Killer Image

source: Killer Image

Moviecut—Killer Image

Despite having the great Michael Ironside and the equally great M. Emmet Walsh as brothers (now there is an interesting combination!) this film seems much longer than its 94 minutes with a winding plot concerning photography, revenge, brotherly love and a politician leading to a predictable climax. It is tedious and our hero Max Oliver is dull. This is a shame as he is played by John Pyper-Ferguson who is a decent actor. The script is lame. One kept asking oneself, why doesn't he do that or that or that? It was filmed flatly with boring visuals though the last location scene was set by a very picturesque waterfall, the only interesting looking thing in the film. There probably was a music score but I can't remember any of it so little impression did it make. A forgettable film.

KILLER IMAGE is a strictly ordinary Canadian B-movie thriller - ordinary, that is, aside from another electrifying performance from Michael Ironside as the villain of the piece. This was made during a time when Ironside was pumping out the Bs, playing bad guy after bad guy in the wake of his big screen performance in TOTAL RECALL, and he's unforgettably sinister here. Sadly, the film's main character is quite bland and lacking by comparison, a photographer who finds himself stalked by persons unknown after witnessing a crime. The film offers a little crime, a little horror, some cheesy bonding, and another flustered turn from M. Emmet Walsh, but it's Ironside who's the focus here and he gets plenty of screen time as the ice cold killer. The final scenes in particular offer an acting tour de force from the star.

This Canadian movie is a pretty standard early 90's thriller. It's truthfully pretty pedestrian in most ways but it does benefit from the presence of genre legend Michael Ironside and respected character actor M. Emmet Walsh; both of whom play a pair of brothers, whose bad actions get the film's plot underway. The story is essentially about a professional killer who seeks incriminating photographs which are in the possession of a man whose brother he murdered. This leads to all manner of unreasonable behaviour being carried out by out pony-tailed psychopath. This is not a particularly well written film. It is not, for instance, especially clear why the pivotal murder even happens in the first place. And characters continue to act in illogical ways throughout the story. In fairness, it's not the first thriller to succumb to this, so it's hardly a deal breaker. It is a bit lethargic though and really only comes to life when either Ironside or Walsh are on the screen. So, not an awful lot to recommend here but at the same time it does get the job done, it just does it with the minimum effort.

Two points, one for Michael Ironside, and one for M. Emmet Walsh, both of whom are trapped in this truly terrible film. The writing is some of the worst ever, with zero character development, and scenes that seem to have been randomly inserted in no particular order. Confusion abounds, and the viewer will quickly lose interest. Why should anyone care about characters we know nothing about, in situations that make little sense. Even with the presence of Ironside and Walsh, "Killer Image" is a stinker of major proportions. After about 40 minutes, I couldn't take any more punishment, and hit the eject button. Just one more DVD for my garage sale. - MERK

Dion put me on to this as an example of a Canadian film - Copper Mountain was the other, and this belongs in its ignominious company - where you just can't understand how it ever got the green light, in this case from Telefilm not to mention M. Emmett Walsh's agent. Did anyone read this script before signing off? Was it a gesture of equanimity to our Alberta friends? I'm serious - they should have changed the end credits so they read, "Any similarity to actual human behavior is entirely coincidental." I am all for illogic and rejection of conventional narrative values, but you can't have it both ways - cat-and-mouse procedurals have to make SOME kind of sense. I don't even know where to begin - there should be a drinking game (or screen writing course) based on this movie's plot holes. I'll just pick a couple at random. A) In the first scene (the first scene!!), the guy snapping photos of Michael Ironside dumping the body sees he's been noticed - and reacts by riding his motorbike directly TOWARD him and onto the main road, the better to be killed. As he's being shot at, with no cover, he hops off the dirt bike to take another picture, falls back like he's been shot, then climbs back on the bike like nothing's happened. B) When the guy's ladyfriend yells into the phone "Wait there - I'll be right over!" he doesn't wait there and she is not right over - although both their lives depend on it. C) Unless I'm missing something, the dead guy's photo studio is accessed both by freight elevator and ground-floor loading dock. The first time our hero walks in, it's by elevator, going up....from where?? D) The master assassin Ironside, who helpfully provides his target with his given name, tries to frame him by scattering about some polaroids of our hero in apparent acts of murder. Hint: when framing somebody, do NOT encourage the cops to question why there was a third party in the apartment snapping photos. E) In the climax, Our Hero gets back at Ironside by taking polaroids of HIS murder in progress and leaving them around the forest, where he can't possibly find them all, so someone will find them and justice will be served. First of all, says who? Second of all, what if it, like, rains - polaroids don't like that too much. Third of all, Our Hero has no way of knowing about the polaroids Ironside left at the scene, so where'd he get the idea? Fourth of all, after being beaten senseless and near death, Ironside goes for a stroll and finds all the polaroids anyway - so much for that plan! ...okay, that's enough to give you the flavor, with the additional note that there's no reason Ironside shouldn't just stroll in and shoot the guy in the head at his first opportunity. Only then there'd be no movie, would be the conventional response. In this case though, that would have been a positive thing!

This is a great film. Can't believe this film is so underrated. It's one of the best thrillers of the year. You really should watch this one. You'll like it. The performance are very good. Good psycho thriller.

Why is it that Canadian-made movies are so wooden? The script of this movie has potential but it just doesn't work. I think it may be the editing. There is no pacing. The scenes just move along without any buildup of tension. The movie includes two experienced actors, Michael Ironside and M. Emmet Walsh, with Ironside taking the lead as the anti hero. Nothing really happens to make the movie interesting. The hero, John Pyer- Ferguson is unimpressive; the dialogue is boring and the plot is predictable and moves like molasses. Even the color was washed out. I started to watch this movie on the late show and got so bored that I ended up surfing the Internet at the same time and felt that I missed nothing.

Killer Image