You Kill Me (2007)
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 114
Fresh: 89 | Rotten: 25
Featuring wonderful performances from Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni, You Kill Me is a charming, funny take on the familiar inner-lives-of-hit-men premise.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 7
Featuring wonderful performances from Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni, You Kill Me is a charming, funny take on the familiar inner-lives-of-hit-men premise.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 30,285
Movie Info
John Dahl's mob comedy You Kill Me stars Ben Kingsley as Frank Falenczyk, an alcoholic mob hitman who is ordered into AA by his boss (Philip Baker Hall). In order to clean up, he goes to San Francisco and successfully starts 12-stepping with the help of his sponsor (Luke Wilson). Eventually Frank gets a job at a mortuary, where he falls in love with Laurel (Téa Leoni). Soon his new existence is threatened when people from his old life start showing up. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
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Cast
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Ben Kingsley
Frank Falenczyk -
Téa Leoni
Laurel -
Luke Wilson
Tom -
Philip Baker Hall
Roman -
Dennis Farina
O'Leary -
Bill Pullman
Dave -
Marcus Thomas
Stef -
Alison Sealy-Smith
Doris
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All Critics (118) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (25) | DVD (11)
Surely there aren't many emotionally fragile mobster stories left in the Hollywood arsenal. But at least Kill is a pretty good shot with the laughs.
Top CriticA lot more clever than it initially appears.
One of those self-consciously quirky indie films that will strike some as comic genius while leaving the rest of the audience scratching their head.
An unpredictable, enjoyable mob comedy.
A strong performance by the reliable Kingsley, and a tartly sweet one from Leoni, keeps You Kill Me from turning into the bad joke the title implies.
Where Dahl succeeds is in transforming two essentially tired characters into fully fleshed-out human beings who fall in love.
A sweet black comedy about a professional killer from Buffalo whose gangster uncle makes him join Alcoholics Anonymous in San Francisco, falls in love with a down to earth saleswoman and cleans up his act so he can be a neater killer.
Kingsley seems to be sleepwalking through the entire movie, in a faux-understated performance
Domesticating the mobster within society has become almost a commonplace, thanks to The Sopranos, but Kingsley's tight-lipped gruffness gives a lift to the mordant ironies of the script.
Ben Kingsley brings a batty, basilisk wit to You Kill Me, a black comedy about a dipsomaniacal hitman.
Kingsley shows a surprising talent for deadpan comic delivery.
A great cast and a great script make this a surprising recommendation as a first date movie.
A fitfully amusing black comedy about an alcoholic assassin, its well-drawn characters drown in a generic gangster plot and a painfully low budget.
An uneven black comedy-thriller that's nonetheless worth catching for Téa Leoni's bracingly sharp performance and the inspired idea of putting hitman Ben Kingsley into AA. Just focus on the well-etched characters and don't worry too much about the plot.
The opening six-minute shot of dawn breaking over a rural landscape is worth the price of admission alone. Stunning.
All dilutions aside, director Dahl mixes a dash of Six Feet Under with shots of Mr & Mrs Smith and Grosse Point Blank to put the kick into an enjoyably spiky little cocktail.
Despite some good performances, You Kill Me misses the target.
A badly written hash of a film, which will struggle to please even the most devout Sir Ben fans.
The film isn't without its flaws, but in defying Hollywood convention, it manages to reach parts other comedies cannot reach.
Not a masterpiece, mind you, nor the funniest thing you could see on a lazy summer afternoon; but a fine motion picture.
Slays me over its colorful amusing characters even if its story underwhelms me.
I could watch Kingsley and Leoni for days. They're the film's true draw.
A little more energy would have done the film a world of good.
[Director] Dahl exudes such a casual control; his lightness of touch reads as a concern for good form, like knowing how to squeeze a trigger instead of pulling it.
Audience Reviews for You Kill Me
Super Reviewer
Frank Falenczyk loves his job. He just happens to be the hit-man for his Polish mob family in Buffalo, N.Y. But, Frank's got a drinking problem and when he messes up a critical assignment that puts the family business in peril, his uncle sends him to San Francisco to clean up his act. Frank is not a touchy-feely kind of guy. But, he starts going to AA meetings, gets a sponsor and a job at a mortuary where he falls for the tart-tongued Laurel, a woman who is dangerously devoid of boundaries. Meanwhile, things aren't going well in Buffalo where an upstart Irish gang is threatening the family business. When violence erupts, Frank is forced to return home and with an unlikely assist from Laurel, faces old rivals on new terms.
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Absolutely loved this movie. Thought I was in for another hit-man movie, but it was the opposite. Loved the dry humor. Definitely a dark comedy, without trying so hard to be funny. Ben Kingsley was brilliant. Loved Luke Wilson and Tea Leoni. She was really funny in this movie. Such an odd thing for people to be completely accepting of Ben's character being an Hit-man, but not his drinking. Just really good movie that I almost past up. But thought since it was recommended to me I would give it a watch. Glad I did.
Super Reviewer
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Movie: ID: 770669968 Title: You Kill Me Release Date: 2007-07-13 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Top Headlines
"Love is always worth another shot."
You Kill Me is another mob related comedy. This one is different from the normal one, in that the story at the heart of the film isn't all about mob related activity. At the heart of You Kill Me, it is really a man searching for life in the midst of his alcoholism. He finds this life in a woman.
Frank is a hit man for a Polish crime family. When his alcoholism escalates and causes him to botch a hit(by falling asleep no less), he's sent to San Francisco to get his life back on the right path. There he starts trying to get sober. He takes a job at a funeral home, starts attending AA meetings, and begins a relationship with a much younger woman.
I should say now that the extent to which I was able to enjoy You Kill Me is based purely off of the splendid cast. Everyone's terrific, turning a dull movie into a dull movie with good acting. I mean, the story had moments, but there were just too much down time. The laughs are few and far between, and while the writing and directing isn't horrible, it's only average.
Watch the film for Ben Kingsley and a good supporting cast including Philip Baker Hall and Téa Leoni. I had my fair share of problems with the movie as a whole. It wasn't all that engaging, and it turned itself into just another romantic comedy. But Ben Kingsley's presence was enough to make the movie at least watchable. I initially thought I would fall in love with You Kill Me, but I guess I can accept the fact that I merely found it watchable.