X
- 2015
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
- 2015
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
Summary In the shadowy world of drone warfare, combat unfolds like a video game–only with real lives at stake. After six tours of duty, Air Force pilot Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) yearns to get back into the cockpit of a real plane, but he now fights the Taliban from an air-conditioned box in the Las Vegas desert. When he and his crew start taking o...
Directed By: Andrew Niccol
Written By: Andrew Niccol
- 2015
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
- 2015
- R
- IFC Films
- 1 h 42 m
Good Kill
63
6.1
Where to Watch
Summary In the shadowy world of drone warfare, combat unfolds like a video game–only with real lives at stake. After six tours of duty, Air Force pilot Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) yearns to get back into the cockpit of a real plane, but he now fights the Taliban from an air-conditioned box in the Las Vegas desert. When he and his crew start taking o...
Directed By: Andrew Niccol
Written By: Andrew Niccol
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
63
58% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
42% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
63
58% Positive
19 Reviews
19 Reviews
42% Mixed
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Mr. Hawke’s anguished performance gives Good Kill a hot emotional center.
One of the most insightful films about the War on Terror since 9/11.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 61 User Ratings
6.1
41% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
49% Mixed
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
10% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 61 User Ratings
6.1
41% Positive
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
49% Mixed
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
10% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
The storyline is realistic and it really shows the impact of modern warfare on both terrorist and innocent lives. The pilot only follows the orders given when to engage and sometimes even he may have mixed opinions about that. The cast is good, and with Ethan Hawke in it, this movie is definitely a go.
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Hawke is on a roll right now, and Good Kill stirs him to another performance of cogency and zeal. Is it sufficient, however, to support an entire movie?
Admittedly, Niccol succumbs to the temptation to make mini-billboards out of his dialogue, in which arguments follow neat “on the one hand” trajectories. But for the most part, Good Kill asks pertinent, enduring questions, not by way of polemic, but through the study of a character.
Compelling as the subject may be, its abstract nature would challenge the most skillful of dramatists, and Mr. Niccol’s script seldom rises above slogans, argumentation and standard-brand domestic tension.
Perhaps the film’s most telling moments, however, are wordless ones in which no actor appears. They’re the bird’s-eye views of American tableaux – suburban tract houses, elementary schools, interstate highways – that mimic similar sky-high perspectives just before a drone fires its missile.
When Good Kill takes aim at US foreign policy and the advances in military technology, it creates moments of chilling and powerful drama, but this is dissipated and compromised by its mirror-punching domestic drama and its bizarre need to bring about something like a happy ending.
Great story line, a well done drama. Ethan Hawke is amazing in this movie. A must watch!
Watch it online for free: ****/watch-2760940-Good-Kill-online-free
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Major Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) is a decorated Air-force pilot, who after five deployments, has been assigned to a base in Las Vegas, where he conducts drones strikes over Afghanistan. He hates his job and feels like a coward, but things get a whole lot worse, when the CIA commissions his team to start doing questionable jobs. Egan starts to come apart and take it out on his co-workers and family, leading to an uncertain future. IFC films are right at the top of my list right now as the absolute best in independent film. Seldom have they disappointed me, and I wouldn't describe my feelings about Good Kill as disappointed, but rather indifferent. This film, based on a true story, was exceptionally written and features a fantastic director and an amazing cast, but it also moves at a snails pace and is extremely repetitive. It's just drone strike, reaction, intervention, repeat, over and over again, followed by an ending that wasn't all that surprising. Ethan Hawke gives a powerful performance, despite the fact that he lacks the kind of emotion this role sorely needed. I understand that having Egan be this stone cold guy on the outside is a major theme, but it also makes for a lot of seemingly endless conversations and interactions. Good Kill has a lot of elements I look for in a movie, it's well written, has a cast I really enjoy, a director I know very well, still, it's lacking in emotion and levity. The film is monotonous and much longer than it had to be, all in all, not bad, but not great.
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Ethan Hawke is a drone pilot who starts to question the moral implications of his missions as he fights the Taliban under direct orders from the CIA. As the stakes are raised his professional loyalty is called into question and his home life starts to fall apart. When its addressing US foreign policy and the questionable ethics of advanced military technology the film works very well, in part due to a tight script but mainly due to Hawke's haunted, committed performance. But when the film concentrates on his home life it fails to engage and takes on the tone of a soap opera making it harder to care about the story we are really interested in. A film of two halves , one of which is far superior to the other.
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I was interested in Good Kill as soon as I saw the trailer. The story was certainly one that brought me in. I was also eager to see Ethan Hawke's next project after Boyhood, which was the first movie I saw him in that I actually enjoyed his performance. Good Kill does have some veteran actors involved with Hawke, Bruce Greenwood and January Jones, who had the best performance in the film by far. Good Kill brings a relatively unknown component of the war on terrorism (it is said to be a true story but I'm not sure if I believe it) to light. Hawke gets caught in the middle of a huge ethical dilemma and begins to suffer from post traumatic stress. Good Kill was not exciting enough to keep my attention so I needed a big performance from Ethan Hawke and sadly I did not get it. I would not waste the money on this film because its just mediocre throughout.
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Comme toujours avec Andrew Niccol, la mise en scène est toujours sérieuse et les sujets qu'il choisit sont... souvent assez polémiques ! Et comme souvent, cela fait certainement réagir. Aussi réagis-je immédiatement tant que le fer est encore chaud et que les décombres fument encore...
Surtout que j'apprécie Ethan Hawk, un acteur éminent qui ne tire jamais la couverture à soi et sert toujours ses rôles... avant lui-même, contrairement à nombre d'acteurs "triple A" qui dégoulinent autant de prétention que d'incompétence épouvantables... Mais ne nous emballons pas et restons focalisé sur la cible... parce que moi son boulot, je le fais avec joie et allégresse tous les matins sans problème et la nuit s'il le faut : donnez-moi une check-list, des cibles et j'envois la purée tant que vous voulez, mon Colonel !! oui Monsieur et plutôt deux fois qu'une, Monsieur !!
Parce que Ethan donc incarne ce bisounours ex-pilote qui... pilote désormais des drones ; évidemment pour un pilote, se taper un drone, c'est comme donner un bus à pilote de Formule 1... mais à la guerre comme à la guerre, on est pas dans une putain de colonie de vacances !
Apparemment, la collègue mexicaine ne l'a pas encore compris ni intégré... si lui est le bisounours qui noie ses larmes de Caliméro dans l'alcool, elle, c'est l'autre bisounours, bisounourse pardon, de gauche, pacifiste pro-islamo-multi-culturaliste (et sûrement écolo et baissage de froc pendant qu'on y est) adepte du vivre_ensemble et angéliste niaise complètement débile...!
J'espère qu'ils n'embauchent pas des connes comme ça dans l'Armée américaine parce que là, franchement, c'est de la haute trahison ou de la pure connerie de simple connasse de base.
Alors oui, comme ça, les drones ont des armes et même des missiles... qui tuent les gens ! et attention, c'est pas un jeu vidéo, non, non... et même que les terroristes s'entourent de boucliers humains, à savoir des civils, des femmes et des enfants... ! mais quelle horreur la guerre, c'est trop affreux, affreux... la frappe chirurgicale qui **** dans les grandes largeurs...
Et le Caliméro qui boit alors qu'il a un super boulot, une vieille muscle-car à jantes bling-bling, deux beaux enfants et une blonde encore bandante... nan mais meeerde... de quel côté es-tu mon petit gars ? avec nous ou avec eux ? faudrait savoir ! Donc tout est raté là-dedans ou presque... sauf peut-être ce moment où il veut rendre la justice (?!)... mais alors c'est quoi ce bordel, tu deviens très vindicatif sur ce coup-là, tout-à-coup...
M'enfin bref, tout ce merdier ne vaut finalement pas un pet !
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Production Company
Voltage Pictures,
Dune Films,
BCD Travel,
Sobini Films
Release Date May 15, 2015
Duration 1 h 42 m
Rating R
Tagline If you never face your enemy, how can you face yourself.
Website
http://www.drone-of-war.com/
Awards
Venice Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
