Review of Kill List (2011) by James S — 06 Sep 2011

What a piece of sh*t!

In fact, sh*t may be too good a word to describe this utter abomination of film making. Director Ben Wheatley is being hailed as one of the finest new talents in British film making. If that is true then the British film industry is in very serious trouble!

Neil Maskell is an ex-army veteran turned casual killer for hire who following money troubles is coerced into taking another job, or kill list, by his mate Gal. Things begin to go wrong almost immediately as they so often do in these situations.

It's hardly a revolutionary premise to begin with and the first half hour plays like a particularly violent episode of Wife Swap. Maskell and his wife argue about their expensive hot tub and who takes the biggest share at lunch which cause him to go a bit mental, in amongst scenes with their young son. Things do start to show a little more promise in the mid-section of the movie once the job gets going and hints are dropped that this may all be part of a bigger mystery but with the turn into the final act, the film lets all sense of reason and regard for its audience go flying out the window to leave everyone sitting there thinking "have I really paid money to watch this???!!".

None of the characters, apart from maybe the son, are intended to be likeable but they're all so loathsome that you can't really invest any kind of feeling into them, even from the beginning. The actors directions seem to have been mainly to shout at each other and then look a bit sorrowful before doing some more shouting.

The violence is as graphic as you would expect in this gritty kind of movie which is not so much of an issue, and it does at least seem to be a way of moving the slap dash narrative along.

Despite it's poor direction, naff performances and unlikeable protagonists, all these are minor quibbles and with an approaching semi-decent mid section, just what is it that sinks Kill List to that lowest of the low point. The answers, or lack of them, are held in its finale. The answers to the mysterious clues which have been dropped along the way are disregarded in favour of a bizarre turn of events and a climactic moment that makes no sense and leaves the viewer with a vile and sick taste in the mouth.

Perhaps that's what Ben Wheatley was aiming for. Perhaps he thinks that he is shocking and clever at producing such a finish and leaving his audience in a state of bewilderment. He's not. He just seems like an untalented man who couldn't think of any decent way to end his already poor movie. The man just made this reviewer's very own kill list.