You Kill Me Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Not a hit, man

Director John Dahl has a couple of snappy thrillers under his belt, most noticeably, The Last Seduction, where he combined humour with film noir to create a terrific film. Here the accent is on the comedy with a bit of romance and thriller thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, despite promising to be a quirky black comedy this never really goes anywhere, it doesn't work as comedy, it certainly doesn't work as thriller and the romantic subplot feels forced and unrealistic. Dahl directs competently but he isn't working with much in the way of a script and the film, even at a trim 89 minutes, outstays its welcome

[Highly rated reviewer]

It won't drive you to drink - it will get you drunk and hand you the keys

A dull plot, poor direction and lackluster cinematography combine to possibly make 'You Kill Me' the most boring movie to ever featured a hit-man, a car crash and a drunken wake. We stagger from muted scene to muted scene, unsure whether to like or hate Ben Kingsley, and in the end you feel nothing at all.

Even if Ben Kingsley's character were believable -- and an alcoholic killer sent to dry out by his mobster family is more plausible than many Hollywood films -- on this occasion he was played with as much depth as a paddling-pool in the middle of the Sahara at high-noon. It's not that the acting was bad, although I found Mr. Kingsley's accent simultaneously forced and fleeting, and highly distracting. Rather, the characters were so 2-dimensional that there was simply nothing for the actors to flesh out.

I really hope this screenplay was based on a novel, because in this form it just didn't cut it. Watch this film if you like bald men with bad accents, drink sherry from 2L bottles, and have trouble following the plot on the side of a McHappy meal.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Totally irrelevant

Weak. Pointless. Not funny. Not thriling. Not moving. An exercise in tedium. Who cares?

Awful

If there had been less than one star this would have got it ! Truly awful. Turned off in the end after struggling through most of it. Didn't like anything about it. Awful.

[Highly rated reviewer]

you kill me

This film was boring. I fell asleep twice and found myself drinking beer. I felt the whole thing was unconvincing. Some ugly older bald headed hitman finding a pretty woman at a funeral. He has many demons to fight including his drinking addiction.He was a member of a mob from oneside of town,who were been taken advantage of by other mobsters. I could not watch any more of the film.,

[Highly rated reviewer]

Iffy In The Extreme

Like the thematically identical (and already forgotten) Pierce Brosnan flick The Matador, this received a reasonably warm reception when it played the indie festival circuit in the US last year. Much like that bit of inconsequential fluff, it's far from easy to understand why.

Practically weightless in tone and choppy as hell, its a mystifying, amiable mess that might've provoked a very, very mild recommendation had so much staunch talent not been directly involved.

Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni and Bill Pullman are all on excellent form, but the comedy is of the spineless, distinctly airy-fairy daytime sitcom variety. Certain moments even brought to mind, horrifyingly, The Last Of The Summer Wine.

There is one uproariously funny sequence involving a belligerant jock's testimony at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but like almost every single scene in the entire movie, it lasts less than a minute. The film chops and changes, stops and starts, and flits between its three plots so often that it appears to have been hastily assembled from the wreckage of a cancelled TV series. It isn't involving, funny or idiosyncratic. It is frequently boring and smug. John Dahl can't stage comedy, the characterisation is phoney and flippant, and Luke Wilson is completely wasted in an entirely thankless cameo.

The only remarkable thing about it is that, somehow, it maintains its tone throughout despite stealing from Tarantino one moment and The Naked Gun the next.

Some celebrity hack from American TV gossip show Access Hollywood announces on the cover of the UK DVD, 'An instant classic! You'll DIE laughing!'

Obviously, and in the strongest possible terms; it isn't and you won't.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Black comedy at it's best

Can't believe some of the reviews on this film, 'dull, switched off before end', 'didn't laugh once', 'not funny'.

Well all I can say about those people is this: 1) they have no sense of humour 2) they only like shoot em ups.

This film is very funny, the humour is just so well done. Yes no one really takes it seriously and obviously you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Sit back and enjoy Sir Ben's and Tea's performances, despite the age gap they do work well together and you do go, awww at the end, bit of a, 'office and a gentlemen' type thing but not so slushy.

Sir Ben does do a villan well as seen in many of his films and Tea Leoni is sooo fine and sexy without trying to be.

So anyone that has been put off by some of the bad reviews here, ignore them, rent it, watch it and you definately won't be disappointed.

Beyond revival and therefore a dead movie, more like.

This is such an odd, and altogether disappointing, film in so many ways. It's well shot, with some lovely use of depth-of-field and vivid colour, but it's so, well... empty.

I'm not even sure that it's something you could call a mere distracting, pleasant waste of an hour or so, because you have to push yourself into this movie to make up for its alarming degree of detachment, and avoidance of anything approaching the rules of engagement.

On the one hand, the premise of the hitman trying to re-adjust himself back in to everyday life just about holds together, rendering this a kind of sweet cousin to Leon, even if the Mob meets real-life element feels a tad old-hat post-Sopranos, and almost swerves into Mickey Blue Eyes territory. The cast is more than capable of their craft, and there's a fab performance, and some genuinely cracking lines, from Luke Wilson.

But most crucially, it all somehow never builds up a head of steam and is subsequently over before it gets started. Kingsley is obviously good at his craft, and there's a great character somewhere in his borderline autistic hitman, but he forever remains just too far over the 'distant' line to be engaging; the love interest is sweet, but lacks chemistry, and therefore feels utterly contrived; and the sheer lack of empathy you feel with the characters as a whole renders the plot down to mere mechanics.

There are also odd little sidelines, flicks and nuances that are never developed: why does Wilson's character keep referring to people's right to be gay or straight? Why is the action sent to San Francisco? And what is that the leads see in each other to spark and maintain their relationship? In an artier, indie flick these kind of things would have been part of the film's rich tapestry, but in You Kill Me, they become annoying frayed ends that ruin the overall finish.

Such a shame.

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[Highly rated reviewer]

you disapoint me

Nice concept , Ben Kingsley plays a hit man ordered to AA to straighten up, his works suffering. The first twenty minutes actually had me laughuing alot as our Ben attends his first meeting 'they're a bit talky'. But then it then it just limps along. Practicly no plot, his rehabilitation isn't really examined in any way except as a divice for a couple of good gags and we're asked to believe that Tea Leone would fall for this grouchy old man, you are kidding ? Watching this part of the film I kept thinking 'why not just cast an older woman for Gods sake ? '

At an hour and a half I thought great a film at a length most films should be, but on finishing it all I can think is the plot was so flimsy and the film so bereft of ideas that even was a stretch.. A diisapointment methinks.

quirky

Not a role you'd normally see Kingsley in but it was enjoyable and a bit tongue in cheek.