'70s Trash?: Project- Kill

 A Film who's Plot predates a more famous 'source material' that its Director didn't even live to read.  This is 1975's Project: Kill by William Girdler.  Quick story on this one and why it was picked- a saw a VHS of it at a Thrift Store, saw that I could also download a free copy of it and then did so.

Not all Stories that interesting and I never promised that it was.

Speaking of Stories that are interesting however, there is a big similarity between this Film's Plot and The Bourne Identity.  That Book was written in 1980.  As hinted at, Girdler- sadly- died in an accident in 1978.  Given how he got involved in a big lawsuit to get his profits from his Films internationally, I wonder what he would have done with the Book came out and sold lots of copies.

In this one, an Agent learns that his Company is training assassins and not Security Agents.  He flees to The Philippines to leak the information, but is followed.  Can he expose his old Bosses?  Can he escape the criminals?  To find out, read on...

A group of Agents is shown a confusing Film about how they are supposed to protect High Value Targets.  It seems to be shot from one location, but then there are lots of cuts and camera angles.

It turns out to be a professional Film, which I guess they hired Sam Peckinpah to do.

The young Agent shown in the Film is apparently our Hero- Leslie Nielsen.

Hey, if Richard Chamberlain can be Bourne, then so can he!

Anyhow, he quickly- in the runtime- learns that his Company is actually bad and leaves.

In The Philippines, his Assistant/Fellow Agent arrives to track him.  We follow him like he's the good guy, even though he's after the guy we know wants to expose the corrupt Agency.

Here's a thought- don't show that Intro and just start here.

Learning that Nielsen is not evil would be a nice twist, but...nope, do it your way, I guess.

Speaking of evil, some criminals want to capture Nielsen, since the CIA said he stole some government plates (to make him seem like the bad guy).

He finds a friend to help him...but you know how that ends in these kinds of Films.

Speaking of him, he falls for a nice young lady.

She doesn't know who he is, but is quite easy to convince.  2 Scenes later, she's not freaked out when he engages in a high-speed escape in her car.

That's love.

So we see the 2 Agents doing their own thing in, basically, their own Movies.

The non-Leslie Lead has some bad-ass moments- like trapping a bad guy in a room with his own, live grenade and blocking the door with luggage- but also fights in what I think is supposed to be CQC.

It leads to some silly poses on strikes, like this one.

It all comes down to a big showdown at the Docks as Nielsen tries to escape.  The bad guy- played by the guy who's seemingly in every Film made in The Philippines- is killed by Nielsen via off-screen punches.

The final showdown- which is the first time the pair have shared a Scene since the Intro- is set.

Who will win?

Despite controlling most of the fight, Nielsen is downed and struck by the fictitious 'strike your nose into your brain' strike.

He lives long enough to tell his friend that he'll be the target now (will he?) and dies.  The (bleak because its the '70s) End.

A pretty enjoyable, if not-too-creative Film.  As I said, I'd like to see a Film like this subvert the storytelling clichés and not reveal that the target is actually the good guy until later.  It would just add some nice drama and mix things up.

The basic Plot is fine, but, again, not too exciting.  The pair are basically in their own mini-Movies until they meet up in the End.  They each get a Character Arc too, making this structure pretty odd.  If you have them, for instance, meet once in the middle and get separated, that could help.

The adventures they have are pretty stock.  That said, seeing Nielsen in the role doing fake Karate/CQC has its own appeal.  His Co-Star, as noted, does pretty well too.  He just wasn't in Airplane.

Project: Kill is one of those Films that could do for a Remake.  It helps that its not famous enough- Troma distributes it now, so...you know, figure it out- to offend the Internet.  Speaking of the Internet, this Film gives you something to focus on- a Leslie Nielsen Thirst Trap.  La-a-adies.

Next time, I finally get around to doing a Film I bought ages ago.  Will a South Korean Film I bought solely based on knowing nothing about it be good?  Stay tuned...