Killing Fields

Apparently this is based on true events which occurred several decades prior spanning for a long time. This film has more so the feel of an episode of CSI or any police crime drama thriller type we have seen before. Also somewhat reminded of True Detective but this was obviously made before that. It starts off slow, picks up the pacing and interest a little in the middle then doesn't exactly reach to great heights as it should have.

Chloë Grace Moretz is possibly the standout in a very early tome portraying a troubled teen. The highlight and climax involves her being ultimately kidnapped with the lead cop (Sam Worthington) finding the killer in the house and ultimately taking them down. The reveal of the killer was far too predictable and rather anti climatic. In the end, this film wasn't anything special and was rather average.

I was sort of hanging for this film, great cast, story line that can make for great viewing, and I like the setting of the story as well. And after another lackluster year when it comes to entertainment on the big screen, I thought this could be great!

Well sadly to say it is messy, when it comes to this kind of cop film, you need direction, some one that can tell the story at a good pace, connect all the dots, get you engrossed in the mood of the film, make you sit and wait for more clues and so on, but this film lacks all of that.

Sure the acting is solid, but I expected that with the good cast, but it just does not flow at a good pace, it jumps over some dots that should be connected to make you feel you are part of the characters, and that's where this film is messy, hence my score of 5, sort of sits in the middle.

Nothing special, but not bad either, 5 out of 5 for this one.

I was very excited to see this film when I heard they were making a movie based on the true events in 'the Texas killing fields'. I thought it might be reminiscent of 'Zodiac' which was superbly done (in my opinion).

I really wanted to like this movie. It has good actors, and the chance of a great storyline. Unfortunately, that did not help this movie in the least.

First of all, the storyline is confusing. It seems as if we (the audience) are dropped into the middle of a situation and forced to figure out where we are, what's going on etc...

The main characters who are the detectives- Det. Mike Souder (Sam Worthington) and Brian Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) seem to have a history together, but what it is, I have no idea. The storytelling (again) is so poor and disjointed that we (the audience) are left to ponder that situation as well. Quickly, we are also introduced to a little girl named Anne (Chloë Grace Moretz), who actually does the best acting of anyone in the entire film.

Now, I am getting myself confused just writing this review. Back to the point...I found this movie confusing, disjointed, lacking a clear direction. I could barely understand a word that came out of Sam Worthington's mouth because his fake southern accent was...criminal. ;-) The story left so many holes, no real explanations of the horrors that have and continue to go on since the 1970's. It just did not tie everything in together in a logical sense.

I saw on CBS, that the real detectives that have been working this case, hope that with the release of the movie 'The Texas Killing Fields' some new leads will come to light. After seeing this movie, I highly doubt that, which really is a shame.

Should you watch this movie? Well, I wouldn't, but I know you will be curious to see it just like I was.

In Little Texas, Texas, Detectives Brian Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Mike Souder (Sam Worthington) are investigating a series of murders of women by a serial-killer. When they leave the crime scene where a body was found, Brian brings the girl Ann Sliger (Chloë Grace Moretz) that is on probation to the house of her dysfunctional family and delivers the neglected Ann to her careless mother.

Then they are called by Detective Pam Stall (Jessica Chastain), who is Mike's ex-wife, to help her to investigating a case of missing woman, but the case is outside their jurisdiction. However, they join Pam in her investigation while the family man Brian tries to help Ann and protect the girl against the abusive friends of her mother. Mike follows a clue that leads to two local criminals while Brian follows a different line of investigation and finds that the bodies were dumped in an area called "The Killing Fields". When Ann is kidnapped by the serial-killer, Brian seeks her out alone in the dangerous land.

"Texas Killing Fields" is an underrated and gritty detective story. The screenplay could be improved since the situation of two different groups of killers is confused but later the plot becomes clearer and the viewer is able to understand the big picture.

The locations in the bayous show an American reality that is not well- explored in Amereican films.The cast has great actors and actresses and the performances are excellent. Ami Canaan Mann is the daughter of Michael Mann and this is her second feature. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Em Busca de um Assassino" ("Chasing a Killer")

With a great cast list, I jumped at this film with enthusiasm. This was met with a complete underutilisation of some of my favourite actors. For what it was Jeffrey Dean Morgan played his limited role well, Sam Worthing over acted his role making him less convincing and Chloe Moretz was vastly underused.

The plot is difficult to follow and some scenes seem completely unnecessary and others feel as though there needs to be more detail. The story overall suffers from a lack of telling and too much showing. The main plot itself was rather predicable and ultimately let me shaking my head in disapproval. Putting this aside there were some parts of the film that made it interesting and the overall story was good in premise.

I suppose I don't want to hate this film, because it has so much potential. It left me feeling disappointed, but as a point of reference of something done badly that could be brilliant, this is the perfect case.