6 Bullets is basically a B-rate, straight-to-DVD version of Taken with Liam Neeson, a movie that didn’t have a unique premise, but was well-made and enjoyable. My expectations from a B movie are different than the ones I have for A movies, which is what made this movie so hard to review.

If I reviewed it from the point of view of my A movie expectations, I would give it a horrible review. The movie tries to approach the story of two parents trying to recover their kidnapped 14-year-old daughter with a very serious tone, much like the movie Taken. They clearly put a bit of money into making the movie, with decent enough sets and pyrotechnics, beyond what I would expect for a B movie. Unfortunately, the writing is trite, the pacing of the story slow, and the acting wooden.

The action sequences were lacking with camera views that were too close to the action, making it annoying to watch. They also sped up the action most of the time taking away the realism of the movement. I know Jean-Claude Van Damme (lead character) is getting older, but is he so old the he needs his movement sped up? With MMA fighter Joe Flanigan playing the role of an MMA fighting father, I would have liked to see
him actually fight the MMA fight he had flown to Europe to fight at the beginning of he movie, or work
his MMA moves a bit more into the action sequences. Sadly, these opportunities were missed.

But this was a B movie, so I shouldn’t be expecting a great work of art, right? I usually watch B movies expecting them to be laughably bad, whether it’s intentional or incidental. My favourite B movies are the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously with the hopes of becoming a cult classic complete with drinking game rules.

From this point of view, 6 Bullets is a complete flop. As I told my roommate as we struggled to keep focused on the movie, it’s not good enough to be a rousing action flick, or bad enough to be hilariously cheesy fun. Personally, I would have liked to see them do the latter. More over-the-top cheesy action lines, more unrealistic but fun fight scenes, particularly from the MMA fighter, more ridiculous character development (would have been hilarious to see the 14-year-old join in on the family fight with some crazy contribution, oh like maybe by using a prostitute’s high heel shoe to take out a bad guy’s eye in an ironic act of retribution… or something like that.)

But without any intentional humour or cheese factor, this movie just doesn’t grab the viewer in any real way. Case in point: my room mate fell asleep in the middle of the “climax” of the movie, and I kept checking Facebook on my iPhone throughout the movie to stave off boredom.

I’ve included the trailer for this movie below, which actually makes it look better than it is (kudos to the makers of the trailer!), but ultimately this is not a “wait for the DVD” kind of movie having only been released in DVD form. If you see this movie on a shelf, keep right on walking. If you want something like this but better, watch Taken. Only watch it if you’re a die-hard Jean-Claude Van Damme fan who doesn’t want to miss any film he makes. I won’t be held responsible for the bouts of narcolepsy and eye strain from iPhone use that may result  from not following my advice.

Tags: 6 bullets | movie review