The Killing Jar

Absolutely awful. I saw this years ago and it marked the moment where I realized that Michael Madsen was in some garbage

Another in the series of assembly-line budget thrillers starring former action men of a certain age – but this is a quite acceptable and watchable one if graded on the curve; Young as director manages some modestly interesting set-ups and his cast acquit themselves as best they can with a clumsy screenplay; Busey strides in with a bolt of energy about halfway through, and Perrineau delivers a legitimately fine and commanding performance – he almost elevates this to a mild recommendation. Almost.

The Killing Jar is a bargain basement hostage drama with a bit more bluster than basis, but the overacting only kicks in when it's too late to turn the movie off. That's the trick. It pulls the right twist out of its ass at enough of the right times so that at a certain point, you're gonna have to be late for work today. And for that, I forgive virtually anything.

like a talentless high school play

I chose to see this one for its cast. But even good actors can only do so much with a bad script. It felt like they only had a very small plot and they were desperately trying to stretch it out over 90 minutes. They even went so far as to literally show several shots of a ticking clock. It wasn't offensively bad or anything, but it didn't affect me at all.

Pretty original, I wasn't bored at any time while watching this. The ending was very unsatisfying though.. otherwise it could have been an awesome movie. The whole "who is mr. Smith"-concept was cool and casting Michael Madsen as a psycho killer is always the right thing to do!

It might easily be one of the worst thrillers ever made -- and that said by a big fan of Michael Madsen.