Purely Joyful Movie!

i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely Brilliant!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I never would have thought that I could be bored watching a movie about a pair of serial killers. Born Killers changed all that, as it is easily the worst serial killer film I've ever seen. Surprisingly enough, this film starts out pretty good and slowly descends into being unwatchable. John & Michael were left to learn about life from their father, a complete psychopath, so it's no surprise, that they turned out to be killers as well. John (Jake Muxworthy) is the quiet, good looking, methodical one, while his brother Michael (Gabriel Mann), is reckless, leaving John to clean up his mess. After we get the back story on the brothers, and see them in action, they go their separate ways, and the story focuses on John. Jake Muxworthy plays the quiet killer, who eventually meets up with a girl. He falls in love and tries to put his killer urges behind him to live the normal life. Muxworthy was the only reason this film got a rating at all. The film lacked the action I was hoping for and just turned into one conversation after another, but Muxworthy was as advertised, as this good looking, methodical killer, who not only plans things down to the last detail, but who also narrates the story. Born Killers wasn't bad in a way where the movie didn't make sense, the problem was how boring and slow moving it was. After the initial action, nothing really happens except for a lot of people doing a lot of talking, and if that's all I wanted to see, I'd just hang out at the mall.

Don't trust these other reviews or you'll end up suffering the same hideous fate I did and waste an hour of your life watching this pointless snooze fest. If you're hoping for horror, this movie disappoints. The killing takes place mainly off camera (and not in a building tension kind of way, more like a "we don't have any budget for special effects" kind of way) and neither of the two "serial killers" are remotely creepy. One of them just acts like he's trying to get laid all the time and the other one just mopes and acts emo. If you're hoping for character development, stay far away as well. Two of the biggest characters die off camera (or during a brief flashback) and the narrator goes from being a grifting serial killer to a love struck Jonas brother in about 5 minutes.Oh yeah, and there's incest in this movie. A LOT of incest. Not even a character developing portrayal of incest. Just casual incest, with barely a passing reference and no questioning by either main character.The acting was passable, but the script had 2 dimensional characters and had no compelling story to tell. It sputters to a halt with a twist that is only surprising in that it's utterly pointless. It's like the writer just gave up and wanted to end the script as quickly as possible. I guess I can't blame him.

If there was ever a monument to the 11th Commandment of DVD selection (Thou Shalt Not Base Thy Expectations For The Movie on Its Packaging), "Born Killers" is it. Even the title seems designed to make you think you're getting some forgettable little blood-soaked b-movie schlockfest. (A little digging revealed the movie's real title when first released in foreign markets was "Piggy Banks," but the name was changed for the U.S. release because . . . Well, I'm not sure why, actually. You have to think a big successful distributor like Lions Gate knows what it's doing.) Anyhoo. I rented it on the recommendation of a friend whose taste in indie cinema I trust, and it turned out to be quite the dark little treat. Yes, the first thirty or forty minutes or so are--as advertised--a peek at the life of the roving North American serial murderer in his natural element. But instead of gore these scenes are punctuated with some entertaining dialogue, revelatory narration, and intriguing characters possessed of (admittedly) vulgar and brutal sensibilities . . . but somehow coupled with subtle hints of the real complexity beneath the crimson surface. And then as the movie reaches the half-way mark it spins off into a wholly new direction, at which point you realize (again) that though you thought you had a pretty good handle on just what kind of film you were watching you in fact didn't have a clue. Stick around, if for no other reason than to see the luminous Lauren German (Gertie) enter the story and surprise even the most jaded soul . . .

I love it when I see a movie and it surprises me by being totally superior, and different, then what I was expecting. This film, about a young serial killer who is forced to confront the emptiness of his life, is not the clichéd blood fest the DVD cover, and the lame title ("Born Killers"? C'mon…), would have you believe.But don't get me wrong, because there is blood, murder and horror. The movie starts with two brothers in the prime of their careers as serial killers. Their father (a chilling Tom Sizemore, seen in flashback) taught them that people are "Piggy Banks" to be busted open for the loot. While Michael (a charmingly evil Gabriel Mann) gets off on the creepy sex part of their vocation, John (Jake Muxworthy, reminiscent of Kurt Cobain), the more cold-blooded of the two, just wants the cash.The brothers part ways, and John goes on an odyssey of self-discovery. What he finds is the enchanting Gertie (Lauren German), who may or may not be his sister. As John experiences deep feelings for another, he is shocked out of his moral abyss like a worm placed in the sun. John, always in control, begins to fall apart. It's as existential a piece of character development as I've seen, and it works. This film is packaged as a straight up exploitive slasher flick. It's not. There's no doubt that some will be disappointed by the way this film turns into something else. The killers don't crack jokes when taking lives, there isn't a race against the clock, a secret identity doesn't need to be revealed, and most of the killing is in the beginning. Director Morgan J. Freeman, probably best known for his break out Sundance debut Hurricane Streets, deserves a lot of credit. All the performances are outstanding, and even when the film gets cerebral, I was on the edge of my seat. It's a star turn by Jake Muxworthy, and Freeman isn't afraid to keep the camera on him. It's well paced, well shot (it has a cool bleach by-pass look for the flashbacks) and has locations that somehow evoke a serial killer paradise. This film deserves to be seen on it's own terms, and not as just another exploitive slasher film. Too bad the packaging and title are so deceptive.