A hitman is hired for a big job in a small town, but becomes entangled
in a crazy web of murder, blackmail, and revenge when he screws it up. COMEDY/CRIME
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Kill Me Three Times (2014)Directed by Kriv Stenders
Written by James McFarland Starring Simon Pegg, Alice Braga, Teresa Palmer, Sullivan Stapleton, Luke Hemsworth, Callan Mulvey, Bryan Brown |
Kill Me Three Times is quite disappointing. It's a movie that doesn't really amount to anything besides featuring a standout performance from Simon Pegg. It's like a slightly more comedic Blood Simple but done by a much less talented filmmaker. Most of the time, we're watching cardboard cutout characters try to commit murder, extortion, or some other terrible crime while wondering where Simon Pegg has gone and when he's coming back. Seriously, he's just about the only thing worth watching here.
Pegg is Charlie Wolfe, a hitman hired to kill a bar owner's cheating wife. What he doesn't know, though, is that the bar owner's sister and her husband are already planning to kill the same person, and when Wolfe finds out he decides to go along with it and score a bit more cash in the process. It's a web of lies we've all seen before, so there isn't anything that pops. The crazy thing is that the wife (Alice Braga) survives the attempt and spends the rest of the movie slowly walking back into the main narrative. It's an Australian movie on a tight budget, which you can tell by the complete lack of extras anywhere to be seen. It's like they're living in a ghost town. This movie had a heap of underused potential, particularly in Pegg's character. If the focus had been on him and his exploits, this would've been a far better and far funnier movie. He's got that kind of presence. Even as a villain, he was way more charming and relatable than the film's heroes. That's poor writing, plain and simple. Not everyone can pull off a Fargo-esque crime comedy, and if you try it, you'd better give it your all. |