Killers (1996)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Mike Mendez

Writer:

Dave Larsen (writer)

Genre:

Thriller | Horror

Plot:

Odessa and Kyle James were just your average American boys until the night they went upstairs and killed their parents in cold blood... and smiled.

Cast

Dave Larsen	...	Odessa James
David Gunn	...	Kyle James
Damian Hoffer	...	Rea Ryan
Nanette Bianchi	...	Jami Ryan
Renee Cohen	...	Jenny Ryan
Wendy Latta	...	Lorna
Ivan Vertigo	...	Miller
Chad Sommers	...	Bob
Ellis Moore	...	Stanley
Carol Baker	...	Beverly
Timothy Patrick Quill	...	Mr. James
Susan Laprelle	...	Mrs. James
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Burke Morgan	...	Stephen Ryan (as C.T. Miller)

Also Known As:

Real Killers (USA)

Runtime:

Germany:82 min | Germany:97 min (25 fps) (director's cut) | Netherlands:90 min

Country:

USA

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Germany:18

Movie Connections:

References C'era una volta il West (1968)

Less fancy talk & pretension…more killing, please.

Okay, I'm pretty sure that during the production of "Killers" director Mike Mendez and writer Dave Larsen heavily dreamed of becoming the next David Lynch... or maybe even the next Quentin Tarantino, but in order to achieve this, they should have put a little more thought in their extremely weird and dumb screenplay. Just what the hell is this supposed to be? A hard-boiled thriller, a demented black comedy or perhaps another social mockamentary pointing out to us how easily we glorify violence. The title priority refers to the notorious James brothers; two handsome but relentless maniacs sentenced to death for murdering their parents. They now escaped from their maximum-security cells and travel through California, until they take a middle-class family hostage in the quiet little town of Beatty. However, the Ryan family members aren't as defenseless as they seem. The women, Mrs. Ryan and her two teenage daughters, followed the James brothers' trial on television and developed a huge crush on their perpetrators. But that's still the least of their concerns, as the family also hides far crazier secrets. The sudden plot twist near the middle is extremely retarded, but at least it woke me up again! I already started dozing off since it looked like another pseudo-intellectual portrait about serial killers that seem to have all the knowledge in the world and yet use it to commit crimes. The dialogs are fluent, but they handle about everything you already heard before (in "Natural Born Killers") and some of the unexpected twists are really too crazy for words. There's plenty of violence but I still somehow expected "Killers" to be more grim and sadistic. It's mainly gunfire action and shouting, so I anticipated a little more physical violence, reminiscent to – for example – the torture scenes in "Reservoir Dogs". The plot holes and improbabilities are too numerous to mention, but the acting performances are decent and there's even some on screen sleaze to admire as well. "Killers" is not a total waste of time, but it's severely lacking personality and power to become a cult favorite.