In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The Killing Jar has a lot to recommend it, especially the great acting by Michael Madsen (a favorite of mine), Amber Benson, Jake Busey, and Harold Perrineau (he played Damon Pope on "Sons of Anarchy" and Mercutio in "Romeo and Juliet"). But what might be a tight thriller gets a little too bloody, to the point where it is gratuitous rather than adding to the story. Toned down it would have made for a much better story.I'm a big Michael Madsen fan and I never tire of his walks on the dark side in films like "Kill Bill", "Sin City", "Getaway" and, of course, "Reservoir Dogs". He's capable of playing other types of roles ("Wyatt Earp", "Species", "Free Willy") but audiences come to expect the violent portrayals. In this film I think he does a lot more acting and his character is not as one dimensional as Mr. Blonde. It's certainly the equivalent of his multi-faceted character from "Kill Bill".The film is a definite must for Madsen fans.

Straight to video and indie films are always a huge gamble, and one arena where the expression 'don't judge a book by its cover' is all but useless. I've waded through endless B movie garbage trying to find gems among the filth. It's tricky because it's either amateurish nonsense or surprisingly enjoyable genre flicks, there's just no middle ground. The Killing Jar, however, falls into the latter category. It's all nicely nasty thriller with vague shades of Hitchcock, and an almost horror vibe at times. It concerns a group of people in a twenty four hour diner who realize there's more than a few unsavory killers in their midst, of both the obvious and hidden variety. There's the pretty waitress (Amber Benson), squirrelly Deputy (Lee Temple), the regular joe (Harrold Perrineau), the short order cook (Danny Trejo), the rough neck trucker (Waingro- I mean Kevin Gage) and a few others. They are peacefully going about their business when dangerous looking John Doe (Michael Madsen) strolls in and begins to terrorize them all with a great big ol' shotgun, for apparently no reason. It soon becomes clear there's someone worse hiding in plain sight, someone involved with a shady criminal (Jake Busey) who just might be discovered inadvertently in Doe's rampage. I will never get tired of watching Madsen play a mean spirited tough guy, and he's nastier than he's been in years here, throwing around scowls and barking threats, dishing out really gruesome wanton violence and generally just badassing it up. It's by no means a great movie, but it's nice, nasty genre fun that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty and tell an unsettling little story that's surprisingly well thought out for a direct to video effort.

When I say Danny Trejo was going to be in this, I knew this movie wouldn't be very good. I don't know why people like him. His acting is not acting at all. It is like he is just yelling all the time with a stick up his butt. The acting by the others are okay. I think it is just the writing and directing by the director that made this movie a fail in my opinion. Not even 20 minutes into the movie and I was irritated by the writer's/director's inability to understand that showing something is stronger than having an actor follow up with the obvious. For example, the waitress is rubbing her temples which could only mean one thing, she has a headache. Well the male actor sitting next to her asks what's the matter when we can obviously tell she has a headache. Second, when the waitress gets in an altercation with a patron, Trejo, the cook and owner, waits until it is over to jump to his waitress's aid.Finding out who certain people are and the backstory is very good, but all the violence wasn't necessary. It just felt like it was thrown in. You never know why some people do the things they did and you still won't for the main shooter really. If you are into gory movies this is for you and if you like a good attempt at a plot this is it, but I wouldn't watch this again for most of the acting, or directing. Although the guy from lost was amazing in this movie!!

"The Killing Jar": the "jar" being a small town diner and the "killing" being people trapped inside with their fate up to a gunman. This begins by familiarizing the audience with these simple town folk just out for a late night bite at their favorite greasy eatery with jukebox, stifling heat and cheap prices. After hearing a radio broadcast about four murders of a husband, wife and their two children, the patrons--couple, waitress, deputy, cook, truck driver and passer through--speak their disgust but go about their business and shoot the breeze.You get the hardened boss (Danny Trejo), who's overshot vocal tone and miscued body language indicate he quickly filmed some scenes at different times than who he's interacting with. The young couple aimlessly use a video camera and talk about idle dreams. The most natural and credible performance is by the passer through (Harold Perrineau), who is a salesman that just wants to get back home but he'll need a strong cup of brew. The truck driver and deputy keep it familiar as if this is the same routine. A Rockabilly type (Michael Madsen) eventually enters. He's demanding and acts suspicious, which upsets the waitress and causes the deputy to get into a threatening confrontation, which sends Madsen's character over the edge. He can go from spaced-out, henchmen-confident to sympathetic and unsure but not always clenching the transition in between to make it all credible. The moment he storms back in with a shotgun, you lean forward in your seat for hopefully the real start of the adventure.The rest tries to maintain an intrigue and build up to a twist ending, though apart from a few abrupt and bloody deaths it feels like one giant tedious string along without a major purpose or relatable reward, with the exception of the simple but capable waitress being offered the opportunity and courage to get out of the rut she's at in the restaurant and in her life. However, with everything padded and piled around her to equally get coverage of everybody else, she's not consistently at the focal point of attention to realize this till the latter portion. The gunman kills for no apparent reason other than being provoked. All of a sudden he gains some kind of higher righteousness and uses a skill-set from a past profession to interrogate the patrons and a revelation comes out about the news report involving the murdered family.On paper this reads like a good idea to produce a low budget movie concentrated on story and characters than one-liners, extravagant sets and location changes. But since the film is so claustrophobic, the flow, character interaction and direction tried to continually throw off the cinemaphile who studies all the details and tries to figure out the puzzle beforehand, though it did the opposite as it didn't fluidly come together to put the audience in the direct moment or believably rationalize with their motivations enough to wholly care that this could actually happen where innocents are being killed in this far away place. It shows how much some filmmakers are willing to go to guard their secret twist, even at the expense of the rest of the picture. It also didn't help that they tried to clash quirkiness and sarcasm amongst sentimental moments, such as Jake Busey's character looking laughably tacky with a weaselly grin mixed with pseudo introspective shots that pan around the diner possibly to throw the scent off. "The Killing Jar" had the right ideas going in, just some of the wrong execution as the flow came in and out in waves. (Also submitted on http://fromblacktoredfilmreviews.blogspot.com/)