartel. Available on Digital Download from 2nd August (pre-order here) & DVD from 4th October.

After his wife’s recent passing, Jack (Bruce Willis) is staying at his brother’s log cabin up by a country lake and is greeted by his niece Pam (Kelly Greyson). She leaves him to head out into the mountains as he hopes to disconnect from the outside world, leaving his phone and badge behind but not his gun, after all there might be bears out there. Meanwhile photojournalist Shannon (Jaime King) is on her own memorial hike in the mountain trails in memory of her late father and is contemplating some quitting issues she needs to lay to rest. Whilst out trekking she witnesses a cop shooting, which turns out to be corrupt cop Billie (Lala Kent) killing a drugs mule after their shipment exchange goes wrong. Fellow bad cop Tommy (Tyler Jon Olson) is called out to help Billie track down the now fleeing photojournalist who caught the murder on camera. Fortunately for Shannon Jack arrives just in time to help her escape the pursing bad cops but this only brings out the dodgy town Mayor, Hank Rivers (Michael Sirow), to join the hunt to try to clean up the spiralling mess in his jurisdiction.

Directed by first time director Mike Burns there are lots of standout moments, sadly mostly for their ridiculous B movie performances. First up, the Deep South Hillbilly accents would have made any dialect coach cringe and Lala Kent’s role as the tough talking corrupt cop is the first sign that the film isn’t to be taken too seriously, closely followed by her dirty cop counterpart who has a steady flow of throw away one liners not to be missed. Then there is the pantomime villain Mayor, who is keen to get the situation under control whilst keeping a close eye on his electoral poster campaign. The violence and gore is also hard to forget even if it is at a minimum. The CGI sequence for the firing bullet is so bad it seems to obey its own spacetime continuum and this is just the beginning of a small number of, so bad they’re almost good violence and gore moments.

Overall it’s pleasantly shot and scored with more of a Dukes of Hazard TV series feel but without a car and on meths mixing genuine sentiment with some presumably deliberately bad carrying ons. The original music from Mike Burns and Jacob Bunton has some appropriately cheesy country music to go with it, which like the rest of the movie is some fun escapism in the Appalachian mountains to switch off for a couple of hours but not without a lot of caution.