Everly review: Salma Hayek's unoriginal revenge-fest is no Kill Bill

Perhaps Salma Hayek was sold on nostalgic memories of her early days in From Dusk Till Dawn because Everly feels like a serious case of déjà vu but one that has taken a wrong turn.

Director Joe Lynch, responsible for films such as Wrong Turn 2, takes a bold stab at replicating, well, any of Quentin Tarantino's gore-fest flicks using intricate fighting sequences, bloody close-ups and an underlying tone of black comedy.

However, Lynch is no Tarantino and Everly is no Kill Bill.

Although credit where it is due, Frida actress Hayek quite desperately tries her hardest to give a well-rounded performance with a one-dimensional and exhausted character.

Everly goes in with all guns blazing quite literally from the start with the battered, bruised and beaten heroine forced to fend off a slew of trigger-happy prostitutes sent on a mission to kill her.

It becomes apparent that Everly has been held as a sex slave for years but the lack of backstory and character development is just one of the places it falls flat.

We know what Everly is but, how did she get there? When did she become such an esteemed fighter who is able to dodge, duck and dive dozens of bullets coming at her in close proximity?

And why does the mysterious Taiko, the captor who has put a price on her head, have such a hold on her?

The romantic relationship between the star-crossed lovers is eventually addressed but by then, it is hard even to care.

In the same vein that Tarantino notoriously sexualises the women in his masterpieces, Lynch does not hesitate in using Hayek's beauty to his advantage.

Lingering shots of Everly's body sprawled out on the floor and a sequence of her struggling to find the perfect outfit in the middle of an explosion are mind-numbingly sexist.

If Lynch wants the audience to spend 92 minutes ogling at the heroine or stereotyping women under the mask of female empowerment, at least be original.

At times, Everly does show promise. In a true ode to the Grindhouse era or Japanese horror movies, the violence is blatant and pushed to the limits.

But when half of a man's body is burned through to the bone with acid, sliced in half and he still manages to get up and walk, it is hard to take it seriously.

However, perhaps that is the point of Everly. It is simply not meant to be taken seriously.

Even the protagonist gives up early on, predicting that she will end the night in a body bag.

Although not her fault, Hayek struggles with the uninspiring script and quite frankly, it is a struggle to get through the erratic torture-fest.