Film review: New Town Killers

Published on Thursday 11 June 2009 18:59

NEW TOWN KILLERS (15) *** DIRECTED BY: RICHARD JOBSON STARRING: DOUGRAY SCOTT, ALASTAIR MACKENZIE, JAMES ANTHONY PEARSON

AFTER his laughably bad attempt to make a down-and-dirty Scottish action flick with The Purifiers, writer/director Richard Jobson has a more successful crack at it with New Town Killers. Making inventive use of his Edinburgh locations, and getting the most out of a slightly expanded budget, he's made a reasonably entertaining thriller about investment bankers (Dougray Scott and Alastair Mackenzie) who coerce a council estate-dwelling teen to participate in a deadly game of hide-and-seek for the chance to win a lifesaving wad of cash. That's a decent B-movie premise – it should be: it's been recycled enough times since first appearing in 1932's The Most Dangerous Game – and in grand B-movie tradition Jobson uses this scenario to offer a social commentary on the financial crisis and the increasing gulf between rich and poor. Actually, he offers a bit too much social commentary, never really trusting us to draw our own conclusions about the film's subtexts, which slows proceedings down somewhat (not great for a chase film). Still, he has reined in his penchant for pretentious dialogue and, visually speaking, this is more ambitious than the majority of dreary low-budget Brit flicks.