Killers

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this film too. I bought it in a bargain store today....£1 and was one of the best pounds I've ever spent. Well worth wasting away an hour or so. Almost gave up at first as one of the characters is a little irritating but I stuck with it. Some of the cinematography is excellent and it became something completely unexpected and fun in a bizarre and twisted way. It's the sort of film that you feel doesn't really know exactly what it wants to be and yet it works either in spite or because of that and as a woman I was worryingly drawn to the two brothers. Even if you don't find this film in a bargain bin somewhere it would still be worth spending a few pounds on.

Okay, I'm pretty sure that during the production of "Killers" director Mike Mendez and writer Dave Larsen heavily dreamed of becoming the next David Lynch... or maybe even the next Quentin Tarantino, but in order to achieve this, they should have put a little more thought in their extremely weird and dumb screenplay. Just what the hell is this supposed to be? A hard-boiled thriller, a demented black comedy or perhaps another social mockamentary pointing out to us how easily we glorify violence. The title priority refers to the notorious James brothers; two handsome but relentless maniacs sentenced to death for murdering their parents. They now escaped from their maximum-security cells and travel through California, until they take a middle-class family hostage in the quiet little town of Beatty. However, the Ryan family members aren't as defenseless as they seem. The women, Mrs. Ryan and her two teenage daughters, followed the James brothers' trial on television and developed a huge crush on their perpetrators. But that's still the least of their concerns, as the family also hides far crazier secrets. The sudden plot twist near the middle is extremely retarded, but at least it woke me up again! I already started dozing off since it looked like another pseudo-intellectual portrait about serial killers that seem to have all the knowledge in the world and yet use it to commit crimes. The dialogs are fluent, but they handle about everything you already heard before (in "Natural Born Killers") and some of the unexpected twists are really too crazy for words. There's plenty of violence but I still somehow expected "Killers" to be more grim and sadistic. It's mainly gunfire action and shouting, so I anticipated a little more physical violence, reminiscent to – for example – the torture scenes in "Reservoir Dogs". The plot holes and improbabilities are too numerous to mention, but the acting performances are decent and there's even some on screen sleaze to admire as well. "Killers" is not a total waste of time, but it's severely lacking personality and power to become a cult favorite.

I know a guy who came to me and told me that he had a movie he claimed to be very good. If I liked Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Till Dawn, I will love this movie. He couldn't have been more wrong. In two words, it sucked. But to use more words than that, I will say that the movie had a very funny story, it was a very nice little story concerning a couple guys who just broke out of jail and take cover in a nice suburban household. It seems dark and gloomy at first, but 50 minutes later we are revealed to a nice array of insanity. The movie actually fools you into liking it by the end. The point is, the dialogue takes more centerstage than it should and half the time, you dont even know whats going on. Nice story, bad movie. No wonder I have never heard of it before.

This is a great example of a movie that has a lot more buried in it than what you see on it's cover. Depending on your inclinations, you'll either love it or hate it when it's twisty-turny bits start to do their thing.

There are some reviews claiming that the acting is very poor. Honestly, they are not far off. The acting is slow, and so is the development. The lines are overly written, portraying a little too much imagination in long-winded passages that are almost poetic in nature. Still, I would say that the lines are delivered with as much sense and effectiveness as the actors could have mustered up. Watch it and ask yourself, "How would I have delivered that line?" and I suspect you will find yourself beginning to agree with the simple candor that the actors used on screen.

Also, in the case of the main protagonists, you start to realize that the excessively verbose mannerisms actually make a certain sense, and even become relevant later on as the characters begin to reveal their more interesting secrets. While the characters seem unreal at first, you start to see why they are the way they are later.

The film's biggest drawbacks are it's poor filming, slow movement, and it's highly unlikely circumstantial timing. What I mean by the timing is that events happen that leave you scratching your head and asking yourself, "Why, when and how did this happen?" The director feels no need to answer these questions, as the film's magic is contained almost entirely in the house where the events occur. The writers felt no need to explain why the world outside kept intruding.

Lastly, the filming is all blue and moody. It's a silly method of filming, I never liked it. Stop using the filters, bring in some dang light and make a movie we can see.

I really feel like I did NOT waste my time on this one. I don't know if I can call it original in any way other than it's incredible and unusual mix of themes, but it was definitely entertaining.

And that's really the point. Entertainment. It's the bottom line of movie making. I recommend this movie, simply because it's so.. bizarre.

I really feel like this is something of a hidden gem. It deserves a redo, a more modern reiteration to work out the bugs.

I have seen this film on my local video store shelf for years but never rented it until last night. I must say it is not what I was expecting, but I found it quite entertaining. It was one hell of a crazy trip, and every time I thought I knew what was going on there was another twist. I recommend it to those who loved the insanity of Natural Born Killers, or if you just want to try something different. Dave Larsen as Odessa displayed some great acting abilities and reminded me of Mickey Rourke back in his hay days, not to mention he looked bad ass with skeleton face make-up and wielding a shotgun. The acting by C.T. Miller as Mr. Ryan and Nanette Bianchi as Jami entertained the hell out of me, and I loved every minute of it. This movie had me cracking up from beginning to end, and was quite surprised by all the crazy twists. See this film........