The Hitman Never Dies (2017) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
4 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
6/10
Shoot first...ask questions later
Ed-Shullivan25 March 2018
This film is designed along the same vein as the much more intriguing 2008 release "Burn After Reading" that starred Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, and John Malkovich just to name a few of the star power which made it more enjoyable to watch. But as low budget films go, so does lesser known talent that stars in this decent "stand on its own merit" film Stegman Is Dead.

Stegman is a porn producer who needed seed money for his next blockbuster porn production so he develops a few video tapes of criminals catching them in compromising positions that allows him to blackmail these criminals. What Stegman didn't count on though was that these blackmailed criminals will not sit idly by doling out their hard earned cash to a scumbag porno king extortionist like Stegman.

So one by one we are witnessing this string of gun wielding and sledge hammer carrying criminals pay a visit to Stedman's mansion to recover their personal incriminating video tapes only to find a guy in the bathroom shot twice in the head and rea' dead. Is this Stedman? Well even the criminals and hit men who break into Stedman's home aren't sure who is sitting in the bathroom floor with two bullets in him is Stedman or not. So each goes through the house opening safes and looking behind pictures to recover their criminal revealing video tapes but to no avail.

Trouble really starts brewing when the cops show up, ambulance attendants and when multiple hitmen and a hit woman are on site at the same time. The plot appears to be confusing but it is really quite simple. Find Stedman and you get your tapes back and stop the extortion.

The star of this film is a guy named Gus (Michael Eklund) who lives a miserable life being associated with a bunch of low life criminals, a nagging wife, and a cute pixy of a daughter who is learning the ropes from her daddy Gus. Into Gus's life walks a darn attractive, and darn serious hit woman named Evy (Bernice Liu) while he is searching through Stegman's home for the tapes used to extort him and his fellow band of criminals that include boss man Don (Michael Ironside) and his two useless sons.

As stated above, this film is not of the high(er) caliber of the 2008 Burn After Reading film but the acting is decent enough as well as the story line and is worth a watch. I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 rating.
7 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
STEGMAN IS DEAD
mmthos25 September 2021
Imitation Tarantino, like so much by lesser filmmakers since the juggernaut that was "Pulp Fiction". The actors' do manage to wring some authenticity out of the lead's (Michael Eklund') nuclear family scenes with wife ( Andrea del Campo ) and daughter(Linnea Moffat) but the pistol packing patriarchs and matriarch's are such an "homage" to the Master as to be citeable for outright plagiarism. "Comic" criminals are forced, not funny. Ultimately collapses under it's own unoriginal weight as I became less and less interested, and ends with a whimper, with the expectation of a sequel I won't wait in expectation for.

For the best Neo-Tarantino see Guy Ritchie. At least he translates it into British.
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
It adequately passes the time.....
RosettesMKII24 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Even without the dialogue which even at full volume was largely ununderstandable, it was a decent series of pictures with action figures for the evening movie. Understanding what they were saying would have helped at points such as when an innocent is place in harm's way. It lacks, however, anything to really tie the viewer in except a decent looking femme fatale. Many a viewer might be tempted to turn it off at any a point, especially since the lead is a cross between John Colbert and."The Lord of the Skies" (El Senor de los Cielos) lead Rafael. Amaya. But, as stated, it was the movie of the night so had to get it over with. This flick was bought on a Michael Ironside buying spree but this movie is not a good representation of him. Adequate but hardly worthy of his name. A final down point of the movie is the finale for any love for any redeeming factor of most of the cast is dashed to bits when it is revealed just exactly what kind of people the characters really are. It is not something I would recommend people pay to see.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
I'm the actress
nogodnomasters12 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
This film is cute and Canadian. For some that should say it all.

Gus (Michael Eklund) is a thief and not a hitman. His wife (Andrea del Campo) and child (Linnea Moffat) are supportive in his work. In many ways, Linnea Moffat made the film. He tries to wean himself off of working for Don (Michael Ironside) but finds himself having to heist tapes stolen by a man in the adult film industry. It has incriminating evidence of a number of people, including himself. Bernice Liu adds some hitman eye candy.

The film was fun and clever. I enjoyed it.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed