Killing Zoe (1994)

See the star? He's right there! The little piggy, in the middle! Yeah, all the way at the bottom!

Genre: Crime Drama Thriller (USA, France)

Starring: Eric Stoltz (The Fly II; The Prophecy) Julie Delpy (Three Colours: White; Before Sunset)

Directed By: Roger Avary (Writer of Pulp Fiction and Silent Hill)

Overview: A safe cracker agrees to hit a Parisian Reserve Bank on Bastille Day, but realizes too late that his accomplices are vice-abusing amateurs.

Acting: I don't believe that without Killing Zoe, Eric would have the somewhat prestigious roles he's acquired along the way, but it's not because of any help from the rest of the supporting cast. There are very few actors who ruin a movie for me. Those include: Jar Jar Binks, Juliette Lewis, and now Jean-Hugues Anglande, the featured man in the above photo. I'm glad Roger Avery returned to writing because his directorial career was not all that grand. Hyper, just too hyper.
Rating: 6

Cinematography: We have a million and a half dollar budget, so yes, we're still in the low-budge genre, but I've said before, low budge can be great. This has a couple driving shots of Paris, a hotel scene, a bar that was obviously a cheap set and finally the bank. None of the shots were inspirational, nothing was that exciting, including the shootouts. How can shootouts not be exciting? Search me. I fell asleep. Professional but completely uninspired.
Rating: 5

Script: There's a joke that one of the bank robbers tells. It's in French, hence subtitled. The joke is about a man who eats out a woman's pussy, but somehow some moron translated 'pussy' into belly button. All the Anglos out there are getting some stupid edited version of a (horrible) joke that in France was left alone. Cutting corners for censorship. That's integrity.
Rating: 6

Plot: Guy comes into town to do his professional safe-cracking deed. He hooks up with a polite part-time ho until the big drug-addled ringleader friend shows up, kicks her out and takes our hero out on the town, doing drugs, debauchery, and all sorts of other things that should be huge red flags before the big bank-job day. The amateurs out for a rush are certainly different that our sensitive hero. Oh, look who works at the bank! It's Zoe the skany ho! From that point on you know how this is going to end. Our voyage to that end somehow leaves the parking brake on for the whole trip.
Rating: 5

Mood: With recent changes in my life and looking forward, I wonder if I'll be able to review every film I watch as I have done since The Vituperatem's inception. The new site, a curiosity in filmmaking, these may slow me down a little in the future. This is the first movie I considered just leaving be because I knew the review writing would bring back the odium I felt for this film. I just didn't care. It's too slow. How does a crazy shootout bank robbery film end up being so boring?!
Rating: 5

Awww, even some fan art for the kiddies

Overall Rating: 54% (Killing Time)

Aftertaste: The whole time I was watching this, I kept getting an image of Eric Stoltz in his lazy Pulp Fiction heroin dealer role, eating Cap'n Crunch. You know those movies that you wonder if you've seen and you give it a chance? This is the second movie this has ever happened with. The other one was John Woo's The Killer. The main reason for this site is to share my knowledge and opinions of film. Another reason is to document the films I've watched so I don't see the easily forgotten drivel that exists out there TWICE. Man.