Battle Ground

Battle Ground

                Battle Ground is an ultra low budge shoot em up about bank robbers vs. a crazy nam vet. That hook alone was enough to make me (a love a Z grade Action movies) want to see that but the results are realty mixed. Think of it as Rambo vs. the guys from heat with a slasher movie style and you have a good idea of the movie.  The movie starts out with them just finishing a bank robbery with one of them injured. They are on the run cause one of them shot a cop now there normal means of escape will be delayed and cost more money. The idea of loose cannon on a team always bugs me. Why would you hire people on your team that clearly that insane? I mean no professional bank robbery team really wants some guy going all “Leroy Jenkins” by shooting up the place. It just counter productive. But that just my own pet peeve. The start of it gets you interested cause it takes you right into it. So they have to find a place to hide. They find an empty house in the woods thinking nobody there as they bicker on how the bank robber went all fubar. Low and behold this happens to be a house of crazy Vietnam vet who proceeds to hunt them down and killed them. An apparently does this to anyone who gets near his area. He sets up traps like a derange home alone kids and takes their money. Which cause the criminals to stay and hunt him down? There some nice kills and the set up of the battle ground are pretty sweet with a lot of secret passageways and good places for shoot outs. Problem is it no one to really root for cause both sides are dirt bags with very little remorse. So you don’t really root for anyone. You can have evil protagonist but you got to do something to make the audience follow them...make them exciting somehow. Something that makes each side somewhat rootable. Smoke Aces did this cause people had different hitmen they liked. Not so much here. Also you go into the clique that no one able to aim well in this...sense they can’t hit each other until the end. I mean this guy pretty old given when nam was…let no one seem to be able to get a shot off old man river over there. And it not like he a particular fit old mans…he has some city years on him. Still pretty fun. Some of the keys pretty imaginative and you can enjoy seeing the cat and mouse game. C+