Stressed to Kill

I thought this was going to be like Falling Down or something equally as cool.

It is not.

It's a bore. It drags. It's horribly acted with massive holes in the story and horrible dialogue, stupid settings and atrocious casted actors.

The setup was fairly good, but 5 minutes in, it fell flat and then remained there and started to sink shortly after.

Armand Assante mumbles his way through his lines horribly and stumbles around like a drunk on his 2nd bottle of Jack Daniels in 20 minutes.

The characters are horribly written and the developed story is anything but developed.

It could have been made a dark comedy with different comedic actors delivering the same lines and better performances, but as it wasn't made into a comedy - this just sucked.

Totally different cast could have turned this mess around.

If you doubt me now, you won't doubt me later.

Idea for the plot was good, but the acting was ... not. Almost coukd have worked as a spoof, but acting wasn't quite good enough for that. But couldn't stop watching. Does pick up at the end.

Bill stressed himself out with the everyday cycle of life..so much so he gave himself a heart attack. His Doctor insisted upon him eliminating stress from his life! He started on a rampage killing random people who stressed him out! At the insistence of his doctor (who had no idea what he was doing to be stress- free) he kept it up because it was alleviating stress! I thoroughly enjoyed the movie ....it kept you in suspense with a dark portion of humor! It was funny, suspense filled and not quite the obvious! Plus the bad guy ...well I want to tell the whole movie movie but I won't! Go check it out! You will receive your money's worth! It also teaches you to be careful who you stress out or you could be next!

Mark Savage is well-known world-wide as a genre director, a hat he is more than happy to wear. Yet, this does limit his image somewhat amongst mainstream cinema circles, both for funding and garnering audience. And that's a shame. 'Stressed to Kill' comes from a similar place as 'Falling Down'(Dir.: Joel Schumacher, 1993) but has been crafted to a very tight budget which occasionally shows on the screen. However, don't let that deter you from seeing it. Accept it for what it is - a film that sticks to its purpose with skill and care. There is discipline apparent in the acting and direction and that is applause-worthy. As a story, again, it is true to form and the acting of Bill Oberst is the star turn here as the unwell hero-anti-hero (depending on your POV). He makes this flawed, edgy chap very likable and credible with razor-sharp emotions and a build of tension that last through the narrative. Now I would like to see Mark Savage step out of the genre and for someone to give him a wad of $$$$ so that a wider audience can see his work which clearly is applicable to a very broad range of film languages and devices.

Checked this movie out because I'm a fan of Bill Oberst Jr. He is an awesome actor. But I do admit he has been in some low budget messes. This is not one of them! It's indy and I expect the budget was not that of a big Hollywood movie but it really doesn't show. Production quality was good, lighting & sound were decent and surprisingly the actors were all pretty good! Usually indies spend their budget on a couple big stars and the rest are..... well to be nice not as good quality. This was different though. I of course feel Bill was the stand out but the other actors who played his best friend and the cop who was after him carried their weight. Even the smaller roles were filled with actors of quality. That made all the difference in the world for me! As someone else stated it is more of a black comedy then a thriller. I think we can all relate to Bill on some level. He does what we wish we could do. There were a lot of "hell yeah" moments when he took someone down. I thoroughly enjoyed this flick from beginning to end and more then likely will watch it again. May have to buy the DVD for the collection.