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You Kill Me

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
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
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Joy Ride Rounders The Great Raid The Last Seduction
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's a predictable but acridly pleasant 12-step bonbon: self-help noir.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Even if you can't accept all the movie's left curves, you might still be amused.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Inert dud of a hitmen-are-people-too comedy.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
