Long ago, movie makers discovered a trick: they could present the same scene twice, from "different points of view." What one character is learning from the scene is not the same as what another character is learning. One (or both) might be "getting the wrong idea" about what they've just seen or experienced. Of course the audience, having been shown both versions, will be in the know. Or maybe not. An example is the Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple" (1985). What would happen if the Coens' dark tale could be transported to the bright, unforgiving sunshine of Western Australia? Thanks to writer James McFarland and director Kriv Stenders, now we know.
Everyone is related to everyone else (in one way or another), according to Bruce Jones (Bryan Brown). So it's going to save on production costs (actors) if each individual in the story is somehow entangled with nearly every other individual - adding to the levels of complication, the ironies, the permutations. Bruce the cop is a professional. Charlie Wolfe (Simon Pegg) is a professional "fixer" - who has arrived to do a simple job. But why not pick up a few extra pineapples while he's here? What could go wrong? Plenty. Trouble is, everyone else is an amateur, and of course they think they're a lot smarter than they really are. There are wads of these pineapples ($50 notes) in a safe - no, they're in a carry-bag - no there's a stack of dental hygiene leaflets in the carry-bag... Some firearms get misused. Vehicles get barbecued.
So are you going to enjoy this movie? It depends. Clever plans that might not go to plan are fertile soil for luxuriant irony. Personally, I'm going to watch this film again. And this time I'm going to take notes. I'm going to keep track of what's going on. I'm going to get on top of all the slippery tricks and teases.
Aussies live on a continent where you can't afford to make too many mistakes. The characters in "Kill Me Three Times" fail to grasp this important fact. The coast road from Broome to Perth is scenic, but it's not short (nearly 1500 miles), and big trucks move along it at a fair clip. Here and there a dead roo by the roadside attracts flies. The folks in this movie attract unintended consequences, and incongruous accidents. For the attentive viewer there is rich entertainment to be found in this tingle-tangle of the bleak and the bizarre, the unexpected and the inevitable.
Everyone is related to everyone else (in one way or another), according to Bruce Jones (Bryan Brown). So it's going to save on production costs (actors) if each individual in the story is somehow entangled with nearly every other individual - adding to the levels of complication, the ironies, the permutations. Bruce the cop is a professional. Charlie Wolfe (Simon Pegg) is a professional "fixer" - who has arrived to do a simple job. But why not pick up a few extra pineapples while he's here? What could go wrong? Plenty. Trouble is, everyone else is an amateur, and of course they think they're a lot smarter than they really are. There are wads of these pineapples ($50 notes) in a safe - no, they're in a carry-bag - no there's a stack of dental hygiene leaflets in the carry-bag... Some firearms get misused. Vehicles get barbecued.
So are you going to enjoy this movie? It depends. Clever plans that might not go to plan are fertile soil for luxuriant irony. Personally, I'm going to watch this film again. And this time I'm going to take notes. I'm going to keep track of what's going on. I'm going to get on top of all the slippery tricks and teases.
Aussies live on a continent where you can't afford to make too many mistakes. The characters in "Kill Me Three Times" fail to grasp this important fact. The coast road from Broome to Perth is scenic, but it's not short (nearly 1500 miles), and big trucks move along it at a fair clip. Here and there a dead roo by the roadside attracts flies. The folks in this movie attract unintended consequences, and incongruous accidents. For the attentive viewer there is rich entertainment to be found in this tingle-tangle of the bleak and the bizarre, the unexpected and the inevitable.