Killers

Interesting psychological drama.

This movie had the potential to be brilliant. The first half, the set up, was excellent: Japanese killer contacts Indonesian journalist due to a common interest. Intense game of wits and a sort of mentor- student relationship, interspersed with some fairly graphically violent scenes.

However, given all this potential and a fine platform from which to build, the writer and director don't know what to do with it all. What develops from there is clumsy at times and the second half feels random, and the conclusion unprofound.

Even once we have a seemingly satisfactory conclusion, the movie doesn't end there. The writer and director didn't know when to stop the roller-coaster that is this movie!

Ultimately, a fairly good movie, but could have been even better.

The synopsis of this Japanese and Indonesian collaboration did have my interest grabbed, and I was somewhat excited to sit down and watch the movie. However, I had set the movie up on a pedestal of sorts, because it didn't impress me one bit, and I found it to be just a very mundane and mediocre movie at best.

The story is about two very different men, one in Japan and one in Indonesia, whom meet on a disturbing site that posts real videos depicting the moments of death of mutilated victims. While far apart, the two men have something in common; they are both killers. One kills simply out of sadistic pleasure and the other kills for a perverted sense of justice.

Right, well the story was good at certain aspects, but at other aspects it was just a muddled mess which made very little logic or sense.

What worked out for the movie was the acting, as the two main talents Kazuki Kitamura (playing Nomura) and Oka Antara (playing Bayu) really pulled their weight throughout the movie with their individual performances.

The effects were also working well in favor of the movie. And there is a fair amount of brutality and gruesomeness throughout the movie, so take that into consideration if you are easily offended by visual violence.

However, the movie just had very little entertainment value, aside from showing some brutal and deranged murder scenes. The storyline was just not functioning on a grander level. It was as if I was watching two different movies; one taking place in Japan and one in Indonesia. And directors Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto (known as The Mo Brothers) were not really successful in trying to intermingle and merge the two story lines into a coherent and fulfilling movie.

I found the overall result of the movie to be a tepid and mediocre one, and as such then I am rating it five out of ten stars.

this is not a bad movie at all,but it has too much flaws to be a great movie. when i first see the movie backdrop,it sounds very bloody and macabre-ish,but it turns out wrong. this movie is too violent and bloody for mainstream audiences,but too soft for slasher hardcore fan. its like somewhere in the middle. i think mo brothers wanted to disturb the audience by its story rather than the killing scene itself. to me its like a drama movie with serial murder spice in it. don't get it wrong,its good and refreshing since I've never seen things like this in local box office and pretty rare in Hollywood,but Mo Brother failed to hold the tension,this movie gives you a good chills and fun discussion after watching it but obviously far less powerful than Snowtown, (an Australian serial-murder drama,most disturbing movie I've ever seen). i think k.kitamura and o antara saved this movie,their acting skill is top notch and the major high light in this movie!,and im glad im gonna watch this duo again in the raid 2! :D

I was pretty excited to watch this since the trailers looked good, but I must say I was let down. Some good things here and there, but lacked substance.

The biggest issue for me would be that this film feels like two different films. You have the Japanese guy who is a pro serial killer and seems to have a troubled past, which I preferred of the two, and then you have the Indonesian guy who kind of becomes connected to the other guy. The only thing is, how he becomes connected is silly. Minor spoilers since this happens early on, but he kills some guys who are trying to rob him. It's a heat of the moment thing. But he then records them dying and uploads it online. There is no reasoning for this, other than the fact that they try to portray him as some kind of "Hulk" like character where he loses his mind and kills without regard, and all of a sudden he will snap out of it and regret it. It was completely unbelievable and felt contrived just to get these two main characters together, which is where another issues arises.

The poster says "From The Producers Of Cold Fish And The Raid", and thats what it feels like. It's like two different directors shot their own films, and then added in scenes where the two main characters talk on webcam and the finale. The reason why they connect at first seems to make sense, but how it ends just feels completely unmotivated. There was barely any connection between the two throughout, and then they expect us to find the finale really riveting. It just didn't work.

If this had JUST been the Japanese guys story, I would have liked it a lot more. His story had the most going on and brought up some interesting ideas that never really get fleshed out because we need to go back to the other guy in Indonesia. But together, they feel so disconnected and just make the run time longer than it should be.

While there was some good visual stuff that I liked, like the club scene, there were many editing and directing issues. A character runs through a group of guys who want to grab him, and somehow through wonky editing, he gets through them and ends up on the floor a few feet away from them. It seems like the directors just said "Yeah I really don't know how he would get out of this one... but it looks cool so just make him somehow escape."

If you liked the trailer, watch this at your own caution. It probably won't deliver in the way you expected.

Following two storylines that gradually become entwined, 'Killers' represents another calculated effort from Timo Tjahjanto and his brother: a dark psychological thriller that follows a serial killer and a journalist and their murky psyches that lead to their violent actions.

Nomura is the charismatic but vicious psychopath who targets women, kidnaps them, and brutally kills them in a myriad of ways on film, then posts his kills online for the disturbing pleasure of voyeurs. Bayu is an ambitious journalist with issues of his own, and soon his dark side will be unleashed after encountering Nomura's footage online. So begins a descent into bloodshed for Bayu, who's vigilante crusade unlocks grimy secrets while sending him down a path that almost feels like his true calling as he begins to interact with Nomura in more ways then he's comfortable.

Despite the subject matter, the Mo Brothers are keen to keep a focus on their narrative and central characters. They understand what to show the audience, and what not to show, when to show it, and vice versa. This prevents the violence from becoming gratuitous for the sake of it, keeping the murderous acts horrifying and not nauseating for the inclination of viewer intensity.

The story runs of steam towards the end, unable to sustain its carefully maintained momentum in the home stretch, but its an entertaining ride nonetheless. The tone is dark, the kills are bloody, and the line between right and wrong is crossed and re-crossed. It's a film that looks at the nature of violence, the catharsis of controlled torture, and saddles the viewer with plenty to contemplate as the story careers towards an inevitable showdown between two very unique yet ultimately villainous killers.

7.5/10