Dreadfully Boring

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

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.

There are two scenarios here -1. If I went into this film blind of knowledge, I would've been very pleasantly surprised, and2. If I read the hype, I would've felt a bit deflated.The film itself is exceptionally well executed. The story though is a bit confusing and difficult to follow. The conclusion - inexplicable. There are no how's or why's. Just bang. The End. And the "violence" warnings are a bit over-stated. I did enjoy and would recommend. Though it is a head scratcher.

Neil Haskell, the lead, isn't a bad actor, but because he was in cockney drivel like 'football factory' and various other low budget British 'gangster' films, often also starring Danny Dyer-by-name, usually also directed by Nick Love, they always stick together don't they? Anyway, we are supposed to believe that a boring fat guy sulking because he has no job, is in fact, some sort of brutal hit-man, with a big house and a hot wife, presumably he purchased her on Amazon or something?Just violence and swearing for the sake of it, with clichés and cockney slang thrown in! The lead is supposedly greatly against paedophilia (who isn't?), but is happy to shout and swear in front of his own child, whilst thrown stuff around the house and abusing said hot wife that he purchased. Dire! The ending was dire!

'Kill List' is an excellent film in nearly every regard. The plot line follows ageing ex-military servicemen, PTSD afflicted, stone-cold Jay (Neil Maskell) and the laid-back, religiously-leaning Gal (Michael Smiley), who have since turned to the lucrative hit business as a source of big money. Their bloody three-hit contract tests their moral fiber, are these just more faceless heads to hunt for a fixed sum; will their moral flexibility come back to terrorise them? The Priest, concerns church corruption, reference to Vatican clergy child rape. - The Librarian, concerns child pornography and recorded obscenities. - The Client, concerns political corruption.The viewer is never allowed to take sides. We are held as spectators to the films' huge emphasis on morality. The bigger picture is, of course, that moral flexibility and taking justice into our own hands makes us easy to control, a parallel to the military of today gunning down faceless men that are branded, often wrongly, as villains.The push and pull between the characters is engrossing to watch. We are treated with an astounding cast, top class screenplay, and smooth, silky acting. This is all brought nicely together with witty, meaningful dialogue that adds huge scope and genuineness to every interaction and plot- point, nothing is spared here. 9.5/10