Trailer Trashin’: Simon Pegg is a Hapless Assassin in Kill Me Three Times
Happy New Year, dear readers! I hope you all enjoyed your preferred end-of-year holidays, and are ready to ring in 2015. And to mark the occasion, the Trailer Trashin’ column is back with a look at the Australian black comedy/thriller Kill Me Three Times.
Premise: Professional assassin Charlie Wolfe (Simon Pegg) is hired to kill Alice Taylor (Alice Braga), the singer wife of the wealthy Jack Taylor (Callan Mulvey). But the plan is complicated by the involvement of gambling addict Nathan Webb (Sullivan Stapleton), who is trying to pay off his debts through a life insurance scam thought up by his partner Lucy (Teresa Palmer), corrupt cop Bruce Jones (Bryan Brown), and surfer Dylan Smith (Luke Hemsworth), who is trying to save Alice from her would-be killers.
Note: Although this is not a red-band trailer, it does contain strong language and a few moments of blood and graphic violence, and could probably be considered “Not Safe for Work.”
My take: As I’ve mentioned before, I have a bit of a strange relationship with modern film comedies. Most mainstream comedies that come out in America today – whether it’s the Judd Apatow-type or the Hangover-style film – just doesn’t appeal to me. What I tend to like are British comedies and more low-profile films like Much Ado About Nothing (2013). I also love genre comedies, the films that blend humor with elements of other types of film, such as action, sci-fi, or horror. One comedy of this type that came onto my radar recently is the Australian black comedy/thriller Kill Me Three Times, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. This is the first US trailer for the film, and it looks like it could be a lot of fun.
In previous columns, I’ve talked about my admiration for/man-crush on Simon Pegg. He’s always fun to watch, and his role here as Charlie Wolfe looks like a good chance for him to do something a bit different. Callan Mulvey, who appeared on screens earlier this year in 300: Rise of an Empire and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, looks appropriately slimy as Jack Taylor, the man who hires Charlie to kill his wife. Alice Braga – from Predators (2010), The Rite (2011), and Elysium (2013), among other films – plays Jack’s wife Alice. We mostly see her in various forms of peril in this trailer, but the fact she’s holding a sledgehammer in the cast roll call toward the end makes me hope she won’t just be playing the victim. Teresa Palmer – who you might remember as the female lead in Warm Bodies (2013) – and Sullivan Stapleton – the male lead in 300: Rise of an Empire – play, respectively, Lucy and Nathan Webb, the couple posing as the dentist and receptionist who kidnap Alice. We briefly see Luke Hemsworth – brother of Chris and Liam – as Dylan Smith, the surfer-looking dude. And Bryan Brown – probably best known as the star of F/X (1986) and its sequel, as well as numerous supporting roles over the last several decades – plays Bruce Jones, the dirty cop seen threatening Nathan.
Simon Pegg in “Kill Me Three Times.”
The mixture of thriller and comedy that Kill Me Three Times is going for is a difficult balancing act, but based on this trailer, it looks like the filmmakers may have pulled it off. The opening of the trailer is a wonderful bit of comic misdirection, with Charlie seemingly about to say something profound or philosophical, only to instead ask “How the f*** did it come to this?” I like the approach the film seems to be taking, where the stakes are treated as real and dangerous, but then there’s something pointing out the absurdities going on or taking the characters down a peg. My favorite bit of this is probably when Charlie blows up the car and is walking away from the burning wreck, then stops as he realizes he used his entire matchbook to light the fire when a single match would have sufficed.
There’s not much else to say. This is a good trailer for what looks like it could be a fun, quirky little film. I’m always on the lookout for a good genre comedy, and as soon as I saw this trailer, this went onto my list of films to keep an eye on. When the end of March rolls around, I’ll definitely be looking for a chance to check out Kill Me Three Times for myself.
ANTICIPATION: I don’t know about three times, but I definitely want to see it at least once.
Starring: Teresa Palmer, Simon Pegg, Sullivan Stapleton, Luke Hemsworth, Alice Braga, Callan Mulvey, and Bryan Brown
Director: Kriv Stenders
Writers: James McFarland
Timothy Monforton
