2012
95 minutes
rated R
by Scott Mendelson
Ben Wheatly's Kill List suffers from the believe that it is far more clever and original than it actually is. It earns points for not exactly beginning and ending in the same genre, but the journey is frankly not worth the destination. The film is technically a dime-a-dozen crime story about a hit man trying to do a job under trying circumstances. Where it goes in the third act I will not reveal (although don't look too closely at the poster), but the majority of the film is taken up by somewhat cliched characters and relatively unengaging drama Only the uncommonly gruesome violence, delivered in a clinical and brutal fashion, serves to distinguish the picture. Even the third-act turn, while somewhat organic and slightly clever, loses points for eventually ending in an almost identical fashion to another 'extreme' horror drama from last year.
