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It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Upon reading the film's summary you may think that Michael Madsen returns yet as another villain in a B-movie. But, there's a little twist! Playing both the bad guy and the lead, Madsen pulls it of by mixing his most famous roles Mr.Blonde and Budd and adds a little bit of The Gent (from "Hellride")in there for his portrayal of Doe. The screenplay is one of the most original and suitable ones ever for a B-movie setting. One location, right amount of dialogue and gore with a storyline that connects the unique with the cliché. However, Mark Young cannot perform as well in the director's chair. There's so much potential in the film for it to become the Reservoir Dogs of the 21st Century: a great setting, an unexpected and fun-to- watch turning of events & a solid cast led by legendary Madsen and also starring likes of Harold Perrineau, Jake Busey and Danny Trejo. Yet Mark Young's incompetency behind the camera drops a possible rating of 8.5/9 to around 7. Still, this picture is a must for Michael Madsen fans and lovers of minimalistic crime flicks.

Michael Madsen at his meanest, and he can be pretty mean. He's the guy who fondled his razor and described with such relish to the tied-up cop captive exactly how he was going to enjoy torturing him. Then he did it. There was blood all over the floor.If anything, he's meaner here than in "Reservoir Dogs." A peaceful diner at night in the middle of nowhere in which the cadre know each other and a few travelers are having pie and coffee -- right out of "The Twilight Zone." Enter Madsen decked out black leather with chrome accessories, sneering, gruff, commanding. He's older here and his voice is a hoarse crackle. Offended by a dumb local deputy, he leaves the diner, returns with a monster ugly shotgun and blows the deputies head off, followed shortly by the head of the unfriendly manager. A visitor walks in and Madsen put a bag over his head and bounces it back and forth with a police baton before putting a bullet through the guy's head. Another patron dies a horrible death, then another. There's blood and brains splattered all over the walls and the remnants of the diner's apple pie.I won't go on any farther with the plot. It's not an uninteresting story. It carries the kernel of its own redemption. But it's turned into another example of an emerging genre called torture porn. There's something awfully ignoble about it and no beauty. The producers, the writer/director, are trying to amuse and excite the audience by showing violence in its most anatomical aspect.An attempt has been made to turn it arty -- the resounding drip drip of water in the kitchen basin, a racking shot involving the reflection of someone's menacing face morphing into the pattern of raindrops on the café's window. But that's, as they used to say, putting lipstick on a pig.Most of the performances seem to be okay as we watch the images float through the ghoulish gloom. Michael Madsen, by this time, could have phoned in his performance. Amber Benson is memorable as a terrified waitress who looks like a concordance of Sheree North and Michelle Pfeiffer.I'm exhausted by our current penchant for mindless violence. It seems to me to be a debasement of our national character. I thought the movie was more than disgusting but others might find it more enjoyable.

Bad. Bad. No suspense. No tension. Graphic and gratuitous violence. Just dumb. Script sucked. Period. Michael Madsen - normally a fine actor - looks like he has no commitment to doing any real acting. He looks tired, bored, listless...apathetic. Hey Michael - you supposed to be an actor. You can't phone it in my friend. You gotta do more than just die your frock and stroll through the dialogue delivery.Just a joke of a film. Believe it or not - some of the actors were decent. Jake Busey can emote. So can the black dude. But what a bore. I guess it was hard to pull it off with such a low budget. I get it. I like low budget films - with some degree of sense. Not this brainless bore.

"The Killing Jar": the "jar" being a small town diner and the "killing" being people trapped inside with their fate up to a gunman. This begins by familiarizing the audience with these simple town folk just out for a late night bite at their favorite greasy eatery with jukebox, stifling heat and cheap prices. After hearing a radio broadcast about four murders of a husband, wife and their two children, the patrons--couple, waitress, deputy, cook, truck driver and passer through--speak their disgust but go about their business and shoot the breeze.You get the hardened boss (Danny Trejo), who's overshot vocal tone and miscued body language indicate he quickly filmed some scenes at different times than who he's interacting with. The young couple aimlessly use a video camera and talk about idle dreams. The most natural and credible performance is by the passer through (Harold Perrineau), who is a salesman that just wants to get back home but he'll need a strong cup of brew. The truck driver and deputy keep it familiar as if this is the same routine. A Rockabilly type (Michael Madsen) eventually enters. He's demanding and acts suspicious, which upsets the waitress and causes the deputy to get into a threatening confrontation, which sends Madsen's character over the edge. He can go from spaced-out, henchmen-confident to sympathetic and unsure but not always clenching the transition in between to make it all credible. The moment he storms back in with a shotgun, you lean forward in your seat for hopefully the real start of the adventure.The rest tries to maintain an intrigue and build up to a twist ending, though apart from a few abrupt and bloody deaths it feels like one giant tedious string along without a major purpose or relatable reward, with the exception of the simple but capable waitress being offered the opportunity and courage to get out of the rut she's at in the restaurant and in her life. However, with everything padded and piled around her to equally get coverage of everybody else, she's not consistently at the focal point of attention to realize this till the latter portion. The gunman kills for no apparent reason other than being provoked. All of a sudden he gains some kind of higher righteousness and uses a skill-set from a past profession to interrogate the patrons and a revelation comes out about the news report involving the murdered family.On paper this reads like a good idea to produce a low budget movie concentrated on story and characters than one-liners, extravagant sets and location changes. But since the film is so claustrophobic, the flow, character interaction and direction tried to continually throw off the cinemaphile who studies all the details and tries to figure out the puzzle beforehand, though it did the opposite as it didn't fluidly come together to put the audience in the direct moment or believably rationalize with their motivations enough to wholly care that this could actually happen where innocents are being killed in this far away place. It shows how much some filmmakers are willing to go to guard their secret twist, even at the expense of the rest of the picture. It also didn't help that they tried to clash quirkiness and sarcasm amongst sentimental moments, such as Jake Busey's character looking laughably tacky with a weaselly grin mixed with pseudo introspective shots that pan around the diner possibly to throw the scent off. "The Killing Jar" had the right ideas going in, just some of the wrong execution as the flow came in and out in waves. (Also submitted on http://fromblacktoredfilmreviews.blogspot.com/)