Not As Painful As It Sounds..."Kill Me Three Times"

Kill Me Three Times (2014)

Rated R

Starring Simon Pegg, Alice Braga, Teresa Palmer, Sullivan Stapleton, Luke Hemsworth, Callan Mulvey, Bryan Brown

Directed by Kriv Stenders

The Story:

Charlie Wolfe (Pegg) is a hitman on the job in Australia when he gets his next assignment. It seems that Alice (Braga) has a price on her head, but when Charlie arrives to take care of matters, he discovers that a local dentist and his wife (Stapleton & Palmer) are attempting to take care of his problem for him. So Charlies sits back and watches the mayhem unfold.

To try and describe the further what is going to happen would ruin much of the charm and storyline of the film.

I think they were going for a Tarantino-esque Australian caper, and I'd say they pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Action, humor, oddball characters, they're all added into the mix with twist and turn and betrayals lying around every corner.

The glue that holds the whole narrative together is Wolfe, who may not be the best hitman in the world, but he's the only one available in this corner of the world, so he apparently keeps a steady income.

It's a perfect fit for Pegg, and he makes the best of it whether it's through dialogue or just reaction shots.

The rest of the cast fills their roles nicely with some familiar and not too familiar faces providing Pegg different characters to work with.

All in all, an enjoyable caper from beginning to end.

Currently streaming on Netflix if you're in the mood to give it a try.

Final Grade: C+ / B- range

"The Duel" Fails To Revive The Western

The Duel (2016)

Rated R

Starring Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Alice Braga

Directed by Kieran Darcy-Smith

The Story:

Mexicans are turning up dead in the Rio Grande, and the governor sends a Texas Ranger (Hemsworth) to the town of Helena to investigate a local named Abraham (Harrelson) who may have something to do with it.

The movie starts out with a flashback to discover that Abraham had indeed killed our Ranger's father years earlier.

That is to add yet another layer of intrigue and tension to the story.

Except it didn't.

It actually all started to become a bit tedious and dull once they were in the town, and Abraham holds sway over the entire town in an almost cult-like atmosphere.

He begins to charm Marisol (Braga), the lovely wife of our main character.

So you can see where it's all going.

I accidentally hit the chapter skip button when I attempted to pause the movie about an hour into it.

Maybe less.

Couldn't tell you.

I went back a few chapters, and nothing looked familiar or memorable.

That's when I decided I probably didn't care to see how the film ended, though I had a pretty good suspicion.

Points for making a western and trying to keep the genre alive.

Negative points for making a movie I really didn't care to see how it ended, and seemingly unremarkable after an interesting start.

Final Grade: D+