(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“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.”
There’s one fundamental problem in adapting any truly hard-boiled material to the big screen: in reality, folks don’t typically behave in such ways.
Now, this is not a complaint. I grew up reading a great many paperbacks from the great writer Mickey Spillane; but – as much as I genuinely loved the characters and world he created – I never quite accepted them as anything other than fictional. While some of the players might’ve been based on living and breathing souls, it became apparent which each successive installment that these were intended to be movers and shakers who were larger than life. In fact, I’ve even enjoyed a number of True Crime documentaries on streaming platforms that share that in common with old school hard-boiled thrillers: they ramp up the participants in ways that loosely mimic the conventions of such literature. Disagree if you will, but it makes for more compelling accounts. It sells, and audience shares prove as much.
Still, it should go without saying that folks like you and me? Why, we don’t speak and act like the men and women plucked from such environments. We don’t go out into the world each day packing heat, threatening to smack some silly goose within an inch of his (or her) life. We’re not racing the ticking clock, trying to solve a crime that never should’ve taken place – and wouldn’t have, if you’d been on the stick – and don’t let the goons or the flatfoots tell you otherwise. You get me? Good. ‘Cause I ain’t gonna repeat myself.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“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.”
There’s one fundamental problem in adapting any truly hard-boiled material to the big screen: in reality, folks don’t typically behave in such ways.
Now, this is not a complaint. I grew up reading a great many paperbacks from the great writer Mickey Spillane; but – as much as I genuinely loved the characters and world he created – I never quite accepted them as anything other than fictional. While some of the players might’ve been based on living and breathing souls, it became apparent which each successive installment that these were intended to be movers and shakers who were larger than life. In fact, I’ve even enjoyed a number of True Crime documentaries on streaming platforms that share that in common with old school hard-boiled thrillers: they ramp up the participants in ways that loosely mimic the conventions of such literature. Disagree if you will, but it makes for more compelling accounts. It sells, and audience shares prove as much.
Still, it should go without saying that folks like you and me? Why, we don’t speak and act like the men and women plucked from such environments. We don’t go out into the world each day packing heat, threatening to smack some silly goose within an inch of his (or her) life. We’re not racing the ticking clock, trying to solve a crime that never should’ve taken place – and wouldn’t have, if you’d been on the stick – and don’t let the goons or the flatfoots tell you otherwise. You get me? Good. ‘Cause I ain’t gonna repeat myself.
That’s the core problem with convincing audiences to embrace the initial lunacy behind Killers (1996), an impressive debut from writer/director Mike Mendez. As hard as he and co-screenwriter Dave Larsen (who also stars) try to push this thing into the light, there’s very, very, very little here that feels as real as the somewhat true inspiration behind it … which I would heartily assume to be the rather salacious lives of Lyle and Erik Menendez who shot to fame by murdering their wealthy parents and showcasing the downside to being rich and famous in the resulting two criminal trials. Clearly, Mendez is aiming to satirize those events as well as the public fascination and media frenzy that followed in the wake and – some might say – continues to this day. (You can all thank that recent Netflix miniseries for kicking that sleeping giant, as they say.)
Enter the nuclear family: the Ryans – father Charles (played by Burke Morgan), mother Rea (Damian Hoffer), and daughters Jami (Nanette Bianchi) and Jenny (Renee Cohen) – spend the evening holed up on a stormy night in the sleep small burg of Beatty, California. Listening to the news, it would seem that the nefarious James Brothers – Odessa (Dave Larsen) and Kyle (David Gunn) – have broken out of the federal penitentiary and disappeared into the landscape. One needn’t be a rocket scientist – nor a movie screenwriter – to predict that all of these folks are going to intersect; and it’ll probably be the meek li’l Ryans who take the brunt of the abuse in the meet-up. But that is and isn’t what happens, mostly because this is all satire, and that suggests that one’s expectations would be best checked at the door.
To their credit, Mendez and Larsen to an affable job in keeping the surprises coming. Most pictures would be happy with only a single big reveal or seminal twist – M. Night Shyamalan be damned – but here Mendez and Larsen keep the ball rolling. Though the James are pretty much what audiences expect especially given the major media profile that emerged from their bloody campaign to become orphans, it’s the Ryans that manage to keep viewers guessing about what’s up, how did that happen, and where in the Holy Hell are we now. It has layers, yes, but – in the end – let’s just say that very little of it will make perfect sense.
Enter the nuclear family: the Ryans – father Charles (played by Burke Morgan), mother Rea (Damian Hoffer), and daughters Jami (Nanette Bianchi) and Jenny (Renee Cohen) – spend the evening holed up on a stormy night in the sleep small burg of Beatty, California. Listening to the news, it would seem that the nefarious James Brothers – Odessa (Dave Larsen) and Kyle (David Gunn) – have broken out of the federal penitentiary and disappeared into the landscape. One needn’t be a rocket scientist – nor a movie screenwriter – to predict that all of these folks are going to intersect; and it’ll probably be the meek li’l Ryans who take the brunt of the abuse in the meet-up. But that is and isn’t what happens, mostly because this is all satire, and that suggests that one’s expectations would be best checked at the door.
To their credit, Mendez and Larsen to an affable job in keeping the surprises coming. Most pictures would be happy with only a single big reveal or seminal twist – M. Night Shyamalan be damned – but here Mendez and Larsen keep the ball rolling. Though the James are pretty much what audiences expect especially given the major media profile that emerged from their bloody campaign to become orphans, it’s the Ryans that manage to keep viewers guessing about what’s up, how did that happen, and where in the Holy Hell are we now. It has layers, yes, but – in the end – let’s just say that very little of it will make perfect sense.
It isn’t easy to blend genres, especially when one’s melding somewhat true events with biting social commentary. Personally, I think 1995’s To Die For (from Buck Henry and director Gus Van Sant) remains one of the screen’s best – another good one a bit more contemporary was 2017’s I, Tonya from director Craig Gillespie – and I can’t help but wonder if Die might’ve been a little on Mendez and Larsen’s mind when they attempted Killers. Thematically, it’s mildly similar, but it goes way, way, way off the rails in the second half once not only are the Ryans revealed to be about as far from the average American family as possible but also they’ve harboring a gimp(ish) son living out his days in some magical subterranean lair. (I knew California real estate was occasionally groundbreaking, but come on, guys!) Once it becomes obvious that the satire has veered from plausible to the fantastical, Killers become harder to swallow: had some of this mirth making been obvious sooner, then the flick might not have felt so much like two pictures welded into one.
But on that front, it’s important to underscore that despite showcasing two cold-blooded killers in lead roles I believe audiences were ultimately meant to root for the bad guys. The story is structured in such a way that the James’ appetite for violence is abhorrent, then the Ryans’ predilection for viciousness is worse, and only then do watchers realize that the middleclass family is the true nightmare that needs to end. That can only happen when ferociousness is met with greater ferociousness, positing that – despite being the worst society has to offer – perhaps the James are in the right place at the right time to do society a favor. Thematically, that works … and yet it’s all intruded upon by some horrific weirdness that might’ve been better reserved for a different movie.
As a consequence, a great deal of Killers feels more like an experiment than it does a real A+B+C=D motion picture.
Graphically, it’s clearly a product of its era, with images composed of an almost rock video style intensity, punctuated by feathery smoke and odd shadows the way so many auteurs brought MTV to life for a good decade or two. Similarly, the talent feels like they were told to overact consistently, bringing to the screen a plethora of short sequences that make a mockery out of these individuals and their respective circumstances. Morgan – as the Ryan family patriarch – delivers some absolutely cringeworthy bits before we know his deep, dark secret; and, fortunately, this paves the way for his equally hyped-up scene chewing in the second half. Larsen and Gunn – as the dastardly killers – fill out their screen time with long(ish) speeches the likes of which are probably never heard but meant to elevate the brothers to the appropriate mythic status that the news media afforded them. While interesting to listen to, it still feels far too often like it was overdone to Biblical proportions.
But on that front, it’s important to underscore that despite showcasing two cold-blooded killers in lead roles I believe audiences were ultimately meant to root for the bad guys. The story is structured in such a way that the James’ appetite for violence is abhorrent, then the Ryans’ predilection for viciousness is worse, and only then do watchers realize that the middleclass family is the true nightmare that needs to end. That can only happen when ferociousness is met with greater ferociousness, positing that – despite being the worst society has to offer – perhaps the James are in the right place at the right time to do society a favor. Thematically, that works … and yet it’s all intruded upon by some horrific weirdness that might’ve been better reserved for a different movie.
As a consequence, a great deal of Killers feels more like an experiment than it does a real A+B+C=D motion picture.
Graphically, it’s clearly a product of its era, with images composed of an almost rock video style intensity, punctuated by feathery smoke and odd shadows the way so many auteurs brought MTV to life for a good decade or two. Similarly, the talent feels like they were told to overact consistently, bringing to the screen a plethora of short sequences that make a mockery out of these individuals and their respective circumstances. Morgan – as the Ryan family patriarch – delivers some absolutely cringeworthy bits before we know his deep, dark secret; and, fortunately, this paves the way for his equally hyped-up scene chewing in the second half. Larsen and Gunn – as the dastardly killers – fill out their screen time with long(ish) speeches the likes of which are probably never heard but meant to elevate the brothers to the appropriate mythic status that the news media afforded them. While interesting to listen to, it still feels far too often like it was overdone to Biblical proportions.
Make no mistake when I say that Killers isn’t a misfire, or – if it is – then it might be one of the most gloriously, meticulously designed, and culturally depraved misfires that warrants (at least) a single viewing and a respectably bright career for Mendez. Though this one likely has a cult following somewhere, I still found value in the good work assembled by all in spite of how quickly it ran off the rails in the second half. Killers might not have stuck its landing – as they say – or even – ahem – shot straight … but it’s indeed one helluva try.
Killers (1996) was produced by Moshe Bibiyan, Simon Bibiyan, Eduardo Cisneros, Joseph Jones-Marino, Dave Larsen, S.E. Larsen, and Kumiko Yoshi. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Synapse Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m not trained video expert, I found the provided sights-and-sounds to be (mostly) solid: there are several sequences shot almost entirely in dark surroundings, and I’ll admit a few of them were a bit hard to see all of the details. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? The disc boasts an audio commentary hosted by Mendez and author/horror journalist Michael Gingold, and (sigh) it’s mostly good. My issue with it is that the details in some spots come fast-and-loose while in others it’s slim pickings. A bit chatty in spots, too. Not bad but could’ve been more interesting. There’s also an alternate ending (thank God that was removed) and some other tidbits.
Recommended, but …
Killers (1996) is not going to be for everyone; and – come to think of it – I’m not exactly sure what audiences it might play to substantially. While it’s all satire, it’s an uneven assembly of Drama, Horror, Thriller, and Comedy, making it an uneven whole at best. Now, folks who dig that kinda vibe – something that’s mildly experimental and maybe even smacks of being a bit free-form – will likely appreciate a good deal of the action; and, yet, it’s still a bit hard to swallow when things take a turn for the – ahem – existentially weird and not quite wholly possible. (Don’t worry: it’ll make sense to those who’ve seen it or to those in the act of discovering it.) The closest association I can draw to it is that it largely feels like something David Lynch might’ve tried to do – not a bad callback – but methinks he likely would’ve dropped more symbolic images and less wacky action shoot ‘em ups. At some point, reality intrudes – whether we like it or not – and so much of it just doesn’t work except for being entirely surreal.
Frankly, it's a project that might've been better if it was all meant to be taken seriously.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Synapse Films provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Killers (1996) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Killers (1996) was produced by Moshe Bibiyan, Simon Bibiyan, Eduardo Cisneros, Joseph Jones-Marino, Dave Larsen, S.E. Larsen, and Kumiko Yoshi. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Synapse Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m not trained video expert, I found the provided sights-and-sounds to be (mostly) solid: there are several sequences shot almost entirely in dark surroundings, and I’ll admit a few of them were a bit hard to see all of the details. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? The disc boasts an audio commentary hosted by Mendez and author/horror journalist Michael Gingold, and (sigh) it’s mostly good. My issue with it is that the details in some spots come fast-and-loose while in others it’s slim pickings. A bit chatty in spots, too. Not bad but could’ve been more interesting. There’s also an alternate ending (thank God that was removed) and some other tidbits.
Recommended, but …
Killers (1996) is not going to be for everyone; and – come to think of it – I’m not exactly sure what audiences it might play to substantially. While it’s all satire, it’s an uneven assembly of Drama, Horror, Thriller, and Comedy, making it an uneven whole at best. Now, folks who dig that kinda vibe – something that’s mildly experimental and maybe even smacks of being a bit free-form – will likely appreciate a good deal of the action; and, yet, it’s still a bit hard to swallow when things take a turn for the – ahem – existentially weird and not quite wholly possible. (Don’t worry: it’ll make sense to those who’ve seen it or to those in the act of discovering it.) The closest association I can draw to it is that it largely feels like something David Lynch might’ve tried to do – not a bad callback – but methinks he likely would’ve dropped more symbolic images and less wacky action shoot ‘em ups. At some point, reality intrudes – whether we like it or not – and so much of it just doesn’t work except for being entirely surreal.
Frankly, it's a project that might've been better if it was all meant to be taken seriously.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Synapse Films provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Killers (1996) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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