Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended, a classic.
Review: This is a masterpiece. The parallel narration is difficult to follow at times but still excellent overall. The beginning of Kubrick's amazing career.
Rating: 
Summary: a good racehorse movie.that doesnt happen much
Review: this is one of those old,slow 50s movies.the lighting is poor in places.these guys are going to rob a horse track.thier idea is basicly a number of distractions and a clean getaway.the kids wont like all the drama and thriller stuff.stanley kubrik directs so you know its good.i think its a very good movie!
Rating:
Summary: A Killer
Review: This is Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough film, the one that got him noticed by the film world and it's easy to see why. He departs from the usual linear chronology of story-telling. In the middle of the conformist 1950's, this took some guts and an independent producer. Nevertheless, the "axis of time" works beautifully as formatting for the intricate details of the robbery that unfolds - a kid at the time of its release, I had to have the recurring axis explained to me, a probably not uncommon experience among the audience of the day. Along with technique, Kubrick's casting is inspired. Aside from newcomers like Vince Edwards and Timothy Carey, or oldtimers like the silent screen's Kola Kwarian, the faces are familiar from hundreds of solid Hollywood entries, and provide an appropriate counterweight to Kubrick's unconventional style. Particularly affecting is the movie's "Hand of Fate" ending and Sterling Hayden's world-weary reaction, as though he had been expecting it all along. Sympathetic characters like his Johnny Clay just aren't meant to succeed despite the best laid plans. All in all, these elements add up to what may be the best of all caper films.Something should be pointed out about the nature of caper films like "Asphalt Jungle", "The Killing", and "Plunder Road" coming at the time they did during the law-and-order 1950's. More than either Hitchcock's suave villians or Bud Boetticher's likeable cowboy bad guys, these caper films humanized crime on a sociological scale. But unlike the former, they also carried a subtly mixed message of subversion and repression. Then as now, audiences can't help rooting for the conspirators as they apply their expertise and discipline, much like modern corporations, in pursuit of big money gains. However, unlike the faceless corporation, the characters in these films assume a distinct and often likeable identity, and are shown to be acting on ordinary motives, in ways the audience can idenify with ( Joe Sawyer's compassion for his wife in "The Killing"). Moreover, by combining their expertise, they demonstate the effectiveness ordinary people have in challenging the impersonal institutions that govern them, e.g. banks, police, politicians. That the efforts in all three movies ultimately fail is also instructive about the time, specifically, the production code, which dictated that crime must never be shown to pay, leading to predictable resolutions that audiences came to expect. Nevertheless, it is chance or fate or the cosmos, that is the undoing in all three films, and not the forces of law and order. Or, put another way, if not for cursed bad luck, the daring entrepreneurship in all three films would have succeeded and the ordinary dreams of the conpirators (and the audience) would have been realized. The scripts seem to be saying that well laid plans may be able to defeat society's hierarchy, but no one can defeat God and God is on the side of the production code, or more properly, God is the production code. But once the production code itself was undone in the 1960's, the subversive message of the caper film remained, leaving audiences free again to dream, this time without the repressive hand of foredoom.
Rating:
Summary: Kubrick's First Masterpiece
Review: This is the third feature film directed by Kubrick and the one which probably established his eminence, subsequently enhanced by Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and Full Metal Jacket (1987). The title refers to the one last lucrative theft which Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) carefully plans so that he can retire from his life of crime and live happily ever after with Fay (Colleen Gray). Although Kubrick carefully tracks the preparations by Clay and his associates, he seems more interested in what (for lack of a better term) can be viewed as a self-fulfilling negative prophecy. That is to say, there seems to be little (if any) chance that the robbery of a race track will turn out well. In fact, it doesn't. Clay is a world-weary, semi-paranoid leader of losers. Henpecked by wife Sherry (Marie Windsor), George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.) is a reluctant accomplice, obviously motivated to satisfy his financially insatiable spouse. He as well as Nikki (Tim Carey) and Tiny (Joe Turkel) are Keystone Bandits. The quality of acting throughout the cast is first-rate. Kubrick obtains from Hayden in this film and in Dr. Strangelove his two strongest performances. The final scene on the airport tarmac is unforgettable, a fitting and (for me) an inevitable conclusion. If pressed to use one word to describe this film, I would suggest "tidy." Also "compelling." Those who share my high regard for this film are urged to check out The Public Enemy (1931), You Only Live Once (1937), High Sierra (1941), and They Live by Night (1949).
Rating:
Summary: Kubrik Gem
Review: This would have been a real art film if there was no narration ( Art Gilmore). No matter, the stark images in the "Killing" draw the viewer into the drama. The exotic camera angles presents a warped life style by the folks who inhabit the story. Other actors of note are;Ted De Corsia as the cop, Jay Adler as the loan shark, and Joe Sawyer. Grotesque and brooding. The finale is expected.
Rating:
Summary: ununderstandable saving
Review: Truly one can hardly understand how a so perfectly planned robbery can fail owing to a second hand suitcase with so feeble locks. These isn't the moment to economize a few dollars! Also these dog in the airport... What can one say after that? A truly pity. One wish for once to see winning the bad guy, but...
Rating:
Summary: untimely economies
Review: We see, this film describes perfectly a perfect robbery. But... for me it's clear that the censorship can't permit the thief ends in succeeding. So, I find there's an "arranged" end. The protagonist, so wise in all the details, strangely and stupidly buys a second hand valise, destined to carry the money in bank notes, but the valise has the locks so used that are almost broken and logically, they fails and the money falls out in the most compromised moment. Is this believable in such a good planned hold up? I think evidently not, and so the final isn't believable.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Well , I still don't own this DVD. But I've seen the film... And I don't care about any dvd features or sound quality... I could own this movie in vhs and I would be happy... This is without a doubt , the best crime film ever made... Not just because of the excellent directing by god ( kubrick ) But it's originality , performances and well elavorated... Pulp Fiction influenced the a lot of young directors to make movies like "The Killing" are made... Although "the killing" is the first one... No body noticed that style untill PF came out... And after that.. Almost every movie plays with time... But this movie... i don't care if it's the dvd or the veta...heheh You'll love it...
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