9/25/2023 0 Comments Kill me three timesMaybe if McFarland, or director Kriv Stenders had tried to make Kill Me Three Times half as interesting as King cast it, you wouldn’t watch it feeling bored, bored, bored the whole time. West coast Australia, where the film was shot, certainly looks pretty, and there are a couple of nice explosions, but that’s about it. McFarland throws in a circuitous framing device to try and keep you on your toes, but often you’re just left confused as to the motivations of the characters, and why it is we should care about them once the first question is answered. All the dialogue from first-time screenwriter James McFarland is purely functional, and serves a story of insurance fraud and murder-for-hire that’s desperately lacking for inspiration or excitement. The fleeting fun of Pegg playing a baddie, or seeing Stapleton set to maximum bumble is all Kill Me Three Times has to offer, as it assembles a cast of characters not half so colorful as the stylized opening credits introducing them. The rest are diverting in spots simply for trying something a little different, whether it’s Simon Pegg as a mustachioed hitman, Sullivan Stapleton as a meek dentist, or the aforementioned Palmer as the dentist’s scheming wife. Overall, Kill Me Three Times is maybe worth a watch on Netflix but definitely not the price of a movie ticket.Not content to let brother Liam be the only Hemsworth with a derivative, Teresa Palmer-co-starring knockoff premiering at TIFF, Luke Hemsworth is the only player in Kill Me Three Times that’s squarely in their comfort zone (his: bland and hunky). 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. It was selected to be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. 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. Kill Me Three Times is a 2014 black comedy thriller film directed by Kriv Stenders, which follows a hit man who falls into schemes of blackmail, murder, and revenge. 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. Professional hit-man Charlie Wolfe finds himself in three tales of murder, blackmail and revenge after a botched contract assignment. With Simon Pegg, Steve Le Marquand, Alice Braga, Teresa Palmer. That's not really the fault of the actors, mind you, but the writing. Kill Me Three Times: Directed by Kriv Stenders. 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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