Killshot - C

On DVD

Reports of Mickey Rourke’s demise and resurrection were greatly exaggerated this past Oscar season, but it made for a good story. In fact, he’s starred in many films in the past decade (Domino, Sin City, Man on Fire, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Pledge, Get Carter). The real drought was in the mid-late 90s. Unfortunately, Killshot follows that more recent oeuvre rather than Aronofsky’s near-masterpiece. But probably near or at the bottom of that list . . .Rourke plays Blackbird, a native-American hitman with a braided ponytail, who’s haunted by the accidental death of his kid brother during a previous hit. When Blackbird meets Richie (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a wannabe tough guy, he sees a way to subdue his flashbacks and nightmares. But things go awry when the disciplined Blackbird allows the inconsistent Richie a little too much slack and a botched hit against a divorcing couple (Thomas Jane and Diane Lane) sets forth a violent and predictable chain of events. Rosario Dawson and Hal Holbrook fill out the fine cast.Based on an Elmore Leonard novel, his touches are obvious (Detroit, infidelity, FBI), but his novel feels shortchanged by a 95 minute running time. Produced by Harvey Weinstein, you can feel the reshoots demanded by test screening audiences. You’re supposed to be rooting for Jane and Lane to work things out, but you haven’t spent enough time with either of them to care much. Dawson is likewise wasted. Given too much screen time is Gordon-Levitt, who may not be miscast, but chews scenery in the most distracting and unlikeable way possible.Rourke doesn’t get to show off his terrific sense of humor, nor is he asked to show any range. But his presence is still as forceful. The home invasion subplot has been done better by Rourke himself in The Desperate Hours. Even worse, the plot takes some ludicrous turns: (Would Lane really try to take on Rourke – a professional hitman –with a shotgun when she doesn’t have to? Would the FBI really leave phone numbers of Lane’s relatives behind at her old house when she’s taken into the witness protection program? Of course not.) It's directed by Weinstein whipping boy John Madden (Shakespeare in Love), who doesn’t have a clue about action scenes and seems to have forgotten how to do dialogue scenes, too. C