Customer Reviews

Kill Off [VHS]

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This film was a key element of the "Jim Thompson revival" of the late Eighties and Nineties, following the reissue of Thompson's novels and just preceding the great film version of The Grifters. Unfortuantely, most of the novel has vanished in the transition to the screeen. Thompson's great strengths were his ironic plots and pyrotechnic language: Greenwald's movie eliminates about half of the twelve intertwined plots that run through the book and contains very little dialogue. All the viewer is left with is a bleak and cynical tale of violence that smacks of daytime television.

The plot isn't the best, but I rented it mostly to watch a young Jorja Fox. Jorja Fox (listed as Jorjan Fox) plays Myra Pavlov, a barmaid at her father's nightclub. Myra is in an abusive relationship with both her father (who may or may not be molesting her) and her boyfriend (who gives her crack cocaine). But that's the SUB plot.

The main plot here is that Pete Pavlov (the father) decides to hire a stripper (Danny Lee) for his struggling nightclub. The stripper and the clean-up man (Ralph) are attracted to each other, which is not good news for his bed-ridden wife Luanne. The doc in the movie says that there's no medical explanation for the bedridden bit. While she grudging allows Ralph to sleep with other women, the fact that he falls in love sends Luanne off the deep end, and she starts spreading ugly rumors that have just enough basis in fact to stick. So when she winds up dead, it's only the begining of a circle of violence and hatred.

The movie is told, somewhat, in Myra's persepctive, and in the end, she is the only one left responsible for what was done. Definitly not a movie for a weak stomach or sensitivity to abuse. If all you're interested in is seeing a young Jorja Fox, it's fine.