Hunt To Kill

With a recent major role in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables, pro wrestler-turned-actor Steve Austin's exposure has never been higher. Hunt To Kill, however, lacks the same gloss - it is after all a B-movie packed with actors used to chewing on more quality fare and which doesn't use Austin's talents to the full (he's perhaps better used as an imposing villain - as Stallone cast him - though he's perfectly serviceable here). In fact Hunt To Kill features not just Austin but another two of The Expendables cast members (Eric Roberts and former British kickboxing champion Gary Daniels).

Austin is Jim Rhodes, a border patrol agent relocated to the mountains of Montana near to the border with Canada. Living in the mountains has allowed him to hone his survivalist skills, though his parenting skills in dealing with his rebellious teenage daughter are not up to the same level.

When his daughter is taken hostage by a group of criminals who were double-crossed by their boss after a heist on a Vegas casino, Rhodes is forced to lead them through the mountains, with his daughter held continuously at gunpoint by Banks, the unstable leader of the crew, to hunt down their former boss and retrieve the loot. Of course, Rhodes eventually gets the upper hand, and the last third of the film features plenty of stalking, crossbow deaths, impaling by stakes and even an odd dune buggy chase through the forest.

The words 'picking up a pay check' might spring to mind when you see actors Michael Hogan and Donnelly Rhodes (from the acclaimed Battlestar Galactica TV remake), Eric Roberts and Gil Bellows appearing in a film far below their pay grade. Nevertheless Hunt To Kill becomes strangely entertaining fun after a time - after all it is set in some lush Canadian border forests, there are some satisfyingly crunching fight scenes, and there is a certain amount of fun to be had in watching the bad guys getting their entirely predictable just desserts as Austin turns the tables on them one by one.