The Killing Jar
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Several people are gathered at a diner—Noreen, a friendly and talkative waitress; Lonnie, a dim-witted cop; Jimmy, the short-tempered owner; Billy and Starr, a young couple on their way to elope; John, a meek salesman on his way to New York City; and Hank, a quiet regular. A radio is playing, and the group hears of an entire family murdered gruesomely in a neighboring county. Noreen, shocked, becomes increasingly agitated and nervous after an aggressive man in a black leather jacket enters. Noreen covertly asks Lonnie to investigate the newcomer, but Lonnie brushes aside her concerns. After Noreen spills the man's coffee, Hank urges Lonnie to do something.
When Lonnie questions him, the man becomes antagonistic and belittles Lonnie, who pulls his gun on the man. Lonnie sheepishly apologizes when Hank reports the man's vehicle does not match the police reports. As the patrons relax, the man leaves the diner, only to return with a shotgun and pistol. After he kills Lonnie and Jimmy, he takes the rest of the diner hostage. He orders Noreen to collect all the wallets and cell phones, and he forces Hank to dispose of the corpses. The gunman catches Noreen trying to sneak a cell phone, and threatens to kill her if she does it again. Hank quietly proposes that they rush the gunman, as he has used up several rounds already, but Noreen and John refuse. The lovers, frightened, huddle at another table.
A new customer enters the diner, introduces himself as Mr. Greene, and seems minimally surprised by the situation. He hands the gunman a suitcase full of money and addresses him as "Smith". When Greene attempts to leave, the gunman takes him hostage and demands answers. After being severely beaten, Greene eventually reveals that he is a corrupt land developer who hired a professional hit man to kill the neighboring family when they refused to sell their land to build a shopping mall. With no heirs to the family's life insurance policy, Greene would buy the land from the bank.
Disgusted, the gunman kills Greene for not giving enough information and reasons that one of the people in the diner must be the hit man. Noreen begs him to let them go, but the gunman says that he intends to see the situation through. He also tells her he uses extreme methods to extract information from certain people.
The gunman immediately discounts Noreen and the young couple. He first interrogates Hank, who, after being shot in the leg, reveals that he is an ex-soldier who is cheating on his wife. After being shot, he admits that he has sex with women and men at truck stops, gas stations, and bathrooms. Satisfied that Hank has held nothing back, the gunman kills him.
He then handcuffs and interrogates John, who quickly gives up his pretense of being a salesman. John matter-of-factly recounts killing the family but rejects comparisons between himself and the gunman, whom he calls insane. The gunman threatens to torture John, but John coolly laughs it off as pointless, as he will not reveal any details about his employers except that they are powerful and well-connected.
John turns around his interrogation, and the gunman reveals that he is also ex-military, forced out because of mental instability and jailed for two years. With the situation now reversed, the gunman unsuccessfully attempts to bargain with John. Convinced that whatever he does will result in his being marked for death by the organization, the gunman panics and kills the young couple. As the gunman prepares to kill John, Noreen lunges at him with a knife and slashes his throat. John gratefully asks her to free him, but when she hesitates, he again drops his friendly demeanor and tries to cruelly bully her into surrendering. Noreen admits that she has trouble standing up for herself and that she is afraid of change but surprises him by instead shooting him with the last round in the pistol. Rather than call the police, she plays music on the Jukebox, takes the money and walks out of the diner.

Review: Contrary To What Others Might Have Said. I enjoyed this film a lot! I thought that the story and the direction were fine, and this is a much better film than I ever imagined. I enjoyed it enough that I bought it, after renting it.The biggest problem with the film lies in the fact that two of the victims appear to survive by the end of the film, when there's no chance of that happening. The human body can take a lot of abuse, but not that much. Plus, the film ends too soon to let us know what happened to Sanford and his wife.Still, it's a taut, well-made film, with the actors giving some gritty performances. Cullen, Tomita, and Bower do a great job with their roles.It's obviously not for every taste (what movie is?), but I sure liked it!. One of the worst flicks I've ever seen.. The Killing Jar is one of the worst pieces of crap I've ever seen.  At first glance you may think The Killing Jar is a slash flick of some sort, well its not and far from it.  Its about this couple who move to this small town where the guy grew up.  He witness a murder, but doesn't know it.  Through hypnosis he recalls all this crap blah blah blah.  Really its about this kid who once put a spider in a jar and watched it die.  Thats it.  And they can't get over it.  The characters repeat it over and over again. Recalling that the kid was crazy and most likely would grow up to be a killer or something.  Damn this flick sucked hard.  It was so boring I almost killed myself.  If you see this flick at the vid store for the love of God don't rent it.  Gives all new meaning to the word "SUCK.". Missed Opportunities. The story here is, at heart, a fairly standard 'taut' suspense thriller with a few modest twists.  The cast ranges from workhorse to strong, including should've-been-stars Tamlyn Tomita and Wes Studi, plus support from Brion James, M. Emmet Walsh, Xander Berkeley, etc.  Brett Cullen comes off a bit wooden in the lead role, but I can't be sure it's his fault.The real problems here are the slow, uneven pacing, the even more uneven atmosphere, and the often amateurish direction that makes the actors stand around and deliver dialogue in extended chunks of stagey-looking shot-reverse shot and too much camera motion.  The editing doesn't seem to have helped, but it's hard to tell what's an editing error and what was a failed attempt to fix the direction.  The script and story could have been punched up a bit, too.Tamlyn Tomita is luminous, and a lot of the cast is working hard here, but it doesn't come together.