Killing Me Softly: Critic Reviews

Turkeys don't come plumper than this.

A turgid erotic thriller that plays like Zalman King-meets-vintage Brian De Palma without the latter's wit or style.

What a great shame that such a talented director as Chen Kaige has chosen to make his English-language debut with a film so poorly plotted and scripted.

The screenplay (based on Nicci French's novel) is cringeworthy, and Kaige's inability to spot when English-speaking thesps are reciting rather than acting produces scenes that vary from lifeless to laughable.

Why, you might ask, is master director Chen Kaige wasting his time on such trashy material?

As Graham attempts to uncover the truth about his past, the film grows increasingly convoluted, leading to a twist ending that will come as a surprise only to those who've never seen a Shannon Tweed movie.

What a disappointing waste of good talent!

A hilariously bad movie that has to be seen to be believed.

Inane and shopworn material with a truly cheesy final twist, this is made excruciating by direction that takes it all deadly seriously.

It's pretty campy-silly, but it's surprisingly watchable for some reason, maybe because of the name-brand actors sleazing it in this Skinemax would-be classic.

Though its rather routine script is loaded with familiar situations, the movie has a cinematic fluidity and sense of intelligence that makes it work more than it probably should.

Spectacularly awful film that's actually funnier than many so-called comedies.

Fails so fundamentally on every conventional level that it achieves some kind of goofy grandeur.

A risible drama, torpedoed by lifeless performances, a muddled screenplay and anonymous direction.

With miscast leads, banal dialogue and an absurdly overblown climax, Killing Me Softly belongs firmly in the so-bad-it's-good camp.

Es triste tener que decirles que lo unico grato de la cinta es el cuerpo desnudo de la Heather...

Nothing about the story hangs together, the characters become increasingly stiff and unbelievable, and the incessant red herrings finally become too much to bear.