Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

You Kill Me
IFC Films


8.3

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language and some violence

Starring Ben Kingsley, Téa Leoni, Luke Wilson, Philip Baker Hall, Dennis Farina, and Bill Pullman

This street-smart mob comedy is the story of what happens when two mismatched people find a common calling. (IFC Films)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Christopher Markus Stephen McFeely
DIRECTED BY:	John Dahl
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: June 22, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	92 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Frank (Ben Kingsley) meets Laurel (Tea Leoni), a woman who has been around the block a time or 200, and she likes Frank's directness, while he likes her unflappability. This is one of the greatest screwball relationships in years.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Cuddlier and more charming, this alcoholic-hitman comedy isn’t your typical Dahl noir (The Last Seduction, Red Rock West), but it is offbeat, lovably deadpan, and just tart enough.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You Kill Me kills you softly with its smiles.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

It's a predictable but acridly pleasant 12-step bonbon: self-help noir.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

A deviously delightful entertainment.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The acting is fine -- and so is the moody-blues direction -- but, given the subject matter, the movie should be blacker and more disturbing.

USA Today Scott Bowles

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Leoni is one of the truly distinctive comic actresses we have in the movies today, a tough broad with murderously effective timing and phrasing.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Director John Dahl keeps a firm hand on Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely's razor-sharp hit-man-in-rehab comedy, which mines the same dark vein as "Gross Pointe Blank"(1997) and "Matador"(2005), and the payoff is both slily funny and startlingly fresh.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's the best role in years for Leoni, but You Kill Me really belongs to Kingsley, whose character's deadpan reactions to his new environment are priceless. He really kills.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Dahl found the right actors for every part - Bill Pullman as the cynical Realtor hired to look after Frank, Luke Wilson as the gay AA member assigned as Frank's sponsor, and the always amusing Dennis Farina as Irish mobster Edward O'Leary.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Straight-up ridiculous, but it's also consistently funny and nicely played by a well-complemented cast that finds its collective groove and never misses a beat.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Even if you can't accept all the movie's left curves, you might still be amused.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

We've seen the inner lives of hit men and mobsters rendered innumerably in recent years on film and television, but You Kill Me does it in a satisfyingly comedic way, loaded with easily identifiable idiosyncrasies.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

With an eclectic mix of strong-minded thesps all pulling in slightly different directions, this shape-shifting genre hybrid successfully commingles 12-step therapy, romantic comedy and hit-man thriller.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Its razor-sharp script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and the hilariously deadpan comic performances by Ben Kingsley and Tea Leoni make it a consistent pleasure.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

In other hands with another cast, You Kill Me might easily have proven just another modest production indulging in mob violence and postmodern irony. There certainly is no shortage of those. Dahl’s latest, however, is something more than a modest production. It’s a small wonder.

Time Richard Schickel

I don't want to oversell You Kill Me. It is not going to leave you breathless with laughter. But I don't want to undersell it either. For an hour and a half it exerts its own preposterous reality, making you believe it -- and like it.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Staff (Not credited)

The main pleasure lies in watching a cast filled with fine character actors like Kingsley, Farina, Hall, and Bill Pullman work their way around the salty, noir-inflected dialogue. It's just unfortunate that those lines add up to such piffle.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Leoni's presence adds a jolt of energy to a movie that, while not necessarily worth going out of your way for, turns out to be a lot more clever than it initially appears.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Dahl has directed half a dozen sardonic noir movies, dating back to "Kill Me Again" in 1989, so he should have been the ideal choice for this material. But even he can't make chicken salad from a pile of beaks, bones and claws.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

You Kill Me is not so much a bad film as one filled with missed potential and marked by the seams of compromise.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

You Kill Me is pretty light, but it's well made, and within the built-in limitations of its story -- a hit man goes to Alcoholics Anonymous -- it's fairly pleasing.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Inert dud of a hitmen-are-people-too comedy.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

The past decade has been less kind to Dahl, and though his latest, called You Kill Me, has the outward appearance of a return to form, it may in fact be the worst thing he's ever done--an inert, tone-deaf mélange of "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under."

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

JC A. gave it a10:
A classy and jazzy masterpiece.

Joyce C. gave it a10:
Every seven years your taste of food changes, maybe you used to like cheese wiz and now you hate it. Well my taste changed pretty fast. I saw this movie the day it came out and I didn't like it what so ever. Around two weeks later, I watched it again just 'cause I was bored and for some reason a I enjoyed it much more than the last time I saw it. After that, I noticed that you have to put full thought when you're watching this movie. And I did. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys and puts full thought into their movies. Great film.

Gary C. gave it a10:
I just watched this movie the other night and I have no idea why my wife didn't like it but I loved it. You Kill Me is a classic. It deseves what it gets and what its going to get because there's absolutely nothing wrong with this movie what so ever.

Jared C. gave it a10:
It was humorous. It was classy. It was the jazziest comedy of the year, until Superbad came along.

G-Rad Andrew gave it a10:
I saw this movie on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton, Alberta. I enjoyed it a lot. The humor wasn't laugh-out-loud comedy, it was more of funny show that made you giggle in your head because you knew it was funny but seriously funny. Through my opinion, I thought it was very classy and stylish.

Scott R gave it an8:
Funny in the way Thank You For Smoking was funny. And I have never seen Kingsley so wry.

Bill D. gave it an8:
Very funny movie, especially if you're familiar with the AA 12 Step Program. The entire cast is great, but Pullman and Leoni especially stand out. The only flaw, albeit a big one, is the ending, which seems patched together by nervous studio executives. The fact that the Kingsley character's support group is pulling for his successful recovery from alcoholism so he can get his life as a hired killer back on track appears to have created several competing, unresolved opinions by the film makers as to how this otherwise terrific comedy should end.

You Kill Me IFC Films

You Kill Me
IFC Films