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Killing Zoe

Killing Zoe

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: That's What The Last Guy Said
Review: Movie Summary: Zed comes to Paris at the invitation of his old friend Eric with whom he used to rob convenience stores. While he is waiting at the hotel to meet Eric, he hooks up with student call girl Zoe. When Eric arrives, he pulls Zoe out of the shower and throws her into the hall naked. Eric and Zed then go on a drug binge with Eric's criminal buddies. The next day they rob a bank and Eric goes insane.

My Opinion: The production notes tell the story of how a director found this cool bank in Los Angeles that he thought would be perfect for a movie. He called around to see if anyone had a script for such a movie. Roger Avary said he did. After hanging up the phone, he hurriedly wrote one. For me this explained everything. Had he taken some time with the script, things might have been different. The long drug binge in the beginning of the movie is terrible. I don't care if it's supposed to show the chaotic mind of Eric or whatever. I didn't like it. As for the main bank robbery portion of the movie, there was nothing new or inventive. The violence was without reason and over the top. Things like dirty jokes seemed to be just thrown in to make the movie longer. It was like watching Pulp Fiction with all the humor and intelligence removed. Jean-Hugues Anglade does put in a good performance, but it is in a losing effort. I had a hard time buying Eric Stoltz as a hardened bank robber and the very attractive Julie Delpy as a desperate call girl willing to risk everything for a criminal she met only hours before. Chalk this one up as direct to video quality and move on.

DVD Quality: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1 DD2.0 Picture quality was good. Extras include trailer, cast bios, and production notes.

What You Should Do: See it only if you are really into violent drug crazed bank robbery movies. I don't think there are many of those though.

Related Movies To Check Out: Pulp Fiction, Dog Day Afternoon, Point Break, Die Hard

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: entertaining enough
Review: Now i'm a big fan of Qeuntin Tarantino(who isn't)he has a style
that is all his own with american classics like Pulp Fiction,
Reservoir Dogs(both written and directed by Tarantino)and the
writer behind the entertaining True Romance and From Dusk Till Dawn he turned the indie film scene into a cult phoenomenon.He
lent a hand in this as a executive producer and the film was
pretty good.Roger Avary(co-writer of Pulp Fiction)did good with
the writing/directing with this.Alot of violence,profanity,and
the usual drug use the movie is entertaining but Avary is no
Tarantino.fans of Pulp Fiction,Point Break,Die Hard,etc.rated R
for strong violence,pervasive languege,drug use,and sex.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: violent = fun
Review: People are complaining about this movie because it wasn't"thought provoking". Like so many other people, I enjoy watching films that stimulate my mind, and actually give me some type of knowledge by the end. But everyonce in awhile, I like to watch nothing but pure, simple violence and sex...this movie provided just that. If you haven't seen it yet, and you've read the reviews, you already know the basic plot. See it anyway if you like alot of senseless violence, blood, drug use, demented humor and Julie Delphy nake. This movie is junk food for your head, and everyone likes junk food everyonce in awhile...unless you're a complete tighta$$. Good ACTION movie, it also has a unique soundtrack

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Killing The Audience
Review: Predictable from the first 5 minutes into the movie. Overdone plot about a robbery gone wrong and the safe-cracker hero who has a heart. Nothing original here except for scenes so vulgar and tasteless that it would make Howard Stern turn in disgust.

The script is nil and the acting less than stellar. The conincidences purposefully placed in the film to support the plot are too great to be credible and the action too dull to keep it interesting. I frankly could have done without the grotesque heroin-induced sodomy scenes. Watch "Heat" instead if you want to see a great bank heist film. Don't waste your time or money on this one, it's a sleeper at best: A negative rating is called for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: really great, if you're fan of dark humor.
Review: probably my favorite film that no-one's ever seen.very likable, albeit violent characters, great look, and moves much faster than pulp fiction, in fact, it's a shame quentin tarentino is even associated with it. reminds me of 'love & a .45', another great film. both films share genius D.P. tom richmond. see it, buy it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Well, I liked it.
Review: Read some bad reviews below. I just saw this movie for the first time and I actually thought it was good. I thought it was slow at first, but the whole bank robbing sequence was great, I thought. So, yeah, a bit too much exposition, but pays off in the end I thought. I thought Eric was one of the coolest villains I have seen in a while. Reminded me of Gary Oldman in 'Leon'. So whatever. I liked it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than Reservoir Dogs
Review: Roger Avary is the true talent behind Quentin Tarantino (at least according to NBK producer Jane Hamsher) and his first solo job is impressive, if a bit slow. The main heist doesn't really get going until the halfway point. But it's really a character study, anyway.

Zed (Eric Stoltz) is called by Parisian buddy Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) to help him break into a reserve bank vault on Bastille Day, one of the few banks open on that day.

Zed falls for a student/escort supplied to him through a cab driver, takes several recreational drugs with Eric and his friends (including Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp), and wakes up the next morning, not quite ready for the job. The job keeps Zed downstairs surrounded by the noise of the drill, so he never notices that things go very wrong.

And who happens to have a part-time job at the bank?

Avary is quoted as saying that producer Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction) called him up and said he had a bank set free for a few weeks, did he have a script involving a bank he wanted to film? Avary said yes, he did. Then he wrote one...this.

Comparisons to Reservoir Dogs are inescapable (even on the video box), but the two films are very different, although similarly dark in tone. I think this one is actually better.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Definitely worthwhile
Review: Some ultra-vi movies, like "Reservoir Dogs" and "True Romance," have little to commend them because the vi is the be-all and end-all. "Killing Zoe" brackets the violence with humor and mania, resulting in a very interesting movie. Eric Stoltz plays Zed, a US safecracker just arrived in Paris for a big job with his former school buddy Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade). He has the concierge at his hotel send up a prostitute (the very appealing Julie Delpy) and they get it on tenderly, falling in love. A cliche, but nicely done. The second third is a drug binge before the big job, vaguely psychedelic and reminiscent of the New Orleans cemetary acid scene in "Easy Rider," but better done. The last and most satisfying part is the bank heist gone awry--like "Dog Day Afternoon" on speed and minus the humor, but with lots more blood. The redeeming feature is the world-beating performance of Anglade as Eric, played with manic energy, dementia and irony as things go from bad to worse. He alone is worth the price of admission, though he gets plenty of help from fine performances by Stoltz and Delpy. Look for Gary Kemp, who played Fat Ron in "The Krays," as one of the bank robbers. Definitely worthwhile.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Definitely worthwhile
Review: Some ultra-vi movies, like "Reservoir Dogs" and "True Romance," have little to commend them because the vi is the be-all and end-all. "Killing Zoe" brackets the violence with humor and mania, resulting in a very interesting movie. Eric Stoltz plays Zed, a US safecracker just arrived in Paris for a big job with his former school buddy Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade). He has the concierge at his hotel send up a prostitute (the very appealing Julie Delpy) and they get it on tenderly, falling in love. A cliche, but nicely done. The second third is a drug binge before the big job, vaguely psychedelic and reminiscent of the New Orleans cemetary acid scene in "Easy Rider," but better done. The last and most satisfying part is the bank heist gone awry--like "Dog Day Afternoon" on speed and minus the humor, but with lots more blood. The redeeming feature is the world-beating performance of Anglade as Eric, played with manic energy, dementia and irony as things go from bad to worse. He alone is worth the price of admission, though he gets plenty of help from fine performances by Stoltz and Delpy. Look for Gary Kemp, who played Fat Ron in "The Krays," as one of the bank robbers. Definitely worthwhile.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: This film can get inside your head
Review: The thing is, you can either relate to the story and the characters, or you don't. It explores some dark, dark places in the human psyche that most people do not want to witness. Jean-Huges Anglade's Eric is engaging. He is a psychotic, a man with who knows what neurosis or psychosis, the knowledge that he is dying of AIDS, a hopeless heroin addict. This is his downfall in actually being able to pull off his role as ring-master in the bank heist. Eric Stoltz's character reminded me a little of his character Lance, in Pulp. He is definitely living in the underworld and yet shows abilities for compassion and maybe even love, the anti-hero of this film. There should have been more development of his character as I would have liked to been able to enjoy the complexity of his role.

I agree that character development was lacking. I agree that the movie dragged some, especially in the beginning. I also heard more clever lines in Pulp. However, the use of camera, color, location, set up the backdrop of this film with much symbolism, helping to convey this film-noir's aspects.

Once the heist went down, I was along side them, every step of the way. I had to see how it was all going to play out in the end. I wanted to see Stoltz walk away in the end and "get the girl".

You will appreciate this movie for what it is, and forgive it for what it isn't. That is of course, you liked it. I did.


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