The Killers

This movie should have been about Lee Marvin and Gulager threatening people - not bullshit flashbacks that strip away any tension in favor of extended, unconvincing character development.

Lee Marvin playing a tough hit man, plus Ronald Reagan punches Angie Dickinson in the face. What else could you possibly want from a film?

Lee Marvin kills his target but it doesn't go the way he thought it would and he wants to know why. The hitmen as detectives angle is a lot better than the noir staple insurance agent seeking the truth of the 1946 version. The only problem is that Lee Marvin asking the questions means the flashbacks to the actual story don't involve Lee Marvin. Appreciate the whole cast but when you put Lee Marvin in a movie, anytime he's not on screen I'm asking where Lee Marvin is.

Interesting narrative framing with flashbacks though I would have liked to see Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager in more action. Why wasn't Lee's character named Lee? Angie Dickinson was a nice femme fatale. I enjoyed the heist planning and the execution. The distant street shots were nostalgic. Fav scene: Reagan slapping Dickinson, then Cassavetes punches the shit out of Reagan.

Made for TV, and it shows in the production values, but with so much talent involved enough good comes out of it to make a watchable film. The best parts are the opening and the ending, where the tension is best used for some interesting set ups. The middle is ok but not particularly noteworthy, with a lot of meandering build up that fails to build much tension.

Pretty damn awesome. Made-for-TV quality gives it this weird surreal vibe, while the cast is simply phenomenal, and there's this whole paranoia hanging over it due to the JFK assassination taking place during production - which is especially interesting when you see Ronald Reagan assassinate someone. I like it more than Siodmak's movie.

A few words on Angie Dickinson in The Killers: hamana hamana hamana, a-OOGa, a-OOGa. That is all.

Felt a bit slow, possibly because of my familiarity with the elements that carry over from Siodmak's superior take on the story. Cassavetes and DIckenson are no Lancaster and Gardner. Marvin is badass, of course.

Great cast and a tight little story. Lee Marvin does his usual thing here and Ronald Reagan plays a thug.

Angie Dickinson gets owned. What else do you need to know?

Everything with Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager is so good. Their insistence on cool but brutal tactics make Siegel's remake unique from its predecessor. This trades intrigue for New Hollywood violence. You also get to see Ronald Reagan punched in the face.

Very different than 1946's version and I can't tell which one I like more - they are both very good, albeit in different ways. This version deviates a lot from the original in terms of atmosphere and the screenplay has been altered significantly. The casting is superb and encapsulates the same types of characters as in the original: mean villains in Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager's characters, a manly and entertaining protagonist in John Cassavetes, strong femme fatale in Dickinson.

This version lacks the tension, style and class of the original. It was fun seeing Ronald Reagan and a thug. Aside from that the TV movie has a cheap feel and most of the acting is of the caliber of an episode of Dragnet.

lady i dont have the time

Johnny Coolish but not as good. Angie Dickinson was fine but her character's arc left me a bit confused at the end.

Ronald Reagan had one expression for everything in this slightly below average flashback heist flick.

A solid heist film, but not really technically superior or more interesting than many others. It's obviously more fascinating in hindsight, since Ronald Reagan memorably bitchslaps Burt Bacharach's wife.

Too violent for the small screen, not glamorous enough for the big screen. It's a misfit and fascinating tonality; straight-faced brutality with just a slight hint of low-budget camp. Consider the icons on screen together: the first incarnation of Marvin's stone cold Point Blank killer, celebrity chic represented by Dickinson, Reagan the idol of American conservatism, and the radical independent Cassavetes. And somehow between all of them, Gulager nearly steals the show as a masochistic hitman.

Formula for success? Take two great noir films (The Killers [1946] and Drive A Crooked Road [1954]), combine them, and add a powerful cast. Except there's something here that just doesn't work. Perhaps it's the long flashback with segments that the narrator wouldn't have known. Perhaps it's the terrible rear-projection of the driving scenes. It's not a horrible film, but it doesn't really stand out from its predecessors.

Rompe con el inicio del cuento; sin embargo, la premisa de los asesinos se mantiene como en el cuento de Hemingway. Sin embargo, es ilógico que los propios asesinos sean quienes lleven acabo las averiguaciones por el hecho de no tener miedo a la muerte.

"This is some of the least glamorous filmmaking of its time." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/03/episode-51-crime-dramas-of-don-siegel.html

Very good.

73.375.

I think Reagan is miscast in what would end up being his last role before retiring to enter politics, but everyone else is at the absolute top of their game, including Claude Akins and Norman Fell who have supporting roles. It frequently betrays it's TV film origins, with the interiors looking a little cheap and cramped at times, but I actually prefer this version to Siodmak's.

Trades in the intricate storytelling of siodmarks version for sneering violence in signature seigel style. Still one of his lesser works mostly due to that lack of storytelling, making the punches of violence less impactful and more fleeting, though the climax certainly follows through. Marvin and Reagan are fun to watch but it was gulager who surprised me with his unnerving sadistic performance as Marvins sidekick.

So good in many ways but I found Dickinson pretty terrible in this and her chemistry with both Cassavetes and Reagan nonexistent. She's just really wooden in this. The flashback framing is also a bit weak. The best scenes are the ones with Marvin, who is strong as ever and I liked the grittiness of it all. This was Reagan's final film appearance before his abrupt retirement from Hollywood. Wonder what ever happened to that guy?

Really great crime film.

Terrific crime thriller. Great armored truck robbery, clever double cross, and brilliant use of flashbacks add to film's well-deserved cult status. Entire cast is wonderful, especially Reagan as a corrupt land developer, giving his finest acting job in his last movie.

It's a decent film noir, as the two hitmen work out what happened during a heist. I wanted more Lee Marvin and his sidekick to be honest.