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2025,  Ben Wheatley (Kill List) -- download

Once again, I am struck that I should get around to watching Kill List. In fact, I didn't even know I was watching a Wheately movie until the credits rolled.

I did not have Bob Odenkirk as Action Hero on my movie bingo card. He comes along once again with Derek Kostad to write & produce an ultra-violent action flick starring an aging, unlikely protagonist. This time he's Ulysses Richardson (Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul), a sheriff-for-hire, come to Normal, Wisconsin Minnesota (once again, Winnipeg) to temporarily fill the role until the elections happen -- the previous sheriff froze to death. That aspect of Old West Meets Modern American Policing still weirds me out -- they do not have to be trained police officers, just win an election. Anywayz, Normal is ... well, normal. Mostly; some small town weird. Ulysses comes to this job with his own shaky past, seeking to escape something. But he's a likeable, nice guy, happy to do this job and then move on.

Then he's nice to the wrong person, a likeable bank robber who, along with her boyfriend, must be in desperate straits to resort to such drastic measures. Things don't go well and an alarm is sounded, one the sheriff's office has hidden behind some junk because, well, that alarm would never dare go off. Ulysses goes into the bank to talk the couple down when... his own deputies begin opening fire with automatic weapons, and the new sheriff is just as much a target as the rest of the people in the bank. There is something in there that nobody should see, let alone an interim sheriff.

You see, the movie opened with the punishment of two Yakuza thugs, and if we paid attention, we will see that they are standing guard in the bank. It doesn't take much to get that likely the Yakuza has some holdings in the bank, enough that if its revealed, everyone must die. This is where the movie bleeds quickly into the lunatic fringe, more a farce of comedic-action than any reality we could accept. But that's OK, as it kind of works. Ulysses ends up working with the bank robbers against ... the whole town. Pretty much everyone in town made a deal with a Yakuza oyabun to stand guard over a vast fortune in gold, cash and weapons hidden away in a small Minnesota bank vault. Its weird, unrealistic but in the context of the movie, it kind of works.

So, outside, a snow storm rages (a terribly depicted spray-on snow storm) which has knocked out communication lines (in)conveniently leaving Ulysses and the couple, Lori (Reena Jolly, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe) and Keith (Brendan Fletcher, Violent Night), having to fight it out with the well-armed townsfolk all night. Meanwhile, the robbery alarm has gone all the way to Japan so the oyabun and his crew are one their way. What was expected to end in a massive bloodbath actually gets interrupted by a ... stalemate and awkward agreement between Ulysses and the townsfolk he hasn't killed yet, to stand up against the Yakuza. If the oyabun and his visiting crew all die, then no one can report the town's failure and they can resume standing guard over the fortune. 

Yah, its all a bit weird thin stretch but somehow Wheatley sells it. It doesn't hurt that Odenkirk comes across as likeable and capable, and since he has killed the mayor pretty much immediately, the surviving townsfolk are sort of lacking leadership. Except he doesn't stay and the movie doesn't sell the idea he would accept the killing in defense of so many many townsfolk. I know, I know, in these movies, the Protagonist slaughters dozens of NPCs in a matter-of-fact manner, but since the establishment of Ulysses character (his shaky past) involved him killing someone that needed killing, that a mass slaughter (in self-defense, of course) would get him past that is ... a weird spin. And that they actually let him leave with the knowledge of what is going on in Normal. So, not normal.

But, I do like my quirky violent romps.

I should mention. There is a side-character side-plot, wherein Alex (Jess McLeod, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma), the adult child of the late-sheriff is trans / non-binary. Its a toss away acknowledgement, where Ulysses apologizes for misgendering them and then immediately finds an ally in his bloodbath, given they had been advising their father against the agreement the town had, and that is what got the late sheriff killed. I really liked that they made gender a part of the character, but moved quickly past it. Yes, it does feel like an insertion, but its the acknowledgement of normality in an otherwise abnormal Normal. And they use a tender scene of acknowledgement and acceptance as the exposition dump, Alex filling in Ulysses on what the what is in Normal.