VividSimon Simply Perfect

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

romanorum1 "Texas Killing Fields" is based upon true events: the murders of young women who are dumped in a Texan oil field known to the locals as the Texas Killing Fields, really a bayou. In an early scene, a trapped waif –a young teen-aged girl – stands alone in the darkness in the parking lot of a convenience store. In reality she has nowhere safe to go, and the feeling is one of trepidation. At movie's beginning, two women are discovered dead, or at least one is. A woman's car is found with her personal effects in the killing field. Her driver's license identifies her as blonde Kirsten lane. Later on her body will be found. The other – a dark-haired prostitute – is discovered in a vacant lot in the city. Both murders have been committed by two different sets of suspects unknown to each other. So the cases are different. But the viewer does not initially know this information. In fact, more than once the movie editing adds to confusion by cutting needlessly to a scene or character unrelated to the previous sequence without any clarification. The disjointed manner of shooting by director Ami Canaan Mann (Michael Mann's daughter) often makes this feature a frustrating, incoherent narrative. Bearded New York transplant and levelheaded Brian Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his local, hot-tempered and intimidating partner Mike Souder (Sam Worthington) discover the body of the aforementioned young prostitute. Right after Mike's tough ex-wife Pam Stall (Jessica Chastain, in another subplot) – also a cop – requests the help of Brian in the recent disappearance and murder of women within the confines of the killing fields. Brian reluctantly obliges, despite the objections of partner Mike due to their own case against two low-life flesh-peddlers who are systematically kidnapping and forcing teenage girls into a life of prostitution. Mann's film mires itself in a procedural plot involving Brian and Mike trailing these two suspects, pimp Levone (Jon Eyez) and his menacing, bare-armed, heavily tattooed cohort Rule (Jason Clarke), both of whom are heavily implicated in the prostitute's murder. All the while Brian, who just cannot stop helping others in need, keeps an eye out for Little Ann Sliger (Chloë Grace Moretz), a decent but mildly delinquent teen – the above-mentioned trapped waif – trying to survive life at a wretched home with a toxic, dysfunctional family. These members include low-life mom Lucie (Sheryl Lee), criminal brother Eugene Sliger (James Hébert), and her menacing boyfriends, especially chilling Rhino (Stephen Graham). Lucie has instructed daughter Ann to disappear when she has certain men hanging around the house. The denouement will be one of no-nonsense brutality, although flirting with implausibility. To reiterate, various narrative streams often occur all at once, so it is easy to become confused about what is exactly taking place on- screen. On appositive note, the atmosphere is sufficiently gritty with its haunting landscape: the feeling of dread permeates everywhere. The acting, especially by Chloë Grace Moretz, is fine, but Worthington's accent is often difficult to comprehend. You will probably need to utilize your TV's closed-caption option to understand his words. At movie's end, the survival of one of the detectives is surprising and unrealistic. An inexplicable loose end concerns the fate of one of the bad guys, who outlives the picture. You may have to watch this one more than once to capture full understanding.

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?

trublu215 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.

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.