Mikes Film Talk

Watching the Italian offering of Death Squad, AKA 2047 Sights of Death I realised, it’s disastrous. A complete waste of time. This is the first film I have panned outright. It is, in a word, dreadful.

Death Squad, aka 2047 Sights of Death, is a 2014 Italian film. It stars Danny Glover, Stephen Baldwin, Rutger Hauer, Darryl Hannah and Michael Madsen. Alessandro Capone directs. IMDb classifies the film as action, science fiction and a thriller all mixed into one.

In reality the movie is none of these genres. Death Squad is an unmitigated disaster from frame one. As Danny Glover’s character Sponge says at the end of the film, “What a mess.”

The Story

The story may have to do with saving the world. It is not clear though just what the overall mission of Ryan Willburn (Baldwin) actually is. He is either supposed to collect a transmitter or information. Or, the transmitter and possibly something else entirely. He crash lands in a contaminated area. After landing he needs an anti radiation serum dose on a regular basis or he will hallucinate and die.

Once he crashes, Willburn discovers a pile of bodies and a local alien girl. We know she is alien because she cannot talk and is purple, or burgundy.

Although, helpfully, she can write in English.She also has two black dots on her forehead and chin. Tuag, played by newcomer Neva Leone, helps Ryan on his mission, whatever it is.

The villains of the piece are apparently Rutger Hauer’s Colonel Asimov and his aide Major Anderson. Hannah plays Anderson. His other cohort is Lobo (Madsen). They have no real clear objective. They just threaten and kill Willburn.

Editing of the film appears to be accomplished by someone under the influence of hallucinogens. The script apparently has no dialogue included. It seems that all the performers are making it up as they go along. Hauer’s lines definitely feel made up on the spot. Death Squad is, apparently, the first film shot with no real script or lines or direction.

Science Fiction?

Granted the movie has been given a science fiction setting. It tells us that it is 2047 and that world order has fallen apart and so on. Danny Glover’s character sits scribbling in a notebook. When he is not writing, he curses and looks for data on antiquated computer monitors or talks to Willburn. At one point in the film he is writing down that “Charles Manson was right” and that “Viagra was right.” Like everything else in the movie, Glover’s character is a complete muddle.

The film’s action roams all over the place and has no coherency or direction. Each of the actors feel like they are in their own film. Of course Madsen plays the same face-pulling cigarette-smoking unstable version of his Kill Bill character. This is his “go-to” irrespective of the role he is cast in. The actor always seems to be performing in his own special movie regardless of what the script asks for.

Every Actor for Themselves

Hannah, and Baldwin, both seem to be desperately playing their roles straight. Unfortunately they get no support from anyone else in the cast. For Baldwin, it is hard to play it serious when having black shoe polish smeared on one’s face. Luckily for him it does magically disappear a short time later. Odd moments like this abound in Death Squad and they do not result in laughter just confusion.

This is not a “so bad it’s funny film.”

In a nutshell, this film plods nonsensically along for 89 minutes with no resolution. It has no real story and obviously no real script. Somewhat amazingly, 2047: Sights of Death, or Death Squad, was released in Italian cinemas. The film is available on Amazon. Save your money as this film should be avoided at all costs. There is not one redeeming factor in entire feature. One can only surmise that all the name actors in the film owed someone a huge favor.

The Verdict

0 out of 5 stars for being confusing, horrible and a waste of time.

The Trailer