Out to Kill

This one starts pretty slow. and a little soft core. Lots of gay guys standing around in bathing suits, lots of eye candy, an occasional butt shot. Intrigue. Catty comments by everyone. Jim is the new guy in an apartment complex, and Justin is either the nicest guy, or the worst, depending on who you believe. Vicker is the uptight dentist, and yet another of the people Justin had invited to his place that night. Almost every line has awkward pauses. The pacing is not quite right. A body is found floating in the pool the morning after the big party; the police aren't too worried about it, so Jim is hired to investigate.

They DO throw in a funny line here and there, but then they wait waaaay too long to say the next line. The first half is pretty rough, but the second half DOES get better. I pretty much guessed the ending, which went on for a while.... was kind of expecting a last minute twist, or some surprise, but it didn't happen. Written and directed by Rob Williams.

To see my review in video format, check it out on youtube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LRwflDGoNk

This gay themed murder mystery that takes place at a Loft in Tampa, Florida, occupied mostly by gay characters, has a lot going on for it. Some of it makes this film a guilty pleasure and the rest of it a hard sit.

The movie focuses on the murder of an unlikable character, Justin Jaymes (Tom Goss), a gold- digging and self-obsessed wannabe singer who is found dead in the Loft pool. His friends and frienemies are all suspects. Former P.I. Jim Noble (Scott Sell) is hired by the only person who seemed to like Justin for...reasons...to try and find out who killed Justin, since this takes place in a movie world where the police are useless.

My problem with this movie was that the murder mystery the movie is focused on is of the murder of an unlikable character that we don't feel sorry for or any intrigue over. If the reason to make him unlikable was to give a motivation for killing him, then why should the audience care? This movie is also really heavy on dialog. My own personal way of looking at entertainment is this: "Movies are about action, Plays are about dialog, and Novels are about inner-thoughts." This movie was all about dialog and would probably work better as a play, I lost interest in what was going on because of this. There was also the problem with the acting and direction. The actors seemed unsure of how to act or play their parts in every scene, so their performances bombed. The screenplay is full of information that goes unexplained or exposition that was only put in to make the film feature length and meets the time requirements to be featured as a feature length movie at whatever film festival this movie was submitted to. Like Erik Van Looy's "The Loft." [2015] (Other than taking place at a Loft) this film features characters that we have no idea why in the hell they would be friends in the first place, and spend a good portion of the movie having constant revelations and constant conversations.

What I did like about this film was the cast was really sexy to look at, the parts of these gay characters are actually played by gay actors, and for a gay movie it did not rely on sex scenes or full frontal male nudity to sell DVDs, it focused more on trying to tell a story.

But overall: This is a guilty pleasure film that may make some audiences laugh at the bad acting, or cringe at the bad directing.

About 10 minutes into this murder mystery you'll begin hoping that it involves a serial killer who quickly knocks off most of the cast. Unfortunately you'll be disappointed. Most of them linger on.

The acting is pretty bad. Most of the characters deliver their lines like this is the first time they read the script and were randomly attempting to be stereotypically bitchy or as if they were (unsuccessfully) delivering sage pronouncements. To be fair they didn't have much to work with nor did they seem to be aware of the context in which they were supposedly acting. Many of them appeared uncomfortably unsure how to stand or move or react in any given situation and often resorted to awkwardly shifting about and making facial expressions reminiscent of the silent film era.

The real mystery is why this was ever released. If you have a high cringe threshold you might find it amusing.

What I like about this film:

It has a great cast playing a variety of modern day gay archetypes. It is mainly set in a Florida condominium, so you get lots of swimming pool and beef cakes (a David Hockney ambiance) - some other exterior scenes give off that Palm Beach vibe. At some point a lurid sex party is being thrown. There is witty dialogue that takes the Mickey with hypocritical morals and values within the gay scene - and the Private Investigator piercing right through them. A complete distrust for the police, shared by all the gays involved, is brought to us as a given (it is also the frame of mind you are required to watch this film with, in order to relish its subversive touch). The conclusion of the movie is very satisfying. Visually it's glossy and I noticed that almost all of the camera angles are very craftily chosen.

The actor Scott Sell (with his pearly white teeth) is a rather sexy and brilliant actor whom makes the film even more of a pleasure to watch.