Where to watch Project: Kill
1 Star
John Trevor escapes from the military base where he commanded Project: Kill, a mind control experiment that used drugs to create bodyguards and assassins for the United States and makes his way to the Philippines. Soon Trevor finds himself in love with Lee Su and feeling the withdrawal symptoms from the drugs for the mind control that make him very dangerous not only to himself but everyone around him. His former second in command Project: Kill agent Frank Lassiter has been ordered to find him before the with drawl effects become too violent and before he sells out the program. Asian mobster Alok Lee is also after Trevor in the hopes of getting the secrets of Project: Kill. Time is running out for Trevor as the with drawl becomes worse, Lassiter, the Philippine police, and Lee’s men close in on him.
My first exposure to Leslie Nielsen, like many in my generation, was through the Naked Gun series of films. Years later, I saw him in Creepshow, in which he displayed a more sinister side to his screen persona. I knew of Nielsen’s long career in B-movies and that ‘Gun’ was a late career shot at superstardom; it was also a rebirth of the Nielsen ‘character’ as a first-rate silly man, and it’s a role he would reprise in various projects until his death in 2010. Project Kill is one of the movies Nielsen starred in during the doldrums of his long-spanning career. This is a terrible film that is unintentionally laughable and amateurish in its execution of an outlandish screenplay.
Project Kill goes through its paces with the utmost seriousness, lacking any humor or relatable characters. The movie begins with a long-winded narration of the Declaration of Independence before revealing itself to be a ‘Manchurian Canidate’ meets ‘Jason Bourne’ mash-up, which is far less than the sum of its individual parts. Project Kill exits to play in the second slot of a drive-in double feature. Even with lowered expectations, this is a film that barely delivers a coherent story. Gary Lockwood is the most unlikely and unconvincing martial arts action star in the history of cinema.
Directed by: William Girdler
Written by: Galen Thompson, David Sheldon
Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Gary Lockwood, Nancy Kwan