The Killing

I preferred it to be the horror movie in a different way. The Killing is about a gang of thieves who are about to pull off a score. But what score? What it actually means and why they have to get it? The viewer receives the answer to this question in the form of a few jumbled conversations and commands by Johnny Clay. In preparation for the caper, a narrator goes around to each character, and it's obvious this film influenced the non- linear mode of storytelling. But that is one of the few flaws of the film. The narration seems a bit too excessive and it's hard for the viewer to get into the film and understand what is actually happening when the narrator just says what is going on instantly. Kubrick's used narration such as this in "Barry Lyndon" but that was much deeper and much more comic. This is a movie that serves as a forerunner to Pulp Fiction and any movie that messes with timelines and shows tons of perspectives on the same action. Fans of the show Boomtown will appreciate the narrative style of "The Killing". This rather nifty little exercise in what's now called "film noir" benefits from clever and brisk editing and very good performances, but it suffers terribly by corny, clichéd dialogue which mostly involves women in the story and unconvincing low-budget sets. This film should have been shot entirely on real locations, in real seedy apartments and horse tracks. Worst of all is a conclusion that makes no sense whatsoever according to me I felt there could be a better ending. How the Sterling Hayden character can be so smart and professional all the way through, then be so incredibly at the end really renders the whole story meaningless, unless this story is supposed to be about a self-destructive loser, but we get no indication of that from what precedes. It also has dated, "Dragnet" like narration that seems out of place. If you're attracted to old black and white heist movies, then you should find this one good, maybe even gripping, but the flaws I've mentioned really keep the film from ever becoming a class. I enjoyed the movie well and good it was not boring but it made be alert to understand how the story moves on.dealing with a bed bug infestation