Best movie of this year hands down!

A Masterpiece!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The version of the film I saw had an introduction by Ben Wheatley. He said he had no problems in understanding the film. Well as the director and co-writer I expect him to know what was happening!Wheatley cut his teeth in television comedies such as Ideal. His film work has been a contrast, sometimes featuring nihilistic violence. Ironically his experience of movies landed him the Doctor Who gig as he directed Peter Capaldi's debut story.Kill List is a three act film, with each act being tonally different. It starts out as domestic drama of a dysfunctional family. Jay (Neil Maskell) is angry at his wife for blowing £40k in the last eight months. Now he needs to get back with his pal Gal (Michael Smiley) to restart their jobs as hitmen where they have been handed three jobs by a sinister man under a contract signed in blood. There was a strange scene at a dinner party where Gal's new girlfriend Fiona carves some kind of sign behind a mirror. The second act is more like a thriller. Hit number one is a priest, who smiles as he is shot dead. Hit number two is a librarian, his death is more violent. Jay and Gal uncover that the librarian is involved in child porn. Yet the victim reveals something to Jay, that he recognises him. Is it as an angel of mercy or a demon? Jay bashes his body with a hammer and the victim says thank you until he dies. The death gets more gruesome as they go after people involved in the child porn ring, Jay's behaviour shows him to be unhinged.The third act turns all The Wicker Man. Jay and Gal's third hit is a politician. They stumble on some weird human sacrifice by some kind of devil worshiping cult in the countryside. The politician is part of it, as is Fiona and so is the sinister man who gave them the kill list. The cult members chase after Jay and Gal, yet some of them again welcomed their deaths.The ending is ambiguous. Was Jay being primed to be some kind of antiChrist or is he just an unreliable narrator who has gone mad? What was the deal with the bizarre knife fight with the hunchback who turned out to be Jay's wife and kid.The script had input from the rest of the cast and I did think it got muddied and confused somewhere.

Difficult one this. The acting is good and some of the dialogue too, but the direction is a bit flat and surely the script was not fully thought out. It is fine to leave an audience in the dark as long as we believe the writer knows what's going on but I think this cheats. I see that most people love the first three quarters and are confused/upset by the last section. I actually enjoyed the supernatural/sacrificial part but up until then had found it very difficult to get involved. I didn't like anybody, okay the kid was alright, but his parents seemed like the neighbours from hell with their loud swearing and fighting, their bonfires and garden jacuzzi. Never mind the most embarrassing dinner party since Abigail's. I was getting pretty angry despite the good performances, maybe because of them and then the violence began. A bit heavy and completely inappropriate for hired hit men, the excuse being that the baddies had done such terrible things. Hit men moralising or just finding excuses to air their psychotic tendencies. Not discussed. Not dealt with. Hey, lets just change the film into something else and nobody will notice. Perhaps.

I really loved Ben Wheatley Sightseers, it rates as one of the best black comedies of all time. And I love the fact that so many people don't get the fact it's a black comedy. But Killl List is not a Black Comedy and I wish it was because sadly it doesn't work on any level. It starts off with two Tarrentino style hit men killing bad people on a list for money. This is done with extreme violence and with such ease it makes you wonder if the police force even exists. We then come to the final act which sees our two heroes stumble across some sort of Wickerman cult ceremony in the grounds of an MPs estate? Without giving to much away what follows is extremely violent bloody and very unpleasant and if I'm honest made no sense whatsoever. A real shame because what had lead to this point had been quite enjoyable. Maybe one day someone out there can explain to me what the film was about. My advice watch Sightseers.

Movies the writers/Director has seen: Get Carter, Harry Brown, Pulp Fiction, Dog Soldiers, The Wicker Man or take your pick of any Mike Leigh film. Kill List tries to have its cake and eat it by being all things to all men, and as a result, all it ends up being is a hotch-potch.This film is so derivative it's almost laughable. After about 25 minutes of "kitchen sink" drama, where the director confuses people shouting at each other for meaningful scenes, this becomes a tale of two hit men paid a lot of money to kill people on a list. The contractor insists on a contract signed in blood, so you already know where this is going straight away.Neil Maskell as Jay has all the charisma and watchablility of a disused gasworks on a wet afternoon. Michael Smiley as his partner Gal is much better, however. In fact he's the only reason I added a couple of stars. He made this travesty into something you could stick with until the end.Realism? Don't make me laugh. Our hit men leave a trail of evidence a mile wide and yet no police feature in this movie at all. In real life they would have been brought in 24 hours after the first murder. It was actually quite funny to watch them put rubber gloves on AFTER they have entered the murder scene. I understand Jay is having mental problems, but he's supposed to be a professional killer. His claw-hammering of one of the people on the list (after a spot of torture - hey that's okay - the victim's a paedophile) leaves blood on him that would be easily traceable even after he's washed it off. But hey, this is "realistic", right? The victims all thank the killers for murdering them. This is supposed to set up the viewer for a sinister surprise. Nope, even when we get to the Satanist/Wiccan/Pagan/take your pick of cults MP it's more silly than convincing.This film was praised by British film critics, largely because we don't have a film industry these days and for anything to get made in this climate of $200 million blockbusters is something of a triumph. But don't be fooled by the pseuds - this is a bad movie, appallingly plotted and with a terrible script. The actors mumble so much I had to turn my t.v. right up to even catch the dialogue! This is the first film I've seen from this director, and I think he may have the talent to do much better with a decent script. He needs to go back to editing school first, though.