Objectif meurtre

After taking incriminating snaps of adulterous senator John Kane (M. Emmet Walsh) getting frisky with his unlikely bit on the side, photographer Ric Oliver (Paul Austin) witnesses the murder of the poor woman at the hands of Kane's uncontrollable brother Luther (Michael Ironside). Ric's subsequent actions makes one wonder how someone so dumb could even operate a camera: instead of immediately going to the police with the evidence, the lens-man unwisely follows the killer as he dumps the body into a reservoir (in broad daylight!), but is spotted while taking more pictures. Realising that he has been seen, Ric gets onto his motorbike, but rather than speed off in the opposite direction, he races towards the gun-toting murderer, thereby sealing his own fate.

This level of idiocy seems to run in the family, for Ric's brother Max displays a similar lack of common sense in most matters, and soon finds himself being blackmailed by Luther, who is keen to get his hands on the late brother's incriminating roll of film (which he had the foresight to hide in his motorbike's fuel tank before getting himself killed). After repeatedly being manipulated with ease by loathsome Luther, who even tricks him into riding a roller-coaster with a dead hooker, Max comes up with an incredibly crap plan to foil the killer. And this being an incredibly crap film, the incredibly crap plan works!

3/10 for being so unintentionally moronic that it is occasionally funny; however, not even the presence of the usually brilliant Ironside (who hams it up a treat on this occasion) can make me rate this movie any higher.

My review was written in December 1992 after watching the movie on Paramount video cassette.

"Killer Image" is a well-made Canadian suspense feature debut that has inexplicably opened at year's end in Los Angeles to qualify for Oscar consideration. Its natural home is home video, where Paramount Home Video released it this past summer.

M. Emmet Walsh toplines as a corrupt senator whose brother, perennial screen baddie Michael Ironside, is shown dumping a body in the film's opening.

Incriminating photos of Walsh with a prostitute, snapped by Paul Austin, cost the shutterbug his life. Austin's brother Max (John Pyper-Ferguson) is out to set things right, but Ironside frames him for the murder of another hooker and discredits him with the police as a "boy who cried wolf".

Filmmaker David Winning, in his second feature assignment, has a plot that becomes increasingly far-fetched as Ironside's complicated schemes keep going awry. Pyper-Ferguson teams up with his brother's girlfriend, lovely American thesp Krista Errickson, and of course a romance develops.

Storyline resolves itself with Pyper-Ferguson turning Walsh and Ironside against each other. The symmetry of brothers versus brothers is not fully developed since Austin's role is minor.

Though the film is set in the U. S., its Calgary area locations are attractive, including a cliffhanger finale above surging water rapids. Cast is okay.

Why is it that Canadian-made movies are so wooden?

The script of this movie has potential but it just doesn't work. I think it may be the editing. There is no pacing. The scenes just move along without any buildup of tension.

The movie includes two experienced actors, Michael Ironside and M. Emmet Walsh, with Ironside taking the lead as the anti hero.

Nothing really happens to make the movie interesting. The hero, John Pyer- Ferguson is unimpressive; the dialogue is boring and the plot is predictable and moves like molasses. Even the color was washed out.

I started to watch this movie on the late show and got so bored that I ended up surfing the Internet at the same time and felt that I missed nothing.

This Canadian movie is a pretty standard early 90's thriller. It's truthfully pretty pedestrian in most ways but it does benefit from the presence of genre legend Michael Ironside and respected character actor M. Emmet Walsh; both of whom play a pair of brothers, whose bad actions get the film's plot underway. The story is essentially about a professional killer who seeks incriminating photographs which are in the possession of a man whose brother he murdered. This leads to all manner of unreasonable behaviour being carried out by out pony-tailed psychopath.

This is not a particularly well written film. It is not, for instance, especially clear why the pivotal murder even happens in the first place. And characters continue to act in illogical ways throughout the story. In fairness, it's not the first thriller to succumb to this, so it's hardly a deal breaker. It is a bit lethargic though and really only comes to life when either Ironside or Walsh are on the screen. So, not an awful lot to recommend here but at the same time it does get the job done, it just does it with the minimum effort.

Two points, one for Michael Ironside, and one for M. Emmet Walsh, both of whom are trapped in this truly terrible film. The writing is some of the worst ever, with zero character development, and scenes that seem to have been randomly inserted in no particular order. Confusion abounds, and the viewer will quickly lose interest. Why should anyone care about characters we know nothing about, in situations that make little sense. Even with the presence of Ironside and Walsh, "Killer Image" is a stinker of major proportions. After about 40 minutes, I couldn't take any more punishment, and hit the eject button. Just one more DVD for my garage sale. - MERK