Kill Me Later

"Kill Me Later" is a romantic comedy about a suicidal woman (Blair) who reluctantly takes up with a bank robber on the lam (Beesley) if he promises to shoot her once he's made his escape. What follows is busy enough with side plots, action, and snappy patter to keep the waning eye lid open in spite of the movie's many flaws including unnecessary visual effects, loose ends, Kodak moments which don't work, and a speed bump at the midway mark. Okay for sofa spuds. (C+)

Despite being made in 2001, this movie is basically about life in times in the '90s when Gen X culture took over the world. Everyone in this movie is so materialistic and selfish. Our heroin Shawn (Selma Blair) find's herself disappointed by life in every way and decides to jump from the roof top of the bank building she works in. As she finishes her last cigarette, a bank robber Charlie (Max Beesley) comes up to her and tells her that if she doesn't cooperate, he's gonna kill her :-) not knowing that that's EXACTLY what she was trying to do. There's sort of a deal struck between the two that if Shawn helps Charlie get away by becoming his hostage, he'll help her out by killing her later (hence the title of this movie).

The funny part of this movie is that a supposed rogue Charlie is actually a nice guy compared to the status quo people around Shawn who're all morally bankrupt. Shawn and Charlie decides to take the leap together (no pun intended) and try out for a new life while other people gets their just comeuppances. Selma Blair is at her best in her role as Shawn, and brings the goods to the table in one of the best movie of her career. A feel good movie '90s style.

Selma Blair is one actor I normally make an effort to avoid, but she is surprisingly good in this B-level piece. Indeed, I think she was done a great injustice by the slick photo that comes with the Australian DVD of The Sweetest Thing. Her performance in Cruel Intentions was not exactly a highlight on her resumé, either. So when I see her in a vaguely appealing form here, the surprise factor is enough to make me award it a bonus point. Quite possibly, this is all that the film has going for it, as I am struggling to think of another selling point.

The plot, such as it is, concerns a loan officer who works in a big city bank. She's suicidal after discovering her lover is less than perfect and her goldfish is dead. So she goes up to the roof. Coincidentally, the bank is robbed, and she gets taken hostage by one of the perps when things don't quite go to plan. Aiding him in his escape, we follow her as she learns more about this rather charming robber with a passable British accent.

The fundamental problem here is that not enough happens in the midst of all this character development to distinguish the story. Perhaps the problem lies with the DVD I viewed the film on. The dialogue is very indistinct in the 2.0-channel mix that is offered on the Australian DVD. Sometimes the difference between a boring, uninvolving scene and one that has the audience grinding its collective teeth in anticipation is merely a sound mix. So if you're thinking of buying DVDs from the Australian market, be advised that at least indie distributors in America take some pride in their workmanship.

Tom Heaton gets a great cameo as the wounded man in the robbery, delivering one of the few stand-out laughs the film has to offer. The ending is syrupy enough to make anyone in the audience, even those with hyper-productive islet cells, sick to their stomach. Apparently, this feature was based upon a short film. The eighty-six minutes that this feature-length offering take up feel like at least sixteen too much, but I may be biased because of my desire for something noteworthy to happen during a story. The number at the end of the film is equally sugary and over-glazed.

Still, I have seen plenty of worse offerings, so I gave Kill Me Later a five out of ten. Speaking of bad audio, the theatrical trailer on the Australian version of the DVD is encoded several decibels louder than the feature presentation. And they wonder why we parallel import?

The guy who described this as having an undeveloped script was right on the money. The sometimes comic yarn about an embezzlement gone awry with a suicidal mistress accidentally drawn into the plot has got a lot of potential and some very watchable performers but the screen writer apparently was in too much of a hurry and the director didn't have any idea where the story was supposed to go in the first place. It is not a bad watch just to see some young performers who evidently took their work more seriously than the producers and directors and hopefully we may see them again.

I stumbled upon this movie by mistake and was actually presently suprised by it. I have always thought Selma Blair was a quite good actress and she was very convincing in this. Even though at some points in the movie it gets a bit dull and repetative, generally your attention is kept.