The film has great visual flair, but the story is a heavy-handed slice of modern melodrama that would have made Dickens blush.
Comment
06/16/09
New Town Killers (2009)
45
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:20
Fresh:9
Rotten:11
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: A poorly-made Scottish thriller that suffers from bad cinematography, let-down performances and a distinct lack of thrills.
Starring: Dougray Scott, Alastair Mackenzie, James Anthony Pearson, Charles Mnene
Director: Richard Jobson
Reviews for New Town Killers
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
A series of illogical twists derails a chase movie that ends in the unfortunate metaphor of an empty box.
06/16/09
It is tightly constructed and successfully portrays the underlying tension between Edinburgh’s newly prosperous and those who never had anything and never will.
06/16/09
Energetic direction and a promising central performance counteract the modest budget and some less-than-convincing plot elements.
06/12/09
Genuinely thrilling urban chase. The tension just keeps ratcheting up.
06/12/09
Top CriticA seemingly self-mocking jumble of sour literary, cinematic, class and genre affectations.
06/12/09
Top CriticA film featuring free-running that makes this most bizarre of extreme pursuits appear positively pedestrian.
06/12/09
Top CriticThe look of the film is unpolished and several of the supporting performances are poor.
06/12/09
Top CriticGiven that it's basically one big chase, there's something awfully snoozy about this latest from Richard Jobson - a sort of cut-price, Scottish-set Hostel (a mountain bothy, maybe?).
06/12/09
Top CriticThis is shocking, it suggests David Fincher’s The Game shot by crackheads running around with cheap DV cameras.
06/12/09
Top CriticSocial commentary with a video game mentality. Intriguing, if not entirely successful.
06/12/09
Tension and mystery are both constants throughout this very decent indie movie, which could have easily become a cult classic in future years if Sean's two pursuers were better handled by the script.
06/12/09
Caught between wanting to make a bold statement and deliver edge of the seat thrills, New Town Killers is a curious mix.
06/12/09
Racing from lawless tenement to loveless townhouse, it’s grittier and gutsier than the cut-price Running Man clone it threatens to become, a spiky little speedball of caustic social commentary and guerrilla thrills.
06/12/09
So depressing, life-sapping and unrelentingly nihilistic, words have yet to be invented to convey the sheer awfulness of this so-called thriller. A contender for worst film of 2009.
06/12/09
The gloomy back streets and alleyways of Edinburgh are the perfect setting for this heart-in-mouth thriller. The plot is frantic and taut and keeps you gripped until the final credits.
06/12/09
Top CriticA watchable and well acted, if frequently ridiculous thriller.
06/12/09
Brutal and contrived, this Scottish thriller just makes too little sense to hold our attention. It may be filmed with a lot of style, but it's also pretentious, full of cliches and nearly deafening.
06/12/09
This is more ambitious than the majority of dreary low-budget Brit flicks.
06/12/09
If its deadly game of cat-and-mouse is styled like a fancifully violent video game, the social divisions it exposes are real enough.
11/07/08
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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