Kill 'em All (2012) User Reviews

Just fights !! nothing more

[med77_99 · 4/10 · 14 January 2013]

I was having high hopes for Kill'em all, but was left disappointed at the lack of creativity and enjoyment of this movie. it had what seemed to be an interesting plot, the idea behind it sounded cool and intriguing, but the delivery of that idea was below what is expected. the plot involves a group of highly professional assassins who got kidnapped and locked into a bunker together by a madman who forces them to play his game and fight each other to escape, for no clear reason, probably for his own sick entertainment. the fight scenes in the film were impressive to some extent, some well choreographed fight scenes that involve mainly martial arts, but they add nothing new to the hundreds of action films out there.

the lead actress had some impressive moves and a cool sexy outfit, very delicious to look at.

generally, the acting was just awful, very rigid and lame, those people seem like professional athletes, but just don't cut it as actors which really harmed this movie big time.

the script and dialog was just as awful if not the worst i've ever seen in a movie, just awful writing, that nothing smart comes out of those actors, lame and boring dialog that i just screamed please shut up once a conversation starts !

Add to that a lame villain that looks like an Asian version of Blofeld of the Bond films, minus the cat. a bold villain in a grey suit with some good fighting skills actually, he also have an army of psychopaths and ninjas that ultimately fight our heroes. " one might ask why don't he just use his ninjas to fight each other for entertainment ? "

the effects were also below average when explosions were involved, something that can be made with a simple editing program on your laptop.

so generally, a boring film for the most part, low grade B film with only some good fight scenes as its positive, otherwise,atrocious acting and an avoidable B film that adds nothing new or special out of all the hundreds of B action films out there.

All action and no brains...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 19 February 2013]

"Kill 'Em All" is a hang-over movie, plain and simple. There is almost no storyline connected to this movie, and it is basically just martial arts and action from the very first moment of the movie right up to the end credits.

The so-called storyline is about a group assassins who are captured by a mysterious man and forced to battle against one another, with the loser forfeiting his life in defeat. But the small group of assassins manages to break free and will now track down their capturer.

Yeah, that was basically the entire movie wrapped up in a couple of lines.

The martial arts in "Kill 'Em All" wasn't all that bad, but there are far better martial arts movies available. Some of these so-called assassins could have used a bit more training and coaching, because their fighting skills didn't really come off as believable or good enough for supporting them as assassins.

As for the acting in the movie, well it was next to not existing. This is a martial arts and action movie and acting is put in the background. No doubt about it.

"Kill 'Em All" is good for some fun when you need to unhook your brain and just watch some senseless action.

The Asylum does it again

[bernhard-langers · 3/10 · 14 December 2013]

The German cover of this movie boldly advertises:"Saw meets Battle Royale". That is pretty much all you need to know, because from there it is just cheesy acting, lack of story and a combination of fight scenes. It is hard to hate this movie, after all you know what you're in for if you know the studio which released it. It contains such dialogue gems like "Four are more than one.", gently reminding the audience of the first grade/kindergarden. The choreography/fight scenes were rather well executed.

It gets 3 out of 10 because it really is a trash film, if you are however into those go check it out, you might have a good laugh ;).

Whoever said that viewers need plot twists and flawed characters?

[grandmastersik · 4/10 · 3 February 2013]

Simple premise: 8 assassins wake up in a room and are ordered to kill each other or be killed.

Okay, so with a story that has all the makings of a kick-arse B-flick, a beautiful woman for the boys to drool over and some skilled martial artists to boot, why not a higher score?

Because:

• The two lead Americans are s-l-o-w, painfully so, and their fights scenes are horrible - it was as if their opponents had to stop and wait for the ensuing move to come.

• The fight choreography gave absolutely nothing new. Maybe this wouldn't have been a problem with more story and less action, but with fights constantly throughout the 90 minutes, watching this became repetitive.

• The villains' plan was absurd. "I'm a killer but I hate all other killers"? Seriously?

• Bad English. At first, I was thinking that the film was dubbed, and the voice over given by the female lead come the ending is hard to take.

But it's not all bad - I've certainly seen worse - and it's true to what it claims to be: 90 minutes or so of full-on action.

Oh, and the final fight is actually pretty cool... but with so many other decent M.A./action films out there, I'd have a hard job recommending this.

Only one reason to watch. Zom Ammara.

[jwsmythe-925-823542 · 2/10 · 23 May 2013]

Like others have said, it is a total B movie, shot in a warehouse. The only redeeming quality was Zom Ammara (credited as Ammara Siripong).

If you like Zom Ammara, watch it. Otherwise, there is absolutely no reason to consider it.

The movie is basically fighting one on one. Fighting one on many. Then fighting the boss. It's the basic formula of most FPS campaign video games. The characters were really written to fill stereotypes, notably, dumb Americans are dumb Americans.

It would have fit in well with the plethora of fighting B movies in the 1980s, but is sadly out of place being released a couple decades too late.

A wanna be stylish fight flick

[richmcgough · 5/10 · 9 March 2021]

I watched this with a view to keeping me awake.on a night shift. It was good enough for that especially as the plot really didn't require any brain cells... Some of the acting is appalling but the fight sequences are, for the most part, quite well choreographed. Worth a watch if you really like martial art fightovies...

Terrible acting and screenplay in martial arts film set in Thailand.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 19 March 2014]

Set in Thailand. A number of martial artists/assassins are drugged by one means or another, then kidnapped and placed in a prison/gladiator building. The room where they wake up is where they get to fight to the death. That is, the eight of them fight until seven are dead, and perhaps one is alive. First a voice from outside the room introduces them and berates them one at a time. The voice sees to it that one of them is killed just to be able to say, 'obey or die.'

There is a fatal encounter, then there is a box lunch session marked by stupid conversations, with the obligatory open mouthed sloppy eating. Then there is a second fatal encounter. The winners of the two fights get to choose weapons from a room off to the side.

Then they are supposed to sleep. Right. After more fatalities, a few break out of the room and start exploring the building. There are more fighters from the 'cabal.' The protagonists have to deal with them before the boss.

Lots of fighting. Some trash talking. Who cares.

Does anyone get out alive? Do they defeat the boss?

-----Scores-----

Cinematography: 5/10 Footage from many crappy locations. Odd camera angles used to lessen one's enjoyment of the visuals. Visual quality is a bit better than VHS most of the time. Sometimes we view the movie from the CCTV view point of the observer who tells the fighters the rules. Wretched colour palettes.

Sound: 4/10 Sound levels suck. If the sound is set to withstand the overly loud poor choices of music, then conversation cannot be heard.

Acting: 0/10 Uniformly and completely absent. The people in the film look athletic, but are not actors in any sense.

Screenplay: 0/10 Ridiculous fight choreography. Dialog that is beyond stupid.

Just awful

[zetes · 3/10 · 24 February 2013]

Awful, cheapie martial arts flick made in Thailand. The majority of its stars are Asian, but almost all the dialogue is spoken in English. I presume the director is a German man, and the movie was certainly made for the international market. The plot has a group of assassins who have been kidnapped by a mysterious man (Gordon Liu) and pitted against each other. Ammara Siripong (who played Jeeja Yanin's cancer-stricken mother in Chocolate) is a pretty sexy star and a good martial artist (in general, the martial arts could be a bit more imaginative, though they aren't that bad). It looks for a while like American star Johnny Messner will be the co-star, but thankfully they realize he really sucks and the much better Tim Man takes over.

Pretty solid low-budget martial arts action

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 26 April 2015]

As one character in the film says, "this looks like a video game": essentially, it's fight-after-fight and level-after-level, until the survivors reach the big bad boss (genre veteran Gordon Liu). The setup is simple and familiar (have you seen "Mean Guns" from 1997?), but functional; the production values are low (after some exterior shots in the first 10 minutes, the entire movie takes place inside an abandoned, empty building). The martial arts action is competent, and occasionally impressive; some of Tim Man's moves, in particular, merit a rewind or two. Both he and Johnny Messner should be in more action films. The same goes for the female lead, Zom Ammara, who also has the best abs I've seen on any actress since Michelle Rodriguez in "Machete". There are a couple of no-holds-barred male vs. female fight scenes in this movie, including one with Tim Man vs. the powerful-looking Roongtawan Jindasing. **1/2 out of 4.

Lo-fi action-fest

[kenfreelance · 9/10 · 12 July 2013]

Raimund Huber's Thailand-based assassins-trapped-in-a-killing-chamber movie is low on budget but high on action, as stunt coordinator Tim Man delivers eye-popping fight scenes by the truck-load.

The film boasts Gordon (KILL BILL) Liu as the villain, Joe (JAGUAR LIVES) Lewis in his final role, the scrumptious Zom (CHOCOLATE) Ammara as the heroine (who uses a couple of bricks to beat one huge bad guy) and loads of masked maniacs & ninjas! But it is Tim Man who really stands out, as the vengeance-seeking Kid, who cuts a swath through the hordes of attackers, getting his vest coated in blood!

The film ends with a great showdown, as Zom & The Kid battle it out with top bad dude Snakehead (Liu).

"I want more. More freaks. More. More!"

[The_Phantom_Projectionist · 7/10 · 6 May 2015]

Coming off the heels of other recent, impressive fight flicks like THE RAID and UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING is KILL 'EM ALL, the second film to receive a wide release from director Raimund Huber who's in the process of perfecting the style of Thailand-set, Thai-looking action films made by a westerner. In contrast to its direct competition, KILL 'EM ALL is relatively small in scale and has sections of the story which definitely could have been written better, but it's still a remarkable powerhouse of diverse fight choreography done right, relatively intriguing characters, and a well-executed premise.

The story: eight ace assassins are drugged, kidnapped, and awaken in an enclosed "killing chamber" where a voice over a loudspeaker (Gordon Liu) instructs them how they're expected to kill each other until only one remains. It will take ingenuity and persistence on their parts to find their way out of this alive.

The first half of this picture feels like a martial arts-themed take on Saw, with the characters stuck in the room and being subjected to the instructions that pit them in one-on-one showdowns. Though some of the assassins are obviously expendable (e.g. poor Erik Schuetz, still waiting for a good role), there's a good deal more genuine acting and personality-exposition going on during this part of the film than one might expect, resulting in the viewer being able to take a genuine interest in some of the fighters beyond their action scenes. The majority of the acting falls upon the only real thespian of the bunch, non-martial artist Johnny Messner, and while an okay character, I think he's the most detracting part of the film, having been written as overly talkative and sarcastic, especially in the second half. Additionally, while the second and more conventional half of the film might disappoint some viewers who had really gotten into the setup of the first half (for the record, I wasn't), it's the eventual reveal of the master plan behind the whole plot that's universally disappointing and that keeps the movie from a five-star rating.

However, like the best martial arts pictures, this one's fourteen fight scenes dutifully pick up the slack where the story falls short. Having seen the movie only recently, I can confidently state that karate flicks of the New Year have their work cut out for them in matching the action of KILL 'EM ALL. Much of it, of course, has to do with the fine casting of unique fighters. There are acrobatic tricksters (e.g. Rashid Phoenix), hard-edged muay thai exponents (e.g. Ice Chongko), physical powerhouses (e.g. the male lead henchman), realism-based hand-to-hand practitioners (e.g. the late karate god Joe Lewis), and several more. Equally important to the strength of the fights is the truly masterful choreography by star/fight wrangler Tim Man. While not every brawl in the film is a grade-A affair, Man shows great ingenuity in not only allowing each of the performers to play to their physical strengths and therein nullifying the need for stunt doubles, but also in matching the subsequent diverse styles of the fighters harmoniously: even for the final showdown when a methodical kickboxer (Ammara Siripong), a grounded kung fu practitioner (Gordon Liu), and an acrobatic fighter (Tim Man) are pitted in combat, no fighter has to modify his style for the others, resulting in a very unique match.

Personally, I think this feature is unique enough just for being the last movie of the departed Joe Lewis' sporadic film career, which had been hit & miss thus far but I'm glad that his last one could be a winner. Though he died just months before this one's DVD release at age 68, his performance is stellar: despite appearing heavyset and visibly aged, Lewis' character gets a look in his eyes when it's time to fight that makes you believe he's going to sincerely beat the stuffing out of someone, and his rough, practical moves back it up. This aspect and all the rest accumulate for a very good martial arts flick - definitely one of the best of last year.

Solid martial arts entertainment flick......

[ordersbpowhilden · 8/10 · 31 May 2014]

I've been watching martial arts films for years. And this one rates a solid A for entertainment on my list. What brought me here to do this review was a google of the leading actress Ammara Siripong. A true and upcoming femme fetale. She and her body drove the movie forward. Fantastic stomach and abs that led the way from beginning to the end along with a cute face to follow. Good casting guys! From what I can see she's an up and coming bollywood star and I would like to see her in more of these kinds of flicks as she pulled off her part very well with martial arts moves and all. I've read the reviews which seem harsh for what this movie is. Yes it is action and fight scenes. But what do you expect from a martial arts flick? No it doesn't need a huge plot to drive it forward. Neither did many of Bruce Lee's movies. This one reminded me of a hybrid of Bruce's last movie Game of Death where he reached higher levels on his way to defeat greater fighter threats that presented themselves. I personally enjoyed the fight scenes as majority of the moves were believable with the exception of one big dude that Siripong was beating with bricks who would still almost not go down. Beyond that, no gravity flying kung fu masters who defy the laws of physics. Or Jackie Chan scenes where every inch of space is used to battle everything that comes after him. But a group of capable assassins with varying killing skills thrust into a situation of them against us. So for me the plot didn't need to be complex and the acting didn't need to be Oscar quality. I could understand all the English spoken and my brain didn't work overtime trying to figure out what was going on as many convoluted movies often force on you. Another good movie to check out is Van Damme's 6 Bullets.That has more of a plot although there are still a lot of holes for those that want to criticize. Again, these movies are action driven and the scenes either maintain your interest and carry you forward or lose it and leave you behind. For me this movie took me to a satisfying end.