Kill the Man

I really enjoyed the fresh young actors in this film. The writing is not very sophisticated, nor is it intended to be. This film reminds me a bit of Clerks and Slackers, not because of its storyline, but the direction and the crazy characters portrayed by lesser know but talented young semi-slacker actors.

When he hit the prize shot from the halfway line at a basketball game, Stanley Simon was talked into investing the money into opening a copy shop by his friend Bo Stein (who has a degree in economics). Of course now that copy shop chain King Co has opened up across the street, the idea doesn't seem so good. Things only get worse when they get told they have two weeks to pay back rent before being evicted – and don't even ask about Stanley's relationship with girlfriend Vicki. With closure looming, the pair decide to take the fight to the corporate giant.

I had never heard of this film when it came onto terrestrial television but I decided that this might not be something I should take as a warning. Well, as it turns out I was wrong as this mostly so-so comedy just ambles across the screen offering very little. You can see what they were aiming for. It is sort of Clerks crossed with the modern day frustration of Office Space but it lacks a real sense of wit and, of course, proper laughs. Conceptually I have no problem with it because you can see the social relevance and also comedy potential in a copy of slackers but it is the delivery that offers little of interest.

The narrative doesn't do a great deal with the idea and the subplots (specifically Stanley's relationship) are mostly flat. I could forgive this if the main thrust was funny but it is only really sporadically amusing at best. The performances do rather match the lack lustre air in the material. Luke Wilson always comes over as the William Baldwin of the Wilson brothers and he only reinforced that here by producing a rather obvious performance. West Wing's Joshua Malina is OK but neither Rhys nor LaMarr are as funny as their "sidekick" roles really needed them to be. Devicq is attractive but doesn't convince as a real person. McKean and Doyle-Murray are a bonus but aren't used at all well.

Overall then a sort of slacker comedy that crosses Clerks and Office Space but it is consistently mediocre and only has the odd moment where it is amusing. Mostly though it isn't up to much and I understand now why I had never heard of it and will probably never hear of it again.

I saw this movie many years ago, and thought it was pretty funny. I used to own it on VHS, but all my movies got stolen several years back. This movie pops into my head once in a while, and I really want to watch it again.

I feel like it had a different title than "Kill the Man" when I originally had it, but maybe I am wrong. Regardless, I have been unable to find this movie for sale anywhere! Does anyone have any ideas where I can find this movie?

This movie was very funny, and probably had the best joke-to-dollar ratio of any movie I've seen. That is, given the fact that 2/3 of the movie takes place within the copy shop, they do a lot with it. I personally felt that the romantic element didn't add much to the movie, and that's the movie's one major drawback. Although the actors are all no-names, the actors were very good, and fit the parts well.

don't expect too much and you'll love it. it's a low budget film that should have low budget expectations. Extremely witty dialog, imaginative acting and hilarious dry humor make the film extremely enjoyable, so long as the viewer is capable of seeing past the poor lighting, film and music editing. the story is decent albeit a little unbelievable, but it's worth it's weight in chuckles, and what more can you expect from Luke Wilson and Josh Malina (whose work on sports night i throughly enjoyed, they should never have started dubbing in applause, that ruined the whole thing). at the end of the movie the viewer is left asking one question: was that fall scripted?