Any time I watch a movie written and directed by Michael Matteo Rossi – and I have seen several of them in recent years – I get the feeling that this is a filmmaker who is getting the chance to make the exact movies he wants to make, exactly how he wants to make them. His movies tend to have a certain unique tone and style to them while focusing on characters who do very bad things... and Rossi never seems overly concerned with whether or not viewers will be able to like or care about these characters. This is a large part of why I get the feeling that he’s able to make the exact movies he wants to; otherwise, he’d be dealing with notes about needing to give the audience somebody to root for. Most of his movies could start off with the disclaimer, “Yes, these are bad people. You don’t need to like them; just go for the ride.” At this point, I go into Rossi movies expecting not to like anyone. But I’m always interested in seeing what the ride is going to be like.
His latest movie, The Charisma Killers, is about a group of professional murderers. At the head of this group is Vernon Wells as The Old Man, a former detective who got bored with his profession after a few decades and wanted to make more money, so he switched sides and became a mentor to several homicidal criminals. He manipulates things so they can keep their freedom, and he receives compensation in return. It’s been a profitable business, but now The Old Man has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And rather than just split his fortune between these killers that he considers to be his kids, he presents them with a challenge: a crooked cop is going to be throwing a party to celebrate his promotion to Captain, and most of the people in attendance will be other dirty cops. So The Old Man wants the kills to infiltrate this party and pull off a massacre. The individual with the most kills will win the money.
This group of killers abides by three rules: No killing each other, no having kids, and no snitching. There are seven members: One Hit Hustle (Jason Scott Jenkins), who takes pride in his high success rate of being able to kill people with just one punch; 1911 (Forest Meadows), who never leaves home without his 1911 handguns; Pretty Boy Nordin (Jordan James Smith), who is a model by day and a killer on the side; Psycho (Paul Logan), who has a fitting nickname, likes to make his kills unique, and enjoys eating his victims; Katana (Jackie Moore), the female equivalent of Nordin; Rope (Marnette Patterson), who takes drastic measures to deal with those who don’t take no for an answer; and Lone (Daniel O’Reilly), the a complex outsider who takes the stealthy approach.
The movie gets off to a strong start, spending around 20 minutes introducing The Old Man and each of the killers that spend their downtime with him, and then the following 15 minutes or so revealing The Old Man’s diagnosis and setting up the massacre challenge. Things slow down from there, as there’s 40 minutes to go before the killers actually reach the party where they’ll be committing the massacre. That section of the movie deals with them plotting, figuring out how to get into the party so they can do the killing, with some of them less being less enthusiastic about participating than some of the others are. That stretch was a bit too long and talky for me, especially since I didn’t like most of the characters. When you don’t care about the people who are doing the talking, it’s difficult to be interested in what they have to say. Even though Paul Logan can be fun to watch as he chews scenery and human flesh as Psycho, the character is so twisted that he can still wear out his welcome. Rope comes off as the best of the bunch. But the character who really shines during that part of the movie is the crooked cop who’s celebrating his promotion, Fowler Jr. - and this is because Chris Moss delivers a great, over-the-top douchebag performance as the character.
There’s so much build-up to the massacre, some viewers may be disappointed that it doesn’t take up a larger percentage of the movie’s 101 minute running time, but there is some cool action - shootouts and fight choreography - packed into that sequence. Unfortunately, the fact that there's a character called Katana involved doesn't open the door to a great deal of swordplay, but I can let it slide.
Overall, I had a good time watching The Charisma Killers, finding it to be a solid action thriller. It could have used a bit more action and a bit less chatter, but the movie was working with a small budget, so the action / dialogue ratio is understandable. As far as Michael Matteo Rossi movies go, I would rank this as one of the best that I've seen - and if he decides to make the sequel that the final moments open the door for, I'll be there to watch it.
The Charisma Killers has a November 1 release date on VOD and DVD.
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