Thrill of the Kill

'Twas the night before Christmas and all that was on TV was … dreck. There was the usual complement of the usual Christmas movies that I've seen dozens of times before. We had a few rented DVDs to watch but I needed something to amuse me that didn't require my full attention while I prepared Christmas Eve dinner for the wife and me.

I checked out our cable on-demand station and found more dreck. When I saw "Thrill Of The Kill" starred Shiri Appleby I figured that it might prove interesting and, if nothing else, provide a little eye candy. I haven't noticed Ms Appleby in anything since Roswell where I thought she did a very capable job of portraying Liz. And, here in TOTK, she does an admirable job of playing Kelly Helms whose sister, Allison, was brutally murdered several months ago. The police have no leads and the murder is a cold case.

Kelly reads the titular book written by crime fiction novelist Graydon Jennings (Chris Potter) which describes a murder with striking similarities to that of Allison's. Kelly contacts Jennings and asks for his help in solving Allison's murder. Reading Allison's diary makes it apparent she would crawl into bed with nearly any guy but was actually in love with someone she referred to as "Cicero". With some more sleuthing, the pair determines that Cicero was a US senator. After confronting the senator, the usual sort of bad stuff starts to happen around Kelly.

Plot starting to sound familiar ? It should – this things pulls up almost every stupid heroine cliché. Kelly doesn't call the cops when she should, several times. There is a jealous admirer whom everyone ignores. Who, in their right mind in the 21st century, confronts a politician about an affair and possible murder without wearing some kind of recording device ? I guessed the ending about ten minutes into it. My wife paid attention for about ten minutes in the middle of it and knew the ending. Potter's acting was no great shakes ( I kept expecting Zoe Busiek to pop up) and, apart from the sisters, the characters could have been played by mannequins – I think some of then actually were ! ;-) If you want to turn your brain off for a couple of hours, this is your movie. Otherwise, bypass it widely.

If you like mystery/thrillers, this is a good one & keeps you guessing almost to the end. The acting was very good by all and each had a clear identity that gave one pause to wonder, "was it him?" Very enjoyable and held my interest from beginning to end and a good job of a movie made for television by all. Definitely entertaining which is WHY some of us STILL DO watch such movies that give us a thrill and chill at the same time.

as made for TV movies go,this one is not bad.not great,but not bad.to be honest,i don't mind most TV movies.true,they are very predictable,and most so called plot twists can be figured out by a 3 year old.having said,they can be entertaining.that pretty much describes "Thrill of the Kill".here's the basic plot outline.Kelly Holden(Shiri Appleby-Swim Fan,The TV series Roswel)can not let go of her sister's murder,which happened a year ago.She believes she can find out who the killer is.She enlists the help of murder mystery novelist Graydon Jennings(Chris Pottter-Kung Fu:the Legend Continues,Silk Stalkings(10 episodes)who happens to be in her town for a book signing.Because all of his novels are written from the point of view of the killer,she believes he may have some valuable insight.Naturally,there are more than a few suspects,but it is pretty easy to figure out the killer,way before the movie ends.Both Appleby and Potter are decent actors who do well with what they have.the movie is an entertaining 88 min diversion,which is probably all it sets out to be.Many people are critical of TV movies,sometimes referred to as the "movie of the weak".they are criticized for having basically the same plot,just different actors.this is true,but it is also true of much of the crap that is churned out for the big screen by Hollywood.there is certainly very little creativity there.the only difference may be bigger budget,big name actors and sometimes special effects,all designed to woo the viewer into thinking they're seeing something new.in other words,disguising the fact that they are watching the same old thing each time(yes,there are exceptions).add to that the fact that these big screen movies are actually trying to be creative or at least think they are.now,with the so called movies of the week,the filmmakers and actors know what their product is and don't try to make it anything more than it is.so,the above criticisms of TV movies are not valid.generally a movie of this sort deserves a 6/10 unless it is woefully worse than any other movie. since Thrill of the Kill is no worse than other TV movie and as good as some of the drivel that the big Machine spews out,this one also gets a 6/10

Kelly Holden (Shiri Appleby) is a feisty young attractive woman who wants answers as to who murdered her more flirty sister. When the police seemed to have all but closed the case, Kelly seeks out the assistance of the famed crime writer novelist Graydon Jennings (Chris Potter) to pick his brain to help get the murder investigation moving in the right direction, that being with a big "SOLVED" over the cover of her sistsers stalled murder investigation.

It does not take a lot of convincing, nor does it take a lot of time for crime novelist Graydon Jennings to agree to get invlolved and quickly embarass the local police with his investigative approach whiich leads Kelly and Graydon with a couple of prime suspects. What would a murder/mystery film be if we didn't have an influential, well known, corrupt and slimy politician leading the list of potential murder suspects?

Okay, so the film has a few holes in it and the director/writer(s) deliberately provide us with a few suspects so we have to fugure out the "whodunit", but all in all the on screen chemistry between the two lead actors Shiri Appleby and Chris Potter helped me at least want to see how the movie ends.

Did it thrill me? No But it did not disappoint me either so I give the film a passable 5 out of 10 rating. An okay time waster. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's not your high budget movie but it's a good paced and good movie which has some interesting twists and turns. Worth a watch. And definitely beats some high end Hollywood flops.