Bounty Killer – Toronto After Dark 2013

The post-apocalyptic action/comedy Bounty Killer takes place in a world where corporations have taken over the world’s governments and the resulting war reduced the world to ash.  In this new world came the rise of Bounty Killers, who are hired by the Council of Nine to seek out and kill white collar criminals.  Drifter (Matthew Marsden) is considered to be one of the best Bounty Killers around, though he often finds himself in competition with celebrity killer Mary Death (Christian Pitre).  When Drifter finds himself the subject of the death warrant, he and his gun caddy Jack (Barak Hardley) set out to the council headquarters to clear his name.  Along the way, Drifter has to contend with cannibalistic face-painted killers known as Gypsies, a corporate group known as Second Sun, and Mary Death herself. Bounty Killer can be described as a high octane, ultra-violent, comic book-style action/comedy.  I thought the film was at its best during its action set-pieces, which were quite entertaining and featured many extremely gory deaths.  However, I’m not too sure about the actual plot of the film.  This is a type of story that I’ve probably seen multiple times before and plot only really seems like a way to move from one action scene to the next.  The most obvious comparison to this film would be the Mad Max films, though I would have to say that Bounty Killer is much more campy in tone. As the lead character Drifter, Matthew Marsden (Rambo) somewhat comes off like a poor man’s Karl Urban.  That said, he is probably the only character in the film, who is playing things completely straight.  I found his comic-relief partner Jack to be quite annoying at times, though he somewhat grew on me by the end of the film.  The real standout of the film has to be relative newcomer Christian Pitre as Mary Death.  Her character seems straight out of a 1960s spy film and she gets many of the best moments in the film.  The film also features some stunt casting of Kristanna Loken and Gary Busey as villains, as well an appearance by Beverly D’Angelo. While the film is far from perfect, I would have to say that Bounty Killer was a competent post-apocalyptic action/comedy.  While I could have done without some of the goofier moments (i.e. bartering with a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon), the film did have some very fun to watch (and extremely violent) action scenes.  As such, I’ll give the film a mild recommendation.7 | FAIR