Customer Reviews

You Kill Me

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"You Kill Me" is a great "little" movie about a Polish hit-man from a snow plowing family in Buffalo, NY. Played by Ben Kingsley, the title character is a drunk that has to go to rehab or be kicked out of the family. (most likely,killed). He moves to San Fran and joins AA. Gets a job at a funeral home and meets the girl of his dreams. If you like quirky independent films that are more story than showy, this movie is for you. Great performance by Luke Wilson as well. Much funnier than the title suggests, and one to savor with the rest of your collection.

Tea Leoni and Ben Kingsly are the perfect complement to each other in this brutally honest spoof of AA. Having been to a few meetings myself, I can speak from experience that the 12 step program can be cut to one easy step -- shut-up and quit, snivelers! Ben is completely believable as a contract killer too drunk to pull the trigger. And Tea shines as her normal, very funny and smart self. Luke Wilson wanders around aimlessly like he was added at the last minute for a name credit. What a relief to watch a movie that doesn't start slow and end with a disappointment. These two trade barbs with the precision of Irish Clog Dancers. Not only will you find yourself laughing out loud, you will also find yourself shedding a tear of happiness toward the end. If you don't find this flick LOL funny then you should trade in your blue jeans for and white collar and sulk into a seminary until you find your sense of humor. Keep it up Tea, cheers to you and Ben!!!

It's very tough to find a great actor, and tougher to find a great script. This movie meets both.

An alcoholic gangster assassin named Frank (Kingsley) is encouraged to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings because he can't do his job well due to his drinking problem. One night his cohorts find him sleeping while at 'work'. At one of the AA meetings he tells people what he does for a living. When asked if he isn't afraid of being caught, he finds comfort in the anonymity of his new found circle of friends.

There is a lot of violence, but with lively Bohemian music in the background, the movie never loses its comedic touch.

This story is dark humor at its best.

I'm surprised that this film attracted such venom from one reviewer on this site, since "You Kill Me" does for 12 step recovery what Al Franken did for the ACoA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) movement back in the early '90s with his dead on satire, "Stuart Saves His Family." Of course, the notion that an AA "home group" would passively endorse a hit-man's amorality in the name of unconditional acceptance is absurd, but the medium is satire, which by definition involves exaggeration. What makes that aspect of the story work so well is it's affectionate take on AA, while poking fun at some aspects of the group process.

It should never be lost that what AA, NA (Narcotics Anonymous), and other 12-step fellowships have and continue to accomplish is nothing short of miraculous, since addiction was considered untreatable until AA arrived on the scene in 1935. And I would imagine that no one would find this film more hilarious than 12-steppers, who are hardly a grim lot. At meetings, tears and courageous emotional sharing of experience, strength, and hope are well mixed with the frequent laughter of identification with the problem of addiction, as well as empathy for this hero's journey.

I loved this film. The performances are low key and whacked (Tea Leoni has carved out a niche for such work.......see her in David O. Russell's "Flirting with Disaster"), and Kingsley does a send-up on his "Sexy Beast" sociopath role that's reminiscent of Brando's "Godfather" parody in "The Freshman."

So rent or buy this film, and enjoy!

This is one of the funniest films I have seen in years. While it is dark humor at its darkest, there is a moral here, which is when you let the people in your life down you pay for it as much as they do. It's the contrast between the content of the film, of the dysfunctional mob family and the underlying message of hope that makes this movie work. Of course, the perfectly deadpan and always on target performances of the two leads take what could have been a painfully bad film in lesser hands and elevate it to comic genius. Highly recommnded.

There is no movie starring Ben Kingsley that is not worth watching. `You Kill Me' is the story of Frank (Kingsley), a Polish hit man in Buffalo, New York, whose drinking is interfering with his job. When he botches the important job of killing an Irish rival mob leader (played by Dennis Farina), Frank's family, Polish mobsters who are being squeezed out of the snowplowing racket,give him an ultimatum: Get sober or get out.

Frank is sent inexplicably to San Fransisco, to dry out and get back on track. While there, he joins Alcoholics Anonymous, works as a mortician's assistant, befriends a tollbooth worker (played by Luke Wilson), and falls in love with a woman (Tea Leoni) so used to dating men who eventually tell her that they are gay and leave her, that she is willing to put up with anything to make it work with Frank.

Frank yearns for sobriety so he can become the hit man he once was, before beer and vodka made him sloppy. He keeps meticulous records of the people he has wronged, not by killing them, but by killing them incorrectly. To make amends, he mails the victim's families' anonymous gift cards of apology. As Leoni puts it " So, getting stabbed in the eye [instead of the throat] gets your family fifty dollars off their next purchase of electronics?" And Frank nods. "It's a start."

`You Kill Me' is a dark romantic comedy with some terrific off-beat characters, including a real estate salesman played by Bill Pullman who gets Frank an apartment in San Francisco, and a jar of cashew butter as a welcoming gift. "Why not just use peanuts?' Frank asks. Which is exactly what a Buffalonian would ask.

`You Kill Me', directed by John Dahl seems conceptualized around the question: "What could happen if a hit man joined AA?' While it works mostly because of Kingsley's performance, writer David Chase of `The Sopranos' has already asked and answered this question. What followed was a long line of awful movies including`Analyze This', which even Robert DiNiro couldn't save. But how many completely original ideas actually exist?

Because I live in Buffalo I was preoccupied with the authenticity of `You Kill Me'. The best jab at the Queen City is the first time Frank Speaks at an AA meeting. "Hello, I'm Frank and I'm an alcoholic. It took me a long time to realize this because I am from Buffalo."
`You Kill Me' was not filmed in Buffalo except for some stock footage. It was filmed in Manitoba. But the interior sets were believable, as Frank lives in a big, old, `Buffalo' house, with a gas stove, and tile and wood kitchen, and thee-diamond front door leading to a concrete stoop with black iron railings. Frank does a great trick with a bottle of vodka to keep him motivated to shovel (I am definitely going to try it in a few months-maybe weeks). Frank wakes up to an announcement on his retro radio of an upcoming event at the Polish Civic Center. This would be even better if Buffalo had a Polish Civic Center. And Dennis Farina makes a whispered reference to the powerful labor unions at Bethlehem Steel. But the movie takes place in present time.

Frank tells a very original and thoughtful anecdote of Buffalo history, about the assassination of President McKinley. But if Dahl wanted to keep up us completely swept up in the image of Buffalo as a Polish-centric, snowplow-warring, beer-drinking, racially divided city, that made Frank what he is, he should have known that, sober or drunk, Frank would never roll a gutter ball at a bowling alley in San Francisco.

This is a black comedy about a drunk hit man who lay drunk when he was supposed to kill a certain person. He meets a woman who is determined to help him with his alchohol problem. His bungling is funny. His rehabilitation raises a problem: will he be rehabilitated to be the accomplished murderer he was previously or will he give up his profession?

I was surprised to see Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni starring in this dark comedy; and I loved it. As a person in recovery, it portrayed realistically the trials of staying sober, albeit in a rather unconventional way. Great movie and I loved the music too.

This was an interesting film, start-to-finish, with a little action, romance, humor, melodrama, suspense....a good combination of a lot of things. The acting is good, led by the always-fascinating Ben Kingsley who plays the lead role.

There was a good contrast in the areas: the snowy cold of winter in Buffalo and the dry and brighter look of San Francisco. I like the supporting actors in here, beginning with Dennis Farina as "O'Leary." He's another actor that always gets your attention. The movie also gives a nice plug for Alcoholics Anonymous. I kept waiting the smart remarks about it, but they surprised me on that one. Respect was given for the no-nonsense approach given by that famous organization which has helped a lot of people.

Even though it's "dark humor," the message said in here that being an alcoholic is a more serious problem than being a hit-man is a little far out. Tea Leoni's character was stupid and too profane. Also, being from the Buffalo area, I didn't care for the cheap shots on the city, either. People here are tired of that.

Overall, this is a strange film,and not surprising it wasn't a hit with the public. But, if you like something different, something a little "dark" yet romantic, you'd probably like this film. It's quirky, which seems to be the kinds of films Kingsley has been doing the past decade ("Sexy Beast," "House Of Sand And Fog," etc.)

I love this movie! Having said that, in order to get the subtleness of the subject matter, folks will need to be more than familiar with the issues of addiction and the process of recovery. For someone in recovery and whom has worked on themselves, the movie is a kick and you can bet more bizarre information has come around in 5th step discussions than what was revealed on screen. There will be questions that the content of the movie will raise, but here is where the suggested practice of "not taking onself too seriously" will fit. This is entertainment - great movie making in fact - but in this writer's opinion, not for general movie watching public. Enjoy, its killer!!!!!