THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT (2018) * ½

The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot plays like a serious version of an Asylum movie.  If you’re going attempt such an undertaking, you have to find the right tone.  Unfortunately, that’s something writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski never does.  

Here’s a fine example of how the tone doesn’t work:  The film expects us to believe Sam Elliott and Larry Miller are brothers.  Can I believe the same man could assassinate both Adolf Hitler and then the Bigfoot?  Sure, why not?  What I can’t believe is that Sam Elliott and Larry Miller sprung from the same loins.  

Another clue as to how off the production is:  It was produced by the trio of John Sayles, Lucky McKee, and Douglas Trumbull.  That alone is enough to make you stop and say... what?

Elliott plays a former super soldier who is remorseful for killing Hitler back in WWII, even if “he had it coming”.  He tries to go on with his life but discovers there is not outrunning his past.  Eventually, the government, who are well-aware of his past deeds, comes knocking at his door, asking him to kill the Bigfoot.  And not just “Bigfoot”.  “The” Bigfoot. 

The guy they got to play the younger Elliott in the WWII flashbacks is a dead ringer for him.  Too bad the flashbacks are easily the weakest parts.  It also keeps going back and forth in time, which gets annoying too.  It also ruins the momentum of the film.  To make matters worse, just when you think it’s over, it plods on needlessly for another twenty minutes.

At one point, Elliott says, “It’s not the comic book you want it to be”, almost as if he’s talking to the audience and making excuses as to why the movie sucks.  I mean, it didn’t have to be a comic book to work.  Then again, that approach would’ve been better than what the filmmakers came up with.  Krzykowski treats the material as a meditation on the legacy of violence and regret of misdeeds of long ago.  He thinks it's Unforgiven or something.  Except.  You know.  With the Bigfoot.

I admire an honest attempt to blend a serious message inside of B (or in this case, D) movie trappings, but it just never clicks.  Of the cast, only Ron (Loudermilk) Livingston hits the right note of serious and the absurd as the government agent who hires Elliott.  I just wish I could watch the film he thinks he’s in.