Kill Me Three Times | Film review - Simon Pegg is on killer form

(Image credit: © Universal Studios)

Once is never enough.

Simon Pegg’s smirking contract killer retains his glib sang-froid as the bodies pile up around him in the wilfully convoluted Australian black comedy thriller Kill Me Three Times.

As it happens, he’s not the only one doing the killing. Almost everyone in the coastal town where he pitches up seems to be involved in some nefarious activity or another, including kidnapping, blackmail, murder, and insurance fraud.

Director Kriv Stenders flips the film’s time frame back and forth, as per the Quentin Tarantino playbook. But his bad characters - including Teresa Palmer’s scheming dental receptionist, Callan Mulvey’s homicidally jealous bar owner and Bryan Brown’s dirty cop - are such nasty pieces of work we don’t care what becomes of them, while the goodies - Alice Braga’s hapless femme fatale and Luke (brother of Liam and Chris) Hemsworth’s beefy mechanic – are too bland to make a mark.

Certificate 15. Runtime 87 mins. Director Kriv Stenders

Kill Me Three Times debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on 20 August. Available on DVD from Universal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i3Ifi31fHc

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.