Out of Death Parent Guide

Shannon Mathers (Jaime King) has come to rural Georgia with her father’s ashes, both to fulfil his last wishes and to confront her grief. But as she’s hiking up one of his old trails, she witnesses Billie Jean (Lala Kent), a corrupt sheriff’s deputy, shooting a drug dealer who threatened to expose her operation. Worse, Billie saw Shannon as she tried to flee. Shannon’s only hope of getting off the mountain alive is retired cop Jack Harris (Bruce Willis), who has been staying in his niece’s quiet cabin. The two will have to find a way to avoid local law enforcement, expose the scandal…and survive.

Out of Death struggles to be one dimensional. The characters don’t make the cut as cardboard cutouts – they’re more like a grainy washed-out picture of some cardboard cutouts in an abandoned theatre. Bruce Willis isn’t even playing a character, just a vague stereotype of every other character he’s played. I’m struggling to remember a film with less character development, but nothing springs to mind.

This production is so lazy it actually feels familiar. I’d swear I’ve seen this movie, but that’s just because it’s the broadest, least defined action plot I’ve ever seen. Even the 50 extreme profanities failed to arouse any interest – I had to keep rewinding to catch things that I’d just zoned out on. This is the cinematic equivalent of a white noise machine. You’d think that a few shootings and stabbings would be enough to keep you awake, but you’d be dead wrong. Even the characters snorting cocaine seemed bored, so I’m not sure what chance the audience has of experiencing even the faintest levels of entertainment.

The only thing Out of Death is out of is ideas. One stale cliché inexorably follows another until the credits have the good grace to start rolling. I don’t know what I expected. It’s not as if Bruce Willis’s contemporary filmography inspires any confidence. I think raw nostalgia for the original Die Hard had my hopes higher than they should have been for this bargain bin dumpster fire. If you’re looking for a more exciting 95 minutes, consider watching grass die. If you try the movie, you’ll envy the grass.