![]() ![]() One of the movie’s better jokes is that Charlie, although certainly proficient at his job, isn’t the one who sets the cycle of carnage in motion, and indeed often finds himself on the periphery of the action. But in practice, everything is more or less exactly what it appears to be, in part because each story development and stylistic decision feels like a borrowed move. In theory, this means that nothing onscreen is exactly what it appears to be. Their chief gambit is a time-shuffling, nested-flashback structure that divides the story into three parts, with each new chapter clarifying and complicating the one prior. Although picked up for Stateside release by Magnolia, “Three” will add up to very little commercially.įrom the moment professional assassin Charlie Wolfe (Pegg) opens the movie with a loud “Fuck me!” and proceeds to tell us how he came to meet his death on a gorgeous stretch of beach in Eagles Nest, Australia, you can feel Stenders and screenwriter James McFarland straining to lend their story as much rude personality and self-conscious attitude they can manage. Playing like a beach bum’s “Double Indemnity” with a few sub-Tarantino chronological backflips thrown in, director Kriv Stenders’ tiresome tale of scheming adulterers, cruel spouses and one bemused hitman ( Simon Pegg) feels like poser noir all the way, never achieving the darkly comic flair or freshness of style needed to sell its fatalistic twists. Overall, Kill Me Three Times is maybe worth a watch on Netflix but definitely not the price of a movie ticket.Screen violence doesn’t get much cheaper or more gratuitous than in “ Kill Me Three Times,” a sun-drenched, blood-spattered Australian thriller that seems to fancy itself the first movie ever to feature characters shot to death at point-blank range. That said, the characters get lost in the shuffle, which makes it difficult to get invested in any of them - most notably the stock siren Alice, who's supposed to be the linchpin of the whole thing. To its credit, the story does include some clever plotting, specifically in the third act, as well as a few nifty set pieces (emphasis on "few"). That's a shame, too, since Stenders' visual style is very much on point - not to mention the gorgeous locations, which do occasionally breathe life into some of the scenes. And despite the movie's comic sensibilities, only Pegg is able to elicit a few chuckles the rest is only slightly amusing at best. The dialogue is about as straightforward as it gets, only serving to progress the plot and leaving the characters high and dry. Teresa Palmer and Sullivan Stapleton in Kill Me Three TimesThe thing is, all these characters are pretty much the same on paper: same voice, same duplicity, same hokey one-liners, etc. There's the dentist (Sullivan Stapleton) and his wife (Teresa Palmer), who are also planning to murder Braga's character Alice the grizzled dirty cop (Bryan Brown), who's on to the murderous couples scheme and the hunky gas station clerk (Luke Hemsworth), who's having an affair with Alice. Indeed, one of the big problems with screenwriter James McFarland's script is that it's chock-full with Tarantino and Rodriguez-esque characters, but without any of their delightful eccentricities. That's not really the fault of the actors, mind you, but the writing. Alas, the same can't be said for the rest of characters, who are all positively bland. ![]() While Charlie Wolfe's sense of humor is on-the-nose at times, Pegg's delivery gives the character a much-needed bit of quirk. Obviously the big get for Kill Me Three Times is Pegg, and the Shaun of the Dead star does a good job of playing against type as a conniving, unfeeling gun for hire. In typical Quentin Tarantino fashion, we see the events unfold from numerous perspectives, each one shedding more light on the situation. However, Wolfe soon discovers he's not the only one after his mark, and ends up embroiled in all manner of mayhem, murder and betrayal. Set in the fictional Australian surf town of Eagles Nest, the story follows Charlie Wolfe (Pegg), a quicksilver assassin who's hired to kill the wife (Alice Braga) of a wealthy bar owner (Callan Mulvey). ![]()
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