It’s the height of audacity to incorporate your name into the title of your film. Imagine High Plains Clint or Reservoir Quentins? Eastwood and Tarantino aren’t exactly shrinking violets, but there are limits and there is etiquette.
Will Larroca dispenses with both in his sophomore feature, Will Will Kill.
The title not only suggests hubris, but an homage to Tarantino. He’s not quite there yet.
Still, this is leaps and bounds above Larroca’s first feature, The Monster. For several reasons.
First, The Monster provided us the chilling visage of Reid Brown as a crazed ghost. Here, he’s criminal mastermind Rico Brown, and he is again pretty damned chilling. Something about that shock of red hair makes it easy for you to put your guard down.
Second, the acting is generally first-rate, and Larroca smartly casts actors who look distinct.
Third, on a shoestring budget, I was impressed by the low-tech approach. It felt real. Visceral.
Finally, I was intrigued by the approach, derivative as it was.
Still, there are problems.
Why do Larroca’s characters always wear hoodies? Is this some kind of Trayvon Martin deal?
Why the finger in the camera? Is it amateurism or something else?
Why is Larroca’s vision of a clone-infested future so mundane? Is the future really as bad as all that? Does everyone wear shorts?
Why would a clone engage in a samurai fight with a hand in his pocket?
Who rides a train to Las Vegas?
Would Rico Brown really have a tag coming out of his shirt?
Again, the word is that Larroca is working with a bigger budget and should have a fall release of his third picture.
It better be special or he may go the way of David Caruso.
Another esteemed reviewer weighs in.
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