New Town Killers

NEW TOWN KILLERS is a low budget Scottish riff on the Van Damme film HARD TARGET and many other movies, such as THE GAME and the 'hunting human' classic that spawned them all, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. This one sees a hard-up teenager lured into playing a deadly game by a bored investment banker (!) with murder in mind.

The problem with the film is the lack of talent on the part of the filmmakers. They try hard, sure, but the issue is with the direction: the attempt to make this flashy and appealing to young people just makes it feel dated and I honestly thought it was shot in the 1990s. Then there are the animated titles, promising a decent free-running movie; unfortunately the opening sequence is unconnected to the rest of the movie and the only example of Parkour in the whole thing.

Instead we get low budget emoting throughout and some dodgy writing which gradually sacrifices plot and character in favour of some predictable 'twists' and endless, only mildly exciting chase sequences. The main character really suffers from one-dimensional characterisation; despite the best efforts of star James Anthony Pearson, he's never likable for a second and comes across as a below-average-intelligence thug.

What a relief, then, to have Dougray Scott on board as the film's villain. Scott is a delight here, a joy as he reveals in his own sheer evilness. He brings verve and vigour to his role and at times seems to be the only professional actor on board. Certainly he's the best thing about the movie and as NEW TOWN KILLERS reached its second half he was the only reason I kept watching.

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.

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 is genuinely one of the worst films I've had to sit through (I've rated over 1,800 films so far and not many have got this low a score). Despite being quite a short film it dragged on for what felt like hours - quite what Dougray Scott was doing in this I'll never know (charity? slumming it?). He does what he can with a poor script, snarling away and making the rest of the cast look poor, but ultimately you don't care about his character or any of the others.

I can appreciate it was made on a budget, but it seems to have also been made with no professional supervision. Every scene was amateur, no sense of timing (I can quite comfortably state this is the worst 'chase' movie I've ever seen) and there isn't enough of a plot to keep anyone interested.