Kill the Man

Rating

Director

Tom Booker, Jon Kean

Screenplay

Tom Booker, Jon Kean

Length

1h 28m

Starring

Luke Wilson, Joshua Malina, Paula Devicq, Phillip Rhys, Phil LaMarr, Jim Fyfe, Teri Garr, Michael McKean, Lisa Robin Kelly

MPAA Rating

R

Review

PREFACE:
In the early 2000s, I was writing reviews for an outfit called Apollo Guide Reviews. That website has since been closed down.

Attempting to reconstruct those reviews has been an exercise in frustration. Having sent them to Apollo Guide via email on a server I no longer have access to (and which probably doesn’t have records going back that far), my only option was to dig through The Wayback Machine to see if I could find them there. Unfortunately, while I found a number of reviews, a handful of them have disappeared into the ether. At this point, almost two decades later, it is rather unlikely that I will find them again.

Luckily, I was able to locate my original review of this particular film. Please note that I was not doing my own editing at the time, Apollo Guide was. As such, there may be more than your standard number of grammatical and spelling errors in this review. In an attempt to preserve what my style had been like back then, I am not re-editing these reviews, which are presented as-is.

REVIEW:
Since the beginning of narrative film, ‘David and Goliath’ stories have been popular, simply because audiences love to see the triumph of the underdog. Some of these are set in the business world, where big business continues to crush many small businesses – creating particular interest in this sort of underdog tale. Kill the Man is the story of a big-time photocopy superstore that wants to bring down the competition.

Stanley Simon ( Luke Wilson) is a basketball fanatic and a daydreamer. His life hasn’t always been charmed, but when he wins a contest – walking away with a modest cash prize – he and his friend Bob Stein (Joshua Malina) open a small copy shop. It’s named Long Shot Copies, and it allows the two friends to embark on a capitalist adventure that they hope will reap them great benefits. Unfortunately for them, there’s competition. The powerful King Co. Copies drains away all but a small part of their business and they soon find themselves on the verge of being evicted.

Enter Marky Marx ( Phil LaMarr) a Malcolm X-style revolutionary who insists on bringing down the man. When he attempts to flee Long Shot Copies without paying for his copies, Stanley and Bob catch him and make a deal with him to put his services to use. Add to the mix Seth ( Richard Riehle), a modestly dim-witted rocker who works at the store and you have a recipe seemingly from the Anarchists’ Cookbook.

While they plot their devious plots against King Co., Stanley faces a battle on a separate front. His girlfriend Vicki (Paula Devicq) insists on marriage and Stanley finds that he’s got to pay attention to mending his broken relationship.

Despite the wacky premise, Kill the Man doesn’t have a lot going for it. Comedians Michael McKean and Teri Garr are the film’s most notable stars and without much studio promotion, it must succeed solely on its modest content. The movie does have a keen sense of place. There are no elaborate visual effects sequences to drive the film to a wide audience. Instead, it takes a unique perspective on monopolization.

Films that balance screwball comedy with romance and don’t come off as false are difficult to find. Stan and Vicki’s difficult relationship is quite realistic. Most of the credit can be passed on to Devicq who is both sweet and nasty, while Wilson is sufficiently lackadaisical. Malina goes overboard for most of the film and LaMarr’s stereotypical anarchist is unnerving. Garr and McKean play off one another well as Vicki’s duelling parents and Katie Johnston is terrific as Vicki’s mentally challenged sister.

Kill the Man shares a common destiny with 1995’s Empire Records. It’s the kind of film that young audiences will enjoy and feel a strange kinship to. While they may not have experience with small versus big business, they can identify with the romantic relationships found within.

Like Empire Records, if the right audience takes to it, this could become a cult favourite.

Review Written

Unknown