Having seen "The Convent" years earlier, i was expecting a much more juevenile film than the one i got. What i got was a well filmed movie with much more sophisticated dialogue and plot devices than "The Convent", but still a movie plagued with spotty acting and a B movie atmosphere.
The main thing to appreciate here is the dialogue. Like most things in a Mendez film, its quality fluctuates, but said dialogue is consistently quite good in this film, and the police shop-talk seems to have been pretty well researched, as well.
The main thing this movie is, is fun. I'm personally one of those cinephiles willing to forgive the bad elements of a film in favor of the overall vision and scope of the film. However, while i enjoyed "Real Killers" overall, i must say that the social criticisms and commentaries felt second-hand and that the film has no real "message" as far as I'm concerned, but more mimed and aped morals from movies the director admires. However, the story istelf is whats most prevalent in the movie, with the "pithy" dialogue an underpinning for the whole production.
Not a terrible film, not a brilliant film. "Real Killers" is some good B-movie fare suitable for fans of this type of genre.
M.