Highly Overrated But Still Good

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The first must-see film of the year.

I'm constantly surprised that stupid films like this one keep getting made when there's so much better stuff out there that could be adapted for the screen. KILL YOUR FRIENDS is nothing more than an American Psycho rip-off, set in Britain during the booming music scene in the late 1990s. Nicholas Hoult plays a young and ambitious producer who discovers that the best way to get ahead in the business is to murder his rivals.This was based on a novel I have no interest in reading because this really is terrible entertainment. It's about the most low brow film I can think of, with a script filled with expletives and no wit. Hoult plays a horrible character in a film filled with horrible characters and there really is no reason to watch. It's widely advertised as a gory serial killer type movie when in fact it's very slow paced and murder barely plays a part in the proceedings.KILL YOUR FRIENDS is a film about unpleasant people made for unpleasant people. I suppose it might have been made as a black comedy but I can truthfully say I didn't laugh once. Hoult has no presence as a leading man; he got away with it in JACK THE GIANT SLAYER because he had plenty of acting heavyweights in support, but here he's completely out of his depth. The less said about James Corden's non-acting style the better. This is one of the few films that I wish I'd never bothered watching.

Love British black humour or find something else to watch. This is black, sly, and so very not pc that it is wonderful. Nicholas Hoult is no longer that cute little boy from the movie with HG. He's grown a hunky sex body and is picking films to get away from the boy next door roles (Skins), and into the male leading man category. Kill Your Friends moves him up that ladder and then some but the film has its flaws. As Steven Stellfox, Hoult is shallow and ambitious as A & R manager for a troubled British recording company, and he's not about to be penalized for his mistakes in music taste or judgements. Breaking the fourth wall, audiences are given his motivation and maliciousness in a gleeful narration that bares industry attitudes toward the production of milquetoast musical arrangements geared toward the mindless messes. Stylish and greedy, Stellfox's moves to advancement are not for the squeamish, but in Hoult's presentation, they are delightful to watch. Like a lot. Hysterical and entertaining for the bent in us all.

Nicholas Hoult of 'Skins' fame plays Steven Stelfox who is a twenty something 'A and R' man for a London based purveyor of awful music. He is the sort of person the eighties generation of greed produced. He has no soul and is only in it for the money. He knows it is a cut throat business and so decides to take that advice quite literally by doing just that.Now this is one of those films that has people either raving or seething and I think comparisons to 'American Psycho' have not aided this in gaining the audience it needs. It is a black comedy but the comedy is fairly well rationed out and if you find bad things happening to be about as funny as a sack of dead babies then you will not like this.The acting is as expected with no stand out performances and no one letting the side down either. James Corden is in it for a while and does his trademark getting his kit off – which is more worn out in terms of mirth than a 'Primark' welcome mat during sale season. Craig Roberts plays an awkward record co 'gofor' and is OK in that too. Hoult is believable and very unlikeable and I think that is the total point. The record industry is full of the sort or folk that you really do not want to be your best buds – even on a multi media social network. It is cut throat but using the vehicle of humour is a very good way to send it up and so I am in between the ravers and the seethers but actually appreciated this film – the good parts outweigh the lesser ones.

If you liked the book, then you should enjoy the movie just fine. The issue is the book is not something easily adaptable to become a movie that you could enjoy even if you never read the book and liked it. Some more tweaking could've made this movie a lot more enjoyable to the general audience instead of just taking out the more offensive lines. At the end of the movie you learned and felt nothing. Just an hour and a half to waste time. Steven Stelfox gives you no reason to understand why he would have friends in the first place. You literally know nothing about Steven beyond his cynical internal monologue about the world. Obviously he's not a likable guy, and he's even more charmless in the book, but it doesn't translate well on screen. That was the biggest issue.I think all of the actors did a good job, and Nicholas Hoult did a good job of portraying Steven even though I think he was still looking way too young to be that cynical about life. Other than that, I don't think this book should have been a movie, some things are just better off being left as books.