You won't be disappointed!

Fantastic!

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I'm not usually one for older films, but made an exception for Kubrick, and glad I did. I'm surprised this isn't one of his more celebrated and talked about films, but it is definitely worth seeing.

Stanley Kubrick's First Fully Formed Feature Film is a Vibrating Noir-Heist. It's the Tail End of the Film-Noir Cycle and Kubrick's Homage is Outstanding.The Cast is a Gaggle of Noir Icon's. Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor, Jay C. Flippen, Ted De Corsia, and Borned to be Noir Timothy Carey.The Pacing is Hyper Crackerjack and the Cinematography is Gritty, Edgy, and Glaring Outside. Indoors it's Dark, Bleak, Shadowy, Sleazy, and Desperate. The Gun-Play is Striking.The Dialog from Pulp Writer Jim Thompson is Minimalist, Unfettered, and In Your Face. The Music is Serviceable and the Voice Over Narration was Procedural Vogue.Overall, the Ending is a WOW and the Time Displacement and Overlaps, Cutting Edge at the Time are Now Clichés in the Modern made most Famous by Quentin Tarantino's Work.It's a Must See Movie that has Broad Appeal and is as Violent and Unsettling as Anything from the 1950's. It is Truly a Breakout Film from the Director and His Talent, Insight, and Film-Making Prowess was Evident here and almost Everyone Noticed.Note...This is considered Stanley Kubrick's only pure Film-Noir.

A film from the early career of one Stanley Kubrick. You might have heard of him. And to be fair, the early nature of the film from such a unique director certainly shows. Because Kubrick is very much known as a visionary. His movies are art, every frame a painting. Whereas The Killing, while certainly well-made, is not. There are hints of the kind of films Kubrick would end up making in it, but as a whole you wouldn't be able to tell it for a Kubrick if you didn't know.This is not to say it's a bad film. Quite the opposite, actually. The story is about a horse track heist, an ageing criminal looking to pull one last job with the help of a carefully chosen crew. Unfortunately the greenest, but also one of the most essential, members turns out to be a bit too loose-lipped with the secret and the whole plan starts to unravel.The film jumps around in time and place a lot, telling the story in small segments. And yet the storytelling is tight enough that it's never hard to follow. The characters are all interesting and the heist itself is very complicated, which in real world would be a huge problem, but which we allow in a film because it makes it more interesting.And then there's the ending. Kudos for Kubrick, because it's one of the finest I've seen in a while and certainly nothing you'd ever expect.All in all an interesting experience. A look into the growth of a great director and a good film in its own right.

I've been meaning to check out the older Kubrick films - I've only seen the ones from 1962 onwards. The Killing wasn't really what I expected, it didn't have the slow pacing and steady shots that I associate with Kubrick, but it was a good crime movie. It's basically a prototype for heist movies like Ocean's Eleven: a ragtag bunch of crooks come together with each their special part to play in a big gig that will leave all of them rolling in cash. The perfect crime in this case is theft of the safe of a horse racing track.The movie is largely dialog-driven, it's clever and thrilling and at times funny. The ending is a standout, really well executed and just for that totally worth a watch. The movie hasn't aged at all.