“You’re a man who understands the mechanics of this world but not its appetites.”

The Woman In Red

Told over the course of a single night, Kill Chain follows toppling dominoes in a criminal underworld in which each killing begets further deadly consequences. The result is really a sequence of vignettes populated by hastily sketched characters with straightforward motivations. The strongest sequences are those that lean most heavily into noir tropes, which conveniently feature the best performances — Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars’ dad) as a sensitive old sniper, Annabelle Acosta as a crimson-clad femme fatale to Nicolas’ Cage’s hotel owner (in one of his more restrained performances). Scant world building makes these vignettes feel oddly disconnected even if a character will cross over from one to the next. It also considerably diminishes the attempt to explain the night’s events through an overly convenient conclusion that will leave viewers nonplussed. Enjoyable for specific atmospheric sequences, Kill Chain is easily forgettable entertainment: this is mechanically competent noir that fails to satiate the appetite.

5/10