It's hard to imagine a world in which Robert DeNiro and John Travolta star in a direct to video release. It's even harder to imagine that a low budget thriller like Killing Season could have some actual merit. While it's not going to win any awards, it's a decent old school cat and mouse tale loaded with nonsensical fights between an elderly DeNiro and a middle aged Travolta doing his best to disguise his voice behind a terrible accent. Even after all that, there's still enough integrity to make this a watchable film.With a career spanning nearly 50 years, DeNiro has recently fallen in to the trappings of situational comedies and has quickly become a caricature of himself. Travolta has just become a joke. Other than Hairspray, everything he does is the same. Well, Killing Season finally offers each of them a chance to redeem themselves despite some deep rooted story flaws. Simply put, no one could survive everything these two characters put themselves through. But again, I can't explain it, Killing Season is an enjoyable little character study about forgiveness and bloodshed. And I liked it.
If you're looking for high art, this is not it. If you want to see a little bit of gore mixed in with a cheesy accent and the DeNiro we haven't seen since Jackie Brown, give Killing Season a shot. For a direct to video release, it's worthy of its short run time and will hopefully convince Travolta he needs to stop playing bad guys. Seeing him try is laughable at times and undeniably fun at others. After this, he should just stop. But again, check it out. You'll see what I mean.
-Review by Chris George