Don't Kill It is a Minion-esque thriller that follows Dolph as a demon hunter on the search for a demon that inhabits people's bodies and goes on a killing spree. The catch: if you kill the person whom the demon is inhabiting, it will then inhabit you. There's actually another catch: getting people to believe him when he tells them why there's been a string of recent murders. But when one of the survivors of the killing spree describes to the FBI agent assigned to the case, Kristina Klebe, exactly what Dolph was telling her, she starts to believe. Belief isn't enough though, the next part is how do you stop it?
I really enjoyed this one. This is up there as one of my favorite Dolph DTV flicks from the decade, which is saying a lot considering how many he's had! (I think I counted 28 DTV flicks alone, so that's not counting the big screen ones or made for TV ones.) It had the feel of a Marx Brothers movie where there was a secret package or briefcase that was being passed around while the guys tried to get it. In one scene in the town hall, that element really came through in a way that I hadn't seen done before. By the same token, that element of keeping the package away from Dolph did get repetitive after a bit, especially when it seemed like one annoying character after another standing in his way, but just when it felt like too much, the movie would do something fun to bring us back. To almost quote a Beatles song, sometimes fun is all you need.
The obvious comparison here is with 1998's The Minion--which has the distinction of being the only movie that I know of that has had my review of it quoted on the box. The big difference between the two: this one is played up more intentionally to be fun, whereas The Minion wasn't so much on purpose; and the other is The Minion has more sentimental value as one my friends and I have enjoyed on multiple viewings. The late 90s was not as good as the first half of the decade for DTV flicks, but The Minion was one of the fun stand-outs, and overall it's hard for movies of the 2010s to stand-up to the standard of the 90s, but I think Don't Kill It is one that works even by that lofty bar--but because the 2010s overall wasn't as good, when we see something like Don't Kill It the tendency is to think it's even better than it is as a result.
When Sean and I were discussing Dolph's career, one thing that came up was how the late 90s/early 2000s was not a great time for his movies. If you go from '95's Hidden Assassin to '04's Retrograde, there are a lot of ones like The Minion and Bridge of Dragons that my friends and I had fun with, but not a lot of quality. I feel like you could make an even stronger point about his 2010s post-Expendables DTV output, only the bad ones weren't as fun either. Films like Ambushed, Stash House, The Package, and Legendary didn't even have the kind of fun rewatchability of The Minion or Bridge of Dragons. I think that's another area where something like this, or Altitude or Battle of the Damned, stands out even more, because we've wanted something fun from him akin to those 90s and 2000s ones we loved so much. By the same token, what made the 2010s unique from the '95-'04 period was Dolph's big screen successes. He stole The Expendables at the beginning of the decade, gave a great performance is Creed II, and had a fun turn in a supporting role in Aquaman. He also had some TV appearances--including a role in Arrow which I haven't gotten to yet--I'm only on season 3 as I'm writing this--so we can't judge his decade on solely his DTV output like we can the 90s and 2000s.
Dolph's costar in this is Kristina Klebe, and like Altitude and Acceleration, it felt like another good instance where Dolph's female lead wasn't simply there to be a love interest and/or damsel in distress, but rather a real character with agency who wasn't just waiting for Dolph to swoop in and save the day. This one's a little different from those two, in that in those two Denise Richards and Natalie Burn were the films' main protagonists; but it was still good to see that, even with Dolph being the main hero, that they could cast Klebe and write the part to have her be Dolph's partner, and not simply be there for a couple love scenes and a rescue at the end.
Speaking of costars, this one features Dolph film mainstay James Chalke, for the second time as a man of the cloth--the other being Dead Trigger. If you go on his IMDb, he has 24 credits, of which 10 are Dolph flicks--and of those 10, we've reviewed all of them here at the DTVC except for Larceny and Shark Lake--we've also done one of his non-Dolphs, 1993's Gunmen. I wonder if we're going to have to start tagging him...
On that note, let's wrap this one up. As of writing this, you can stream it on Prime, which I think is a good deal. It's definitely one of the most fun recent Dolph flicks. Also, check out the podcast episode Sean Malloy and I did on this one, and check out his podcast on all things Dolph at https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress.com/
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3113696
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