Genres

Visitors Review

fluffyrona 2012-05-25 19:21:54

Edgy, thrilling and very very good!

One of the most creepy, scaring and ultimately thrilling films I'veseen for a long time, New Town Killers benefits from some amazingperformances, not least by Dougray Scott, who was never this menacingin Desperate Housewives (;-) LOL).His presence on screen is brooding and claustrophobic, a real tour deforce as a troubled soul with some very strange habits and preferences- and the rest of the cast more than stands up to be counted alongsidehim.Jobson's edgy, jumpy camera style simply adds to the tension, and bythe end of the film, if you don't have clammy hands and find yourselfshort of breath as a result of feeling you are IN the movie, then Ichallenge you to check for a pulse. Really really good.

tyler-and-jack 2012-05-25 03:47:58

It's lethal playing hide and seekie . . . in the labyrinthine streets of Auld Reekie.

Writer-director Richard Jobson, known to music fans (especiallyScottish music fans) as the ex-front man of The Skids, has been doingpretty well for himself since his move into the movie business. Hisdirectorial debut, the BAFTA- winning 16 Years Of Alcohol, gave him agood start but New Town Killers seems to have given him a decentstanding directly in the midst of critical success AND audienceacceptability. It may not have exactly set the box office alight butthere's a lot here for audiences to enjoy and it's certainly a decentlittle movie ripe for discovery in the home entertainment market.The story has a bit more to it than what I will describe here but,essentially, is the tale of one young lad named Sean (James AnthonyPearson) who has to avoid being caught by Alistair (Dougray Scott) andJamie (Alastair Mackenzie) for a whole night in order to win £12,000.That's all you need to know and, as others have pointed out, it ISbasically a riff on The Most Dangerous Game set in Edinburgh.It's funny how Jobson chooses to actually shoot the city of Edinburgh(my home and a favoured site to visit by many around the world), oftenleaving out many of the more recognisable sights in favour of ananonymity and confusing blur of vaguely-hinted at backgrounds while wewatch Sean keep running ahead of his pursuers. Yet, there are also manymoments involving places it would be impossible to hide and I have toadmit that this added to the pleasure of watching the movie, purely formy own sense of pride.After a stylish intro sequence things settle in to the rather moremundane style we often see in British cinema but, it must also be said,there are a few moments that genuinely shine and a lot of the sceneshave a polish while still retaining an underlay of grit so it's a goodbalancing act on display.The script is okay and the performances varied (the leads areconsistently good but the supporting cast is hit and miss) but youreally can't watch this movie without being blown away by DougrayScott; not only does he get the majority of the best lines but hedelivers them so brilliantly that he really is the focal point of everyscene he's in. One monologue, in particular, stands out for me as oneof the best and most jaw-dropping in modern cinema. It really is THATgood.I hope this movie does find an audience as it deserves to be enjoyed bya lot more people than the ratings/figures here on IMDb would suggest.It's far from perfect but has many good, individual parts that make itwell worth a watch, especially if you're a fan of British cinema.See this if you like: The Most Dangerous Game, Night Of The RunningMan, District 13.

basilisksamuk 2012-05-25 19:44:59

British Noir is Not an Oxymoron

The Encyclopaedia of Film Noir reckons that films have to be Americanto qualify as film noir. As a generalisation I can accept this but noras a universal truth. New Town Kill is British (Scottish if you like)and it is clearly a film noir or, at least, a neo-noir.I'm honestly deeply impressed with this British film, a phrase you willseldom hear me utter. Most Brit films are an embarrassment to me, beingusually limp, unfunny and completely lacking in cool, style or engagingstory. I'm glad to see the back of the Film Council and all theoverpaid "executives" who dole out what remains of their money, aftertheir fat salaries have been accounted for, for another flaccid wasteof time.This film, on the other hand, IS cool, engaging and genuinely excitingin a way that movies should be. The budget is clearly small but theacting talent on display is massive. The direction and writing byRichard Jobson are excellent and I just love the sheer nihilism of theplot and the fact that everything does not need to be justified orexplained. The "villain" is completely amoral and the "hero", apartfrom family allegiances, is ultimately not much different.A British film can be film noir and New Town killers is the proof.PS If IMDb is for genuine film lovers then why do glossy Americanblockbusters get hundreds of reviews whilst really interestingindependent films or foreign language films (i.e. non-American films)end up with a handful of reviews like this one?

FlashCallahan 2012-05-25 06:13:05

Hide and seek.....

Two private bankers, Alistair and Jamie, who have the world at theirfeet get their kicks from playing a 12 hour game of hunt, hide and seekwith people from the margins of society.Their next target is Sean Macdonald a parent-less teenager who liveswith his sister on a housing estate on the outskirts of Edinburgh.She's in debt, he's going nowhere fast.Sean agrees to play for cash. He soon realises he's walked into twelvehours of hell where survival is the name of the game....basically the British version of Hard Target, and to be honest, notvery good. It sounded like a clever film, but really, if someoneoffered you this task, you would just bunk up in a hotel for the nightand sleep out the twelve hours?? The poor kid who gets offered the game isn't the brightest spark, he'scarrying all this money around with him, doesn't get a taxi oranything, and just runs around the (very)empty streets. I know it sounds like i'm taking the fun out of the film, but themakers have done that themselves by making it not very realistic, andusing the two villains, as nothing more the eighties reject yuppies whohave nothing better to do.Scott is the only good thing in this, and he's really scraping thebarrel now, considering ten years ago he was in summer blockbusters.It's too mundane, not very exciting, and very predictable.

lucygoodyear 2012-05-16 06:13:55

The Game (with Michael Douglas) was far better

Having grown up in Edinburgh I expected to enjoy this film based on thecomments of other reviewers. I also chose it for Dougray Scott whoplays a mean if somewhat two dimensional villain in other films withentertaining results. I felt that the story was weak and ratherpredictable. However, that did not detract from the performance of theyoung male lead who I thought was excellent and utterly convincing aswas his friend. Liz White continued to grow in my estimation with thisperformance having already seen her in "Life On Mars" and "A Short Stayin Switzerland". These actors far exceeded the capabilities of thescript and the storyline and I will continue to watch for them infuture releases. To be honest, their performances and the clever use ofart and location in the film are the only reasons I have for givingthis film a 7. If the score was for storyline alone, it would havegarnered a 3.

2012-05-15 07:23:13

GEM OF A CHASE MOVIE

THIS IS A TRULY SUSPENSEFUL MOVIE FROM BEGINNING TO END. YOU'LL BE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT AS THE YOUNG MAN TRIES TO AVOID BEING HUNTED DOWN + KILLED

Claudio Carvalho 2012-05-06 04:22:59

Promising Beginning, Silly and Flawed Conclusion

In Edinburgh, the teenager Sean Macdonald (James Anthony Pearson) livesa life without perspective with his sister Alice Kelly (Liz White). Outof the blue, Sean discovers that Alice owes twelve thousand pounds todangerous people that are forcing her to travel to Amsterdam to trafficdrugs. However, he is contacted by two men, Alistair Raskolnikov(Dougray Scott) and Jamie Stewart (Alastair Mackenzie) that offertwelve thousand pounds to him to play hide and seek for twelve hourswith them. If their hunting fails, Sean would earn the amount on thenext morning. Sean accepts but sooner he finds that Alistair is asadistic paranoid killer and he needs to escape not only for the money,but to survive."New Town Killers" has a promising and engaging beginning, butunfortunately has also a silly and flawed conclusion. The plot has manyflaws, and Sean would be in trouble in the end, driving a car with adead body in the trunk and leaving his fingerprints everywhere. Thereis a shallow clichés explanation of the reasons for the insane behaviorof Alistair and is impressive how a janitor is able to access thecomputer protected by a password the way Sean does. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Pelo Prazer de Matar" ("For the Pleasure of Killing")

specialbobby 2012-05-05 16:44:31

Like a Scottish 'Hard Target' or maybe it's 'Surviving the McGame'.

But with out a Jean Claude Van Damme or an Ice T it has a wee Scots ladin stead as the hard up hero getting mixed up with rich guys on a humanhunting trip.It starts with a title sequence thats Lucky Number McSlevin, red andblack animated rooftops and soon as we realise the hard up Edinburghkid is in a bit of a cash crisis and life's crap Dougray Scott turns upall Lance Henriksen like with a little offer of cash for a challenge.The game begins, we get a lad running through the dark dark streets ofEdinburgh that the festival brochure won't show, while Scott and hislesser sidekick give chase, playing coppers and starting on chavs (alighter moment for those of us who dislike aggressive teenage gangs).Reasons, motivations, peoples, none can be trusted during a long nightwhere bars, clubs, gig venues are all packed out yet no one walks thestreets and having been to Edinburgh this is a little silly.Scott plays the hard Bastard a lot better here than in other films likeMI:2 and Hit-man but there's no real connection to any characters partin the story so you feel more a witness to a dour hunting party ratherthan being involved in the chase.After a while the film takes a change of pace and the outcome becomesless obvious but makes the lad being chased far to intelligent andclever to be where he is in life at the start. But it does have a niceconclusion.This movies a bit boring in places and not as thrilling as i'd hopedbut it's nice to have a British thriller without Danny Dyer, TamerHassan or a London setting which gives it a leg up on a few of it'speers. Worth watching even if it's just to support small independentBritish film.One question though, if a buildings locked and you have to break awindow to get in how come that's not an option when you need to getout?

2012-04-30 08:14:37

"The Most Dangerous Game" That Is Not So Thrilling

Sean Macdonald (James Anthony Pearson) needs money. He is a teenager living in a tough neighborhood in Edinburgh, and his sister Alice (Liz White) is heavily in debt, 12,000 pounds in all. That's when Sean is offered a proposal from two wealthy businessmen Alistair (Dougray Scott) and Jamie (Alastair Mackenzie) in the restroom of a fancy restaurant. Their offer is strange, but attractive.The rule of the "game" is simple. If Sean can "hide" for the twelve hours beginning from today's 9 p.m., Sean wins the game and gets the money - money enough to pay back his sister's debt. Sean agrees, but soon he learns that the game is much deadlier than he imagined."New Town Killers" opens promisingly with stylish opening credits and decent acting from the leading actors, but soon things start to look too silly. Though I cannot reveal the details of Sean's predicaments, I have to say he is not a very smart kid. The story is not set in some deserted island or uninhabited mountains, so there are so many options he can take (with cash in hand), which somehow he ignores all. The film wants to say something about moral and society (the surname of the "baddie" is Raskolnikov), but it is not clear what it is. As a suspense movie "New Town Killers" is not effective, either. It uses conventions of the thriller of this type, thrillers featuring the hunter(s) and the hunted like "The Most Dangerous Game," but the 100-minute film by writer and director Richard Jobson loses steam pretty early on, before reaching its disappointing conclusion.

2012-04-29 16:15:34

A deadly game...

"New Town Killers"(2009) is directed by Richard Jobson (The Purifiers). The movie is about two business men, Alistair (Dougray Scott),and Jamie (Alastair Mackenzie), who play horrible games with people from the fringes of society. Their target in the film is Sean Macdonald (Pearson), a teenager who lives with his sister on the outskirts of Edinburgh. She's in debt, and Sean agrees to play the game proposed by these business men in exchange for money. Not until it is too late does he realize that he has gotten involved in a macabre game where his life and those around him are in jeopardy. This is a taut thriller that keeps one hooked all the way through. Interestingly, Richard Jobson was a member of the Skids back in 1979. The theme song, "New Town Killers", marks Richard Jobson's first official song writing in over 15 years.

Daniel Miller 2012-04-27 18:53:55

Boring, amatuerly made, awful script - Dougray Scott is the only plus point

This is genuinely one of the worst films I've had to sit through (I'verated over 1,800 films so far and not many have got this low a score).Despite being quite a short film it dragged on for what felt like hours- quite what Dougray Scott was doing in this I'll never know (charity?slumming it?). He does what he can with a poor script, snarling awayand making the rest of the cast look poor, but ultimately you don'tcare about his character or any of the others.I can appreciate it was made on a budget, but it seems to have alsobeen made with no professional supervision. Every scene was amateur, nosense of timing (I can quite comfortably state this is the worst'chase' movie I've ever seen) and there isn't enough of a plot to keepanyone interested.

Tim Kidner 2012-04-27 03:49:00

'Trainspotting'?, without the drugs

This film's Edinburgh set crime thriller, which dips into murky chasetorture at times has a sense that 'Lola' (the modern-ish Germanclassic) is going to be parodied. Obviously pitched at being outside of actual reality, where wealthylandlords, pimps or drug dealers (known in the film as 'privatebankers') not only extort their penniless customers but also bait andtaunt them, as in some cruel, sadistic game. Unfortunately, this is no The Third Man (shadowy sinister characterslurking on dark corners), Lola (the 'chase' seems to be mainly drivingabout in a Jaguar saloon) whilst The Trainspotting vibes resonate most.Except, there simply aren't the oddly likable, charismatic charactersin that, for a start. There's quite a few Hitchcockian twists with asilent, weaving camera teasing us, though. It seems that the whole thing passed me by without making much of animpression. Not sure exactly where it fell down, maybe a bit in each. Idaresay I'll have forgotten it by tomorrow. There have been USequivalents that have worked better, maybe for being more villainous,or better written, or better everything. It's not a bad effort, thoughand worth watching if it's free and not much else is on. Equally, itwon't sink the indie Brit film scene but very definitely, unlikeTrainspotting, won't set it alight either.