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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.

Having seen "The Convent" years earlier, i was expecting a much more juevenile film than the one i got. What i got was a well filmed movie with much more sophisticated dialogue and plot devices than "The Convent", but still a movie plagued with spotty acting and a B movie atmosphere.

The main thing to appreciate here is the dialogue. Like most things in a Mendez film, its quality fluctuates, but said dialogue is consistently quite good in this film, and the police shop-talk seems to have been pretty well researched, as well.

The main thing this movie is, is fun. I'm personally one of those cinephiles willing to forgive the bad elements of a film in favor of the overall vision and scope of the film. However, while i enjoyed "Real Killers" overall, i must say that the social criticisms and commentaries felt second-hand and that the film has no real "message" as far as I'm concerned, but more mimed and aped morals from movies the director admires. However, the story istelf is whats most prevalent in the movie, with the "pithy" dialogue an underpinning for the whole production.

Not a terrible film, not a brilliant film. "Real Killers" is some good B-movie fare suitable for fans of this type of genre.

M.

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 must admit i wasn't expecting much from 'The Killer's', even having read the claims on the UK front cover that it's of the same ilk as 'Natural Born Killers'. The script and acting range from poor, to dismal, to unbearable. The brother's relationship is far from clear, and what vague story line there is, is so badly pieced together, that often times in the movie your sure you've missed something, you cling on in the hope that a clever twist of plot will ensue, but in fact it all falls apart in quite spectacular fashion. The basis of a cult movie are there, but sadly unrealised, id miss this if you possibly can.

2/10

As far as my rating goes, I'm voting on the entertainment value of the movie, and not analyzing each category of the movie as far as cinematography, special effects, dialogs and stuff of the sort might go...

The movie is just a completely amazing and over the top adventure, with outlandish plot twists, cheesy lines and dialogs. The characters are just totally unbelievable and over the top that you can't help loving them and most of the movie just feels like a completely delusional experience, but it's AWESOME! It just grips you to it, and entertains the living crap out of ya! Well, at least it made my night! I'd recommend it to any movie-watcher that just likes having a laugh, with some fun involved.

AVOID if you take films too seriously!

I actually worked on this film and it was terrible watching it get made. In fact, I kept getting told that it would look and be so much better after it had been edited. Holy s**t was that wrong. Editing actually made it worse. The script sucked, the story sucked, the directing sucked, Larsen is worse than Keanu Reeves (hard to beat), the editing was childish... do I need to go on?

I would have given it a ZERO if possible.

I saw a midnight premiere of this movie in college and it quickly disappeared, but it stuck in my head long after I forgot the title, and I'm lucky I re-found it. No one in that theater knew what to expect from this movie, and it start out as everyone's worst nightmare: a cheap, clichéd crime drama. A lot of people walked out after the first 20 minutes, but I was determined to stick it through. And I'm really glad I did.

At the twist point in this movie, the horrible clichés and acting and directing of the first half feel like an amazingly underplayed setup to a punchline with actual humor and shock. Imagine "From Dusk till Dawn" if the vampire angle hadn't been completely ruined by over promotion.

It's really rare that a movie seems to be one thing but then turns completely around halfway through into something 10x better, but this is one of those. It used the low expectations and low budget to it's own advantage and turned out a movie I never forgot.

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.

Imagine this: You want to make a movie, so you: 1) find the worst actors you can; 2)write the most juvenile script you can, and pepper it with more "f**ks" than even Brian DePalma's "Scarface" contained (at least there they weren't gratuitous); and 3)insert some really silly sex and predictable violence for marketability. What you've just imagined is probably very close to what "Real Killers" is--one of the worst movies made in a long, long time.

I groaned as soon as the actors opened their mouths...I knew I had rented a slickly-packaged, grade-C movie made by undertalented film students. You wouldn't believe what these filmmakers are willing to put you through. The characters in this movie give INTERMINABLE speeches, commenting on human character, society, and so forth, in what the writer clearly thought were clever turns of phrase. They aren't the least bit clever, though, and the audience is routinely assaulted by the scriptwriters' utter disrespect for brevity, and their mistaken belief that they have something insightful to say. Very little of the characters' ultra-cool, gassy expository journeys furthers the narrative one bit. Indeed, they are brick walls that the train of the narrative crashes into.

The last 15 minutes of the movie is a non-stop gunfight. I like movie gunfights as much as the next guy...this one is stupid, at best, adolescent and sadistic at worst. People are shot repeatedly without flinching, and without losing their supercool grimace of determination. In one particularly gratuitous and unwholesome scene, a woman is shot, from below, in the groin, and the bullet exits her mouth. Nice, huh?

Will this movie find an audience? Sure. Disenfranchised adolescent boys (of the Dylan and Kleebold caliber) might cozy up to this prolix gunfest.

There's a reason this 1996 movie wasn't released for so many years: It is embarrassingly awful. This movie is filmmaking at its worst.

I bought the uncut German Pal DVD of this movie as a blind buy a few months back. Looking back, I'm not sure why I purchased it - I rarely buy purely on instinct. I finally decided to watch it last night and was blown away - what an unexpected treat! I'm not going to give much away as it's one of those movies that's best viewed with little knowledge going in. What starts out as a "Desperate Hours"-style movie soon proves a much more interesting ride.

This scores as my unexpected delight for the year. It's a low-budget gem. Some of the acting is "love it or hate it stuff" - the writer Dave Larsen plays Odessa James as a cross between Kiefer Sutherland and Mickey Rourke and I found some of his dialogue a little unintelligible - but, ultimately, I loved the cheesy charm of this film. It's also great looking - the film's scenes are bathed in a lovely blue light in the early scenes - very stylish.

The DVD set is a 2 disc set but the second disc has only trailers and a German-language only short on it. Still, it's a great looking Disc 1 and worth the purchase price, IMHO.

It may be bad... so what? I absolutely love it.

Parts of it are hilarious because of bad acting, others because they are so farfetched, others because they don't seem to have got anything to do with the rest of the film. (why does the cop kiss the bad guy? why bob?)

But it really has some things to it. I really like the story, the music, dave larsen as Odessa James and the atmosphere. Oh, and I liked Natural Born Killers and loved From Dusk Till Dawn, so the extra serving of mindless violence did not hurt, either.

I laughed very hard while watching it, and so will you if you have a thing for bad movies... you simply have to like it :-)

1 out of 10 OK people, not all indie movies are cool, just because they're bad. And not all movies that most people think are bad, are just misunderstood and a secret masterpiece. Granted, there are such cases, but this is not one of them. The interesting twist that this movie COULD have HAD, totally failed.

Although I think that the end of the first Resident Evil movie was inspired by the end of "Killers", or maybe "Killers" was just inspired by the Resident Evil videogames...

In any case, if you want to add a comment to this movie, then watch it, otherwise: DON'T!

I cannot believe that this movie exists and i watched it, maybe it's a fever dream and i am still dreaming.

This is one of the weirdest movies i have watched. It looks like a Lynchian nightmare but it's even more bizarre. You never know its direction, you expect something to happen and something else happens eventually. So many twists and interesting turns that make you overlook movie's flaws. For example, at first, you dislike the acting here, it seems amateurish, but as the movie progresses, it lures you away. I mean, everything seems good, everything fits. Even the things that happened and don't make sense, kinda make sense finally. (Or you just think they do because the director tricked you!)

If someone considers it a bad movie, i don't blame him, maybe he is right. In any case, if you are looking for a unique and original horror movie that turns into a comedy horror in the middle (intentionally or not), this is it. Do not take it seriously though.

I think that this movie somewhat influenced BARBARIAN (2022).

Watch the director's cut. I think that the theatrical cut is far away from the director's vision.

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........

Nutty flick, but I sort of liked it--because of it's insane weirdness....Certainly parts don't make sense, and I found myself saying "What the hell?" Many, many times. The acting's all over the place, but I thought the two brothers were pretty good....I thought it was pretty slick looking, and I think Mike Mendez has some talent. Can't wait to see "The Convent." A little slow in spots, but too deranged to forget, I rated it a 5/10...very strange.....Check it if you're into offbeat stuff....

In my opinion Mike Mendez' Killers is one of the greatest Films ever made. It might be low Budget and sometimes disturbingly freaky, but exactly that's what makes it the absolute Cult Movie for me. The Camera shots, the Music, the Actors, the Dialogues (Monologues) are totally awesome and make a weaving Atmosphere (i don't know if you say so, i just mean that it f***ing kicks a**). It's a must see for Fans of Crime and Suspense. It will jump on you, Baby, and it will stay in your Clothes!

What the hell did I just watch??? I stumbled across this Director today and liked the first film I saw of his (The Gravedancers) so much I had to look up his other movies. This one caught my eye and I'm so glad it did. I'm still reeling from that insanity but loved every moment of it. I read that he made this flick with a budget of under $100,000 and that 9 minutes of his movie were hacked off despite his objections. Yet even with those obstacles to it's success this movie still has lashings of charm and is well worth seeing.

I read a lot of reviews suggesting Mendez is trying to be Tarantino or Lynch - I disagree. He is just being Mendez. I can see from the two movies I watched that he has his very own distinct style - an insane style - but quite definitely all his own. Why do people think anyone who is "different" is trying to be those two over-rated directors anyway? I love Tarantino's flicks and SOME of Lynch's work but they are not the be all and end all of interesting directing. There are other more talented and off-the-wall directors around and it's a little sad that they are less widely known (except among the die-hard horror/thriller fans!!). One thing's for sure, Mendez has a much wackier sense of humor than either of those two, from what I've seen so far, and doesn't take himself anywhere near as seriously (thank goodness).

In a world flooded with bland horror movies & uninspired copy-cat directors, it's always a thrill to discover one who does his own thing, even if his style may not suit everyone. We should be supporting efforts like this - keeping in mind this was a debut effort on a teeny tiny budget - regardless of it's flaws. Yes the lighting has problems, the acting was suss, the dialogue a little clunky etc etc But there is much to be admired in this movie and Mendez has won a new fan today.

SEE IT!!! And watch it with no expectations and an open-mind (and try not to read any spoilers!!). You will love it. I've given it an 8 taking into account the low low budget, the unfortunate hacking of his finished movie and his newness as a director. I hope he gets to work with a big budget and quality actors one day.

PS I loved BOB!!!!

I don't wanna go much into the story, just my thoughts of the movie short.

Killers is an amazing thriller/horror movie about 2 brothers who escape death row and hoping to find shelter by a true American family that is trying to achieve and live the American dream.

As soon the two brothers bust in and kidnap the family things start to go wrong, it go's all wrong, sometimes in movies things go wrong, but in Killers things go really wrong.

A great atmosphere, lots of tense and some disturbing moments make Killers a very good film with a surprising twist.

Somehow maybe underrated or misunderstood i think,..