Hired to Kill (1990)

The Film

Frank Ryan is hired by his enigmatic contact (George Kennedy) to travel to the Meditteranean state of Cypra and free the rebel leader Rallis, prompting a revolution that will be good for the business of the moneymen behind the operation. In order to enter the security concious country, Ryan has to go undercover as a fashion designer with his models and is forced to select an entirely female commando team for the mission. Selecting a group of operatives from around the world, he trains them and they travel to Cyrpa, but quickly run into security minister Michael Bartos (Oliver Reed) who is suspicious of Ryan...

Director, producer and co-writer Nico Mastorakis was quite a major figure in Greek entertainment during the 60s and 70s, both in radio and television, before making a move into films, writing and directing the video nasty Island of Death (1977), providing the story for Hollywood romance The Greek Tycoon (1978) and later setting up his own production company Omega Entertainment to shoot a series of low budget action and comedy films through the 1980s in the US and Greece.

Co-written by Kirk Ellis, who also wrote Mastorakis' horror thriller Nightmare at Noon (1988), Hired to Kill is a well paced but very by-the-book thriller with few surprises, most of the twists would be quite easy to predict for anyone who has seen a few other genre films. The key concept that Ryan is forced to use women in his operation is admittedly a rather different one and provides a few interesting moments, but generally seems to be nothing more than an excuse for showing a lot of scenes of women in various fasion outfits and when the action starts it really makes no difference whether it is men or women firing the guns. A few interesting themes do crop up during the storyline, particularly the idea that George Kennedy's character is controlling revolutions for the highest bidder, but nothing is really developed here and even the one unpredicted twist late on that seems to pose quite a dillema is left unresolved and simply forgotten by the rather simplistic ending.

Behind the camera, Nico Mastorakis is an assured director and the film has a suitably slick Hollywood style that might disappoint anyone hoping for something more interesting and original from a Greek production, however it is certainly a step above what would normally be expected on a film that premiered on video in most territories. The Greek locations are well scouted and the action scenes are suitably explosive while a rather typical genre light-orchestral soundtrack provides a good backing.

Hard working American actor Brian Thompson takes the lead role and spends most of the film with his shirt off. He seems well suited to the part and manages to avoid the sequences where he is pretending to be the fittingly camp fashion designer from descending into comedy. Oliver Reed, sporting a truely epic mustache, plays the local minister and gets some very good scenes, playing with a plapable sense of menace, while George Kennedy (who previously appeared in Nightmare at Noon) has an extended cameo as Ryan's contact.

There is nothing wrong with Hired to Kill and it boasts some solid direction, good acting and a well paced storyline with an explosive climax. However, it lacks anything that would make it really worth tracking down - there are not enough action scenes for an all-action movie and the plot is too simple to be a proper thriller. Worth watching if it came on TV but you would not be missing anything by skipping this one.

In Brief

The DVD

Summary

• A perfectly good little action thriller but simply lacking enough distinction to make it worth watching.
  

• A good looking and sounding DVD release, good to see a full widescreen print, although almost featureless.

Links

• IMDB entry

• DVD Rewind - DVD version comparisons.

• For explanations of technical terms, see the DVD Dictionary.

All text in this review written by Timothy Young - 25th March 2012.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.

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