New Town Killers

But with out a Jean Claude Van Damme or an Ice T it has a wee Scots lad in stead as the hard up hero getting mixed up with rich guys on a human hunting trip.

It starts with a title sequence thats Lucky Number McSlevin, red and black animated rooftops and soon as we realise the hard up Edinburgh kid is in a bit of a cash crisis and life's crap Dougray Scott turns up all Lance Henriksen like with a little offer of cash for a challenge.

The game begins, we get a lad running through the dark dark streets of Edinburgh that the festival brochure won't show, while Scott and his lesser sidekick give chase, playing coppers and starting on chavs (a lighter moment for those of us who dislike aggressive teenage gangs).

Reasons, motivations, peoples, none can be trusted during a long night where bars, clubs, gig venues are all packed out yet no one walks the streets and having been to Edinburgh this is a little silly.

Scott plays the hard Bastard a lot better here than in other films like MI:2 and Hit-man but there's no real connection to any characters part in the story so you feel more a witness to a dour hunting party rather than being involved in the chase.

After a while the film takes a change of pace and the outcome becomes less obvious but makes the lad being chased far to intelligent and clever to be where he is in life at the start. But it does have a nice conclusion.

This movies a bit boring in places and not as thrilling as i'd hoped but it's nice to have a British thriller without Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan or a London setting which gives it a leg up on a few of it's peers. Worth watching even if it's just to support small independent British film.

One question though, if a buildings locked and you have to break a window to get in how come that's not an option when you need to get out?

One of the most creepy, scaring and ultimately thrilling films I've seen for a long time, New Town Killers benefits from some amazing performances, not least by Dougray Scott, who was never this menacing in Desperate Housewives (;-) LOL).

His presence on screen is brooding and claustrophobic, a real tour de force as a troubled soul with some very strange habits and preferences - and the rest of the cast more than stands up to be counted alongside him.

Jobson's edgy, jumpy camera style simply adds to the tension, and by the end of the film, if you don't have clammy hands and find yourself short of breath as a result of feeling you are IN the movie, then I challenge you to check for a pulse. Really really good.

This film has definitely made it its aim to philosophise about the value of life and money in our modern society while showing as many chasing scenes as possible.

I saw it 2 days ago and I'm still not sure whether it succeeded in either. Reflecting on it I realised that it actually developed the main question of what people will do for money in almost all the main characters but without any real revelations or novel answers.

References to Crime and Punishment seem to be a bit too much of a claim to real depth.

Overall I'd say, go and see it if you like Edinburgh or if you want to kill some time. As long as you don't expect a masterpiece you might enjoy it.

A script this poor should never have been made. There is an attempt at social commentary, monied classes playing psychopathic games with the underclass simply because they can. There is an attempt to tick the thriller genre boxes, but all terribly clichéd - a jump across rooftops, flashing red tracker lights, a stalk through a nightclub (and switched identities that resolve this), hiding in the stalls in a toilet... There is not one original thought or scene in this whole film. The dialogue is full of clichés - "I am your friend" - and often lacks plausibility. For example, the protagonist is enraged when he discovers his sister has run up a debt of 12,000 pounds. The hunters offer him exactly 12,000 pounds to be hunted. When he calls to accept, he asks: "How much are you offering again?" The theme seems to take issue with the corrupting influence of money but has a flippant attitude towards male prostitution. This kind of puerile writing makes it impossible to talk about the performances, the actors simply have nothing to work with. This is a po-faced, poorly executed film, the main achievement being to confirm that whatever talents Jobson has, screen writing is not one of them. Two stars for some nice photography of one of my favourite cities.

This film's Edinburgh set crime thriller, which dips into murky chase torture at times has a sense that 'Lola' (the modern-ish German classic) is going to be parodied.

Obviously pitched at being outside of actual reality, where wealthy landlords, pimps or drug dealers (known in the film as 'private bankers') not only extort their penniless customers but also bait and taunt them, as in some cruel, sadistic game.

Unfortunately, this is no The Third Man (shadowy sinister characters lurking on dark corners), Lola (the 'chase' seems to be mainly driving about in a Jaguar saloon) whilst The Trainspotting vibes resonate most. Except, there simply aren't the oddly likable, charismatic characters in that, for a start. There's quite a few Hitchcockian twists with a silent, weaving camera teasing us, though.

It seems that the whole thing passed me by without making much of an impression. Not sure exactly where it fell down, maybe a bit in each. I daresay I'll have forgotten it by tomorrow. There have been US equivalents that have worked better, maybe for being more villainous, or better written, or better everything. It's not a bad effort, though and worth watching if it's free and not much else is on. Equally, it won't sink the indie Brit film scene but very definitely, unlike Trainspotting, won't set it alight either.