Killshot (2009)

Truly Dreadful Film

How sad is this?

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Killshot is about a couple (Thomas Jane and Diane Lane) who are in the process of getting divorced. However, they witness an attempted armed robbery by partners in crime (Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and subsequently hunted down by the pair in order to 'silence' them - permanently.What follows in an hour and a half of cat and mouse antics and the criminals use all their resources to track the couple down, in order to eliminate them. Not a bad premise, but the one thing I found was that I found myself rooting for the bad guys - not because I agreed with their motives, but because they were just so much more charismatic than the 'heroes' (think how Brad Pitt's and Juliet Lewis' psychotic performances outshone David Duchovney and what's-her-name's in Kalifornia and you're in the right area).Killshot isn't anything special, or anything that you haven't seen before. However, what makes it worth watching is the performance of the villains. Some people have commented how Joseph Gordon-Levitt doesn't pull off 'the hard man' act very well. Yes, he was a little manic, but, either way, I found he stole every scene from Thomas Jane and Diane Lane, but was - naturally - outdone in the psychopathic stakes by Mickey Rourke.There's definitely worst ways to spend an hour and a half.

Okay, maybe I'm just such a movie lover that I'm easy to please, but - I LIKED IT! Filmed predominantly in a wintry Canada, it's the story of an out-of-love couple who eyeball a professional hit man, and are then pursued by him and his maniacal cohort. Yes, it's been done before, and the ending was very predictable, but Director John Madden keeps the pace red-hot, and I enjoyed the characters so much that it finished the way I wanted it to. Here's how it goes down with me: movies are supposed to be entertaining, and this one was. The people should be real, and they were. Mickey Rourke's hit man was cold as ice; Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the most appallingly awful villain I've seen in a long time; and Diane Lane in fetching underwear gave my octogenarian heart the most exercise it's had in a long time. And the fact that I bought the DVD for $2 at my favourite second-hand store in no way influenced my rating!

Carmen Colson and her husband Wayne are placed in the Federal Witness Protection program after witnessing an extortion scheme go wrong. Thinking they are safe at last, they are targeted by an experienced intimidating hit man and a psychopathic young upstart killer. The ensuing struggle will test Carmen to the limit.....Always curious about this movie because of all the push backs, Killshot has to be one of the most irritating, pretentious movies I've seen in a long while.Rourke spends the movie pouting and giving rationale or his doing, Levitt is just too over the top in a way even David Lynch would cringe at, and Rosario Dawson is totally wasted.Lane and Jane are okay, but they are he most boring couple I've ever seen on celluloid.The film meanders from scene to scene to scene, and one cannot believe that a prolific director like Madden could make something so redundant.It tries to be offbeat, tries to be something a little out there, even mystical, but the film is a complete shambles from beginning to end.Highly avoidable.

Killshot had some issues before it was released in 2008. The studio that owned it went through a sale, it needed a lot of re-shoots, and a character was dropped completely from the film after a bad test screening. The film got a very limited release then went straight to DVD. This is one of the few times a straight to DVD film is actually decent. It was based on a book by Elmore Leonard.The film stars Mickey Rourke (Blackbird) as a hired mob assassin who makes a mistake and his hunted by his employer. He meets up with a psychopathic small time hood excellently played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Richie). They attempt to shake down a real estate agent but end up mistaking Wayne Colson played by Thomas Jane for the agent. Wayne ends up beating up Blackbird and Richie. Wayne's wife Carmen, played by Diane Lane, who works at the same agency sees the fight and sees Blackbird. It seems Blackbird has a thing about people seeing him work and he decides that Wayne and Carmen need to die.The rest of the film deals with Blackbird and Richie trying to kill the Colsons.I really wasn't expecting much but the plot kept me interested. Rourke was believable as a native American and Gordon-Levitt just chewed up scene after scene as his buddy in crime.Thomas Jane as Wayne was decent. He was a bad ass when he needed to be and he could do well in the tender moments with the wife.Diane Lane had her "A" game on. She shines in the last third of the movie especially during the final confrontation with Blackbird and his friend.If this had gotten better support from the studio and a real theatrical release I feel it would have done okay at the box office. Rent or buy this and see if it comes on TV.