Matrixston
Wow! Such a good movie.
Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Leofwine_draca
Texas KILLING FIELDS is a rather boring serial killer flick set in the Texas swamplands (which I didn't even know existed). It's a poorly-directed mess of too-dark scenes, murky plotting and even murkier character motivations. The problem is that various TV shows like THE FOLLOWING tend to do this serial killer stuff better these days leaving films like this one floundering in their wake.The main problem with the film is the insipid direction, which comes to us courtesy of the unlikely-monikered Ami Canaan Mann. She's Michael Mann's daughter, no less, but should have taken lessons from her father in terms of camera placement, basic editing, and narrative suspense used to keep the viewer watching. Instead what we get is a largely boring structure of endless sub-plots, talky dialogue scenes, and a too-large cast of cameoing stars.Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, as the two leads, can do nothing with such boring, poorly-written characters who have few redeeming qualities for the viewer. Certain actors like Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, and the inimitable Stephen Graham, are given too little screen time to truly make a mark, although anybody familiar with the cast list will guess the identity of the killer early on in the proceedings. And, I'm afraid to say it, Chloe Grace Moretz reveals the paucity of her talent. How on earth does she keep getting work?
kincaid-5
I stuck with this film because I'm a fan of several actors, and the atmosphere and performances are strong. But I had to watch it several times before I knew for sure who was doing what, which is not good story-telling. The key point, which too many people miss, is that there are two completely separate cases here. Inside Texas City, two pimps have murdered one of their girls, and Souder wants to concentrate on busting them. Outside TC, in the county, there is a serial killer, and Souder wants nothing to do with that case. Partly he worries that his partner Heigh will get too involved emotionally, partly he would have to work with his ex-wife, but mostly -- like most people in the area -- he regards the Killing Fields as a place of all-consuming chaos and evil, best left absolutely alone. ("Your god don't come here.") If you look at the dates on the photos on Heigh's map, it's clear that this can't all be the work of one killer; a lot of them died before Rhino was born. The main narrative line is about how Souder is dragged unwillingly into the hunt for the serial killer, by his antipathy for Rhino and his loyalty to Heigh, who simply refuses to let go. (It also lets him heal a bit about his relationship with Pam.) The film had a lot going for it, but it's a shame that the story-telling was allowed to get so muddled that many viewers couldn't follow it.
Tss5078
Texas Killing Fields is a movie that should have been a TV series instead. There is way too much going on here for a simple two hour movie, leaving things confusing and unsettled. Based on a true story, Texas Killing Fields tells the story of an area outside of Texas City known as the highway to hell. Since 1970, more than 60 bodies have been found dumped in this desolate area and most of the crimes have never been solved. This film follows the arrival of a New York City Homicide Detective, who has moved to the area and starts investigating a recent series of crimes. If this film had stuck to the story, it would have been terrific, because there was a lot to work with. Instead, the film jumps between three different crimes, in two different jurisdictions, which leaves a team of detectives separated and working on their own things. There is absolutely no background story on the detectives, the victims, the suspects, or the fields, and when the cops are talking to people, it feels like you've missed a whole lot of background information. Everyone knows everyone in these small towns, but the writers seem to have forgotten that we don't know anyone and were left extremely confused. There are a dozen suspect and a new victim every half hour. With each cop working on his own, we are thrown back and fourth to the point where the film becomes unwatchable. Avatar's Sam Worthington stars and as with that film, he's really nothing special. The guy is an interesting side character at best, but definitely not ready to be starring his own film. His partner is played by Jeffery Morgan, who eerily looks like he could be Javier Bardem's twin. Morgan was somewhat better than Worthington, but again the performance was uneven and hard to judge, because it was simply impossible to keep up with what was going on. Texas Killing Fields had a real life story to play on, but too many good ideas for it's own good. The producers try to pack in as much as they could into 105 minutes, which wasn't enough time to tell the story, and left the audience scratching it's heads.
poe426
Texas KILLING FIELDS moves at a carefully measured pace and, like movies like MEMORIES OF MURDER and ZODIAC, it draws the viewer in slowly but surely. By eschewing the grandiose, over-the-top action typical of most big budget murder movies (or most any TV show), it rings truer than most- which, in this case, is apropos, as the movie is ostensibly based on the Real World Texas Killing Fields murders. (Going in, I thought that someone had finally solved the scores of murders in Texas and made a movie a la ZODIAC about the case(s), but not so.) TRUE DETECTIVE, the series made for cable, started off not unlike Texas KILLING FIELDS, with some interesting (but LOW KEY) characters in a more or less true-to-life type of police procedural, but they blew it when the fourth episode turned into an unnecessary assault on The Projects action episode. Texas KILLING FIELDS avoids that particular pitfall. Admirably.
