Texas Killing Fields (2011)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Absolutely Fantastic

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The top review wants explanation on every little thing on the actual events linking to the texas killing fields and its horrors. Probably expecting some gore on how women are getting killed and tortured etc. If you are looking for the cheesy horror films with violence porn, this is not it, but if you want to watch a well played intense drama, and by itself its a great movie, with some excellent performances. Characters well built that one feels connected to, and thats why you keep watching the movie, until the very end. And YES ZERO VIOLENCE PORN OR GORE, so you can watch it with your wife and 14 year old AND maybe even educate them on the horrors of society. It feels real and you can learn something from it.

A quite enjoyable thriller. The plot line is nothing special but well executed and the good acting by the two main characters makes the movie quite enjoyable. The chemistry between Morgan and Worthington is good and their individual performances are even better. They deliver what they were payed for. A similar statement can be made for Chloe Grace Moretz. While this isn't her best performance it is still a very intense and deep performance. The only disruptive thing is the side story that goes on and draws attention away from the main plot. While it is slightly connected to the main story line it makes the plot seem rather less important. If the focus would've stayed more on Morgan and Worthington's story line the movie could've gotten even more intense and unfold more carefully. This way we can never really feel for the characters and while the story line is good the emotions stay away. All in all we can say that while we have a solid story and acting the feelings and emotions of the movie are mostly absent and the other elements are rather average therefore we can justify the 6/10 rating.

The Texas Killing Fields pits two Texas lawman against a ruthless killer/child abductor. Directed by Ami Mann, the daughter of legendary director Michael Mann, this film stands as one of the more disappointing films I've seen. Filled with soapy performances and convoluted plot devices, the film amounts to nothing more than a direct-to-video mess of a film. Giving the potential talent behind the camera, this stands as a pretty disappointing addition to the police procedural. Ami Mann tries to balance the story between a group of backwoods hick killers and the detectives trying to arrest them. While the story is a clichè and has been done MANY times before, it still doesn't take the thrill away from the chase...the script does that for you. While the film is based on a true story, that's not even enough to make you suspend disbelief in certain scenes, especially with a scene near the end of the film that is so wildly ridiculous that anything that could have been used to its credit vanishes as soon as the scene ends. However, in Ami Mann's defense, she has HUGE shoes to fill especially with the crime drama genre that her father has perfected over his colorful career. The Texas Killing Fields gives the feel of a Michael Mann film in style and camera movements, but as far as a story goes, this script needed a few more re- writes if it wanted to leave a lasting impression. Despite the disappointment behind the camera, the real magic from this film comes in the performances. One thing Ami Mann can do is direct her actors. Featuring an all star cast made of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastin, Jason Clarke and Chloe Grace Moretz, there isn't one performance in this film that is lackluster. While every actor acted their ass off in this film, the real prize winner of the whole bunch is Jason Clarke. Clarke is a sadistic backwoods killer with a stone cold expression throughout the film. One scene between his character and another under an overpass is particularly well acted. If there is any reason at all to watch this film it is for the performances. Overall, The Texas Killing Fields is a bland police procedural that wastes its amazing cast on a bland script that never truly clicks.

Texas Killing Fields is directed by Ami Canaan Mann and written by Don Ferrarone. It stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Clarke, Annabeth Gish and Stephen Graham. Music is by Dickon Hinchliffe and cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh. Film is based around real events involving the many murders of women whose bodies have been found in a desolate area of road and wasteland between Houston and Galveston.Ami Canaan Mann is the daughter of Michael Mann, one of the masters of modern day crime story movies, so it's not very surprising to see Ami, for her sophomore production, venture into murky waters. Texas Killing Fields is a bayou noir, where although the title hints at human devastation unbound, it's actually a slow burning skin itcher more concerned with the people investigating crime than that of the perpetrators. How the sorry events affect all who come in to contact with the crimes at the film's core, is what drives Texas Killing Fields on. Sadly the screenplay takes on board too much and nearly derails an otherwise very good movie.If it comes down to atmosphere and technical smarts in achieving such? Then this is one of the finest of recent times. There's a constant sense of broody foreboding throughout, the haunting landscapes are all gnarly and spectre like, the whole area literally stinks of death and misery. Even when the story is away from the fields of the title, there's a mood of despair filtering out from Mann and Dryburgh's lenses, the hot Texas weather draining every ounce of sweat from the emotionally troubled detectives. All of the atmosphere is helped considerably by Hinchliffe's music, which piggybacks the misery with ominous bluesy tones.Unfortunately all this deft atmospheric craft can't stop the screenplay from being annoying. A sub-plot involving Worthington and Chastain as ex husband and wife is as pointless as it gets, which simultaneously wastes Chastain in the process. The makers have chosen to actually have suspects front and centre for the crimes on screen (unlike the real life cases, most of which remain unsolved), well they intend to keep it mysterious, but anyone paying attention will catch on quickly enough. There's also problems with the sound mix, which at times is appalling, rendering some crucial dialogue exchanges as inaudible.Cast are good, especially Morgan and Moretz, and Mann shows a good hand at action sequences to compliment her astute mood setting skills. But this still feels like a misfire, and subsequent critical appraisals and internet rating systems have it as just above average. That's a little unfair, there's much for the neo-noir/crime movie crowd to get enthralled by here, but Mann may need to sharpen up her story telling whiles to fully bloom her undoubted potential. 6.5/10