Hunt to Kill

HUNT TO KILL is a routine action vehicle for wrestler-turned-actor Steve Austin, who plays the usual unstoppable hulking hero type in this story about a gang of bank robbers who abscond to the forests to make their escape by crossing the border into Canada. Along the way they pick up Austin's daughter, forcing him in turn to become their guide under the threat of violence.

What follows is almost a scene by scene rip-off of Stallone's CLIFFHANGER, made on a much lower budget of course and without much of the finesse. Saying that, it's still a relatively entertaining B-picture, packing a plenitudes of action into the brief running time. It's certainly more entertaining than some of the rubbishy vehicles that director Keoni Waxman has made for Steven Seagal.

The film has plenty of faults, with poor character motivations and a dearth of originality in the screenplay (I was surprised when Austin fell down the cliff-face for a second time), not to mention tons of unbelievable stuff with the star shrugging off bullet hits and the like. But there's at least one decent fight scene (featuring the great, under-utilised Gary Daniels), a fun hammy performance from chief bad guy Gil Bellowes, a cameo from Eric Roberts, and a pacing that's fast enough for you to generally ignore the various problems.