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David Fincher's The Killer


CooterBrown

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Was about to start a thread on this, luckily I searched page two

"David Fincher and the writer of Se7en reunite to make a movie starring Fassbender as a contract killer. Streaming on Netflix starting today. 

I'm trying to keep my expectations in check to avoid being let down, but I am excite. Trying to avoid reviews and spoilers until I watch this tonight."

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fincher's masterpiece will always be:

 

the wife was watching the supermodels doc series on apple+ and they started going into this video, which she was too young to remember but i was at the exact right age to fully appreciate it whenever it came on.  then (in the doc) they start talking to people involved in the decision to use the models lip-syncing the song, and they had a quick interview with fincher about it, and he was like, "hell yes, i love this idea, let's go."

watching the video, you can totally tell it's fincher, as it has all the same spatial elements, lighting, shadows, creative angles and forced perspective from the best of his movies.  the scant cavernous rooms where you can sense and feel and even smell all the corners just takes me right back to fight club, panic room, even gone girl.

never forget that the movies of the 90's are so fucking cool because that's when music video directors got their shot.  70's are dark.  80's are funny.  90's are cool. 

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1 hour ago, henrygandorf said:

fincher's masterpiece will always be:

 

the wife was watching the supermodels doc series on apple+ and they started going into this video, which she was too young to remember but i was at the exact right age to fully appreciate it whenever it came on.  then (in the doc) they start talking to people involved in the decision to use the models lip-syncing the song, and they had a quick interview with fincher about it, and he was like, "hell yes, i love this idea, let's go."

watching the video, you can totally tell it's fincher, as it has all the same spatial elements, lighting, shadows, creative angles and forced perspective from the best of his movies.  the scant cavernous rooms where you can sense and feel and even smell all the corners just takes me right back to fight club, panic room, even gone girl.

never forget that the movies of the 90's are so fucking cool because that's when music video directors got their shot.  70's are dark.  80's are funny.  90's are cool. 

Love that video.  My favorite model of all time is Tatjana Patitz (3:30 mark).  Sadly, she died this year of cancer.

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80% through The Killer and it holds your attention.  Fine locations and cinematography.  What’s different- everything doesn’t just go according to plan.  Scenes tied together with narration by the Killer his own self. An Iwatch of some kind and digital tech play significant roles. So far, so good.  Fassbender has the chops for the role.

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1 minute ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

It was meh. It looked beautiful and cool. There were a few impressive scenes, but nothing amazing. 

Agreed.  I didn't find the Killer to be a sympathetic character, and while I'm a huge Smiths fan, I found the snippets of there songs to be a distraction.

Best scene IMO was with Tilda Swinton in the restaurant.

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6 hours ago, The Dude said:

He’s not a good killer right?  I mean he has all these rules and mantras but he isn’t very good at what he does. He’s a legend in his own mind. Isn’t his whole revenge tour against his own rules?

This is exactly what I said - from the first botched hit to everything else. Some other thoughts:

Spoiler

The entire plot of the movie hinged on him avenging the attack on his girlfriend, which was a violation of one of the rules he kept repeating.

The nail gun death - he miscalculated that shit, too.

The voiceover narration was a bit much. My 15-yo was playing video games and halfway watching and at one point early on he goes, "maybe he wouldn't have missed if he hadn't been talking so much in his head". I loled but seriously.

I hated how he killed everyone involved except for the guy who ordered the original hit. WTF? You won't spare Dolores but you'll spare that guy? 

I do generally like Fincher. Just didn't love this one.

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This is exactly what I said - from the first botched hit to everything else. Some other thoughts:
Spoiler

The entire plot of the movie hinged on him avenging the attack on his girlfriend, which was a violation of one of the rules he kept repeating.
The nail gun death - he miscalculated that shit, too.
The voiceover narration was a bit much. My 15-yo was playing video games and halfway watching and at one point early on he goes, "maybe he wouldn't have missed if he hadn't been talking so much in his head". I loled but seriously.
I hated how he killed everyone involved except for the guy who ordered the original hit. WTF? You won't spare Dolores but you'll spare that guy? 


I do generally like Fincher. Just didn't love this one.



I feel like the entire point of the movie was him coming to terms with that fact that his way of life or thinking isn’t absolute. “The only real path is the one behind you.” He let the guy go because he had nothing to do with what happened to him personally. The others chose that career and knew what could happen.

Didn’t love the movie - was just ok.
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On 11/12/2023 at 9:27 PM, wutang75 said:


I feel like the entire point of the movie was him coming to terms with that fact that his way of life or thinking isn’t absolute. “The only real path is the one behind you.” He let the guy go because he had nothing to do with what happened to him personally. The others chose that career and knew what could happen.

Didn’t love the movie - was just ok.

Was this the case with the cab driver? I thought he was just a random person drawn into the whole thing, but maybe I missed something.

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Was this the case with the cab driver? I thought he was just a random person drawn into the whole thing, but maybe I missed something.

That’s a good point. The cab driver had a direct connection to his home and I believe he did help them with the stakeout - but that still doesn’t align very well with my theory of only killing “industry types”.
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On 11/11/2023 at 12:37 PM, HornOnTheBayou said:

It was meh. It looked beautiful and cool. There were a few impressive scenes, but nothing amazing. 

pretty much my feeling.  entertained me and kept my attention but the end was meh and i'll forget about it fairly quickly.

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That’s a good point. The cab driver had a direct connection to his home and I believe he did help them with the stakeout - but that still doesn’t align very well with my theory of only killing “industry types”.

He killed who needed to be killed. One kill per chapter. In the last chapter, he killed the killer. In his words, he was now one of the many. Well, that twitch in his eye in the last shot hints otherwise.
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On 11/11/2023 at 1:11 PM, The Dude said:

He’s not a good killer right?  I mean he has all these rules and mantras but he isn’t very good at what he does. He’s a legend in his own mind. Isn’t his whole revenge tour against his own rules?

that part made it almost a comedy.  the professional that has all these rule in his for how to be successful and he fails.  maybe a rule about not letting your targets mistress walk into the shot?  might want to jot that one down.

i'd like to see fassbender play one of the dumb and dumber characters. maybe a taxi driver with a bronx accent. the dude seems to have zero range.  he's the same character in every movie.

those negative points aside, there did seem to be some excellence in the script and direction.  i wouldnt go as far as brilliance but it was above average for a netflix production.

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2 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

that part made it almost a comedy.  the professional that has all these rule in his for how to be successful and he fails.  maybe a rule about not letting your targets mistress walk into the shot?  might want to jot that one down.

i'd like to see fassbender play one of the dumb and dumber characters. maybe a taxi driver with a bronx accent. the dude seems to have zero range.  he's the same character in every movie.

those negative points aside, there did seem to be some excellence in the script and direction.  i wouldnt go as far as brilliance but it was above average for a netflix production.

I think it is a comedy. I think a lot of the negative feedback it is getting (not really negative but ykwim) is because people thought they were going to get another Se7en or Zodiac. Fincher, AKW, Fassbender, contract killer, is gonna be this dark trip into some underworld we don’t understand. What we got was much more like fight club I thought

Edited by hobbes2702
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I had a bigger issue with the plot, but I often suck at these things.

Spoiler

Why would killing the protagonist mitigate blowback/loose ends for the billionaire client?  Blowback to the billionaire would occur if the Parisian survivor did some digging and found out that the billionaire tried to have him killed. But whacking the hitman that has no idea who the client is accomplishes nothing. Instead, the billionaire should have had jackie chiles whacked - that would cut off the trail leading back to the identity of the client.  

 

Edited by bschoolprof
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