sol-
Tortured by vivid memories of his younger brother's death, a morose professional hit-man teams up with a psychotic thug who reminds him of his brother in this crime thriller directed by John Madden in quite a change of pace for the 'Shakespeare in Love' and 'Proof' director. The film is inspired by a novel from Elmore Leonard (of 'Get Shorty' and'Jackie Brown' fame) and as one would expect from Leonard, the plot quickly thickens as the hit-man and thug find themselves needing to track down a couple experiencing marital problems since they saw their faces during a job gone wrong. Significantly trimmed for final release with a key character (played by Johnny Knoxville) completed deleted in the final cut, 'Killshot' is an at times difficult film to follow. The brisk one and a half hour runtime also leaves limited room for character development and if there is one thing to hold against the film, it is the difficulty of working out who to root for: the targeted innocent couple on the run or the flawed yet principled hit-man played by Mickey Rourke. Whatever the case, the performances (especially from Rourke) are solid enough to carry the film where the story begins to sag and the action scenes are well done, with photography by the Oscar nominated Caleb Deschanel. While he is occasionally over-the-top, it is also worth seeing the usually mild-mannered Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing it tough, explosive and dangerous like never before and Hal Holbrook has a great brief turn early on, managing to act dignified even when disrobed.
zardoz-13
Elmore Leonard ranks as one of my favorite authors of all time, and I enjoyed the quirky way that he spun out a yarn. He created interesting characters that made you sit up and pay attention to their shtick. In fact, if you know anything about Leonard, you can spot his stock characters in his work and know where they fit in to the puzzle of his westerns and crime thrillers. Mind you, I thought Leonard's novel "Killshot" was a page-turner, but neither Oscar-nominated director John Madden of "Shakespeare in Love" nor Oscar-nominated scenarist Hossein Amini of "The Wings of a Dove" could distill the essence of Leonard's novel and his eccentric storytelling technique. Actually, I've read "Killshot" the novel, and I thought it was one of his best. Nevertheless, Madden and Amini have a problem capturing Leonard's spirit with the same success that the filmmakers who made "Jackie Brown," "Out of Sight," "Mr. Majestyk," "Hombre," "Joe Kidd," the original "3:10 to Yuma," and "Get Shorty" managed. Madden and Amini do their level best to suppress that oddness that distinguished Leonard's work. Occasionally, Leonard's trademark dialogue and spontaneous action emerge in all their glory, and the redeeming quality of "Killshot" is that it occurs more often than not despite the best efforts of Madden and Amini to suppress it. Meantime, the "Killshot" cast is good, but Diane Lane, who is four years older that Jane, struck me as a little long in the tooth being play his estranged wife. These two thespians didn't radiate much chemistry, but then they were kind of out of sorts with each other.During its best moments, "Killshot" is both spontaneous and improvised. The plot concerns a half-breed Native American contract killer who makes the fatal error of killing an innocent bystander after he has executed the man that he was paid to kill. Armand 'Blackbird' Degas (Mickey Rourke of "The Expendables") gets into trouble because he didn't kill the girl in the same place where he shot a mafia chieftain (Hal Holbrook) to death. Throughout the action, we hear Degas talk about loose ends. Leaving a witness to a crime who saw you commit it is something that Degas has taught himself never to do. The Toronto syndicate dispatches killers to liquidate Degas because he liked the girl. Degas decides to lay low, and he encounters an youth, egotistical drifter, Richie Nix (Joseph Levitt-Gordon of "The Look-Out"), who reminds him of his ill-fated younger brother who died tragically in a hospital shootout. Nix is a real loony-tune. He decides to blackmail a real estate agent by sabotaging his properties. He is looking to extort $10,000. In fact, he calls Nelson Davies (Don McManus of "The Shawshank Redemption")up and threatens him. Eventually, Degas and Nix visit the realtor's main office. Little do they know that Davies is not in his office when they show up to intimidate him. Instead, one of Davies' real estate brokers, Carmen Colson (Diane Lane of "Streets of Fire"), is in her office at lunch and his estranged husband, iron-worker Wayne Colson (Thomas Jane of "The Punisher"), is cavorting around in Davies' office. Nix makes the mistake of confusing Colson for Davies. When he makes more threats against Colson, the iron-worker takes them outside and attacks them.When the FBI learn about this incident, they decide that the best thing that the agency can do is put the Colsons in the Witness Protection Program. They move them away to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where they assume different names. The Feds want to arrest Degas. Nix and Degas track down Carmen's mother and Nix persuades her to give him their new number. Degas and Nix has other things to worry about, and before long the FBI decides that the Colsons are in the clear. The Agency sifted through the burned-up wreckage of a Cadillac that Degas planted his brother in so as to throw the Feds off his scent. Nix and Degas break into Carmen's house out in the woods and hold her hostage. Again, they aren't expecting Wayne to show up when he does. It seems that this predicament that has shifted their lives has served to bring them together in a way that they haven't been together since before they split up. Earlier, when Degas confronted Carmen at her house, she had a shotgun aimed at him that she didn't use. In the final scene, Degas turns to find that she has a .38 snub nose revolver in her fists aimed at him. Degas remembers the gun because it belonged to Nix and he had emptied all the chambers. Nix had threatened Carmen with violence and he had rubbed a cartridge on her face that got lost on the floor. Imagine Degas' surprise when Carmen plugs him with that same bullet."Killshot" is a movie about circumstances. Meaning, there is no real, premeditated plot to speak aside from the chance encounters that the characters have for each other. Everything in "Killshot" occurs as a fluke, from Richie meeting Degas to Wayne monkeying around in Davies' real estate office and clashing with harebrained Richie. Joseph Levitt-Gordon does a superb job with Richie, though he comes dangerously close to hamming it up. Mickey Rourke is terrific as the doomed Degas. Barely released in theaters by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, "Killshot" deserved a better fate than it got.
adrianogt4
I've watched "The wrestler" with Rourke and then I decided to watch this film, i saw that it was rated 6.2 so I didn't expect so much. This movie started with a good movie but going ahead it became boring and I saw that it is a little bit unreal. Two things are strange.1. The couple is under FBI's protection, FBI gave them new names, new town, new house, and so on,well i am not an expert of FBI's program but how can those killers find the couple so quickly? I mean, they asked the mother but i suppose that she shouldn't know where they are, even a kid could find them in this way. If Carmen gave her the information about her new life, the movie should say that.2. When the mafia guys burn Armand's brother's corp, FBI officer says that they studied the DNA and they discovered that it is Blackbird's one. Then they found another body but how did they know that that body is the Nix's one? Officer said that now all is OK, and they can return to their normal lives. This is a huge question mark in my opinion.For the rest of the movie i think that it is something more than a B movie but surely not a masterpiece, probably a movie that could be sold next to Seagal's ones.
