The Iceman (2013)

Fellow reviewer hawkensian somewhat tainted my review by revealing some significant omissions and liberties taken by the scriptwriters. I am not aware of the deeper background of Kuklinski and his extensive history so I came into the movie this way.So that aside, on its face, this is a very good movie regardless. Acting was stellar by the entire cast, and was glad to see David Schwimmer take on a drama quite handily. Well done. The score was alright, although a bit heavy in some places. Good pacing, costumes and sets should also be mentioned.

Out of all movies based on a notorious murderer, such as a Serial Killer, this one was by far one of the best, maybe along-side "Dear Mr. Gacy" which I haven't gotten around seeing but hopefully I will, and as- well the "Secret Life of Jeffrey Dahmer" and "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", and of-course "Zodiac" despite I only seen half of it.Basically the film is based on the life of Richard Kuklinski (Played by Michael Shannon), a huge, but ordinary looking man who is married to a beautiful woman and have two gorgeous daughters, and claimed to them to dubbed Disney films and later worked in the Bank system because of it for a living, but actually he doesn't works for either one of them, but instead no other than the Mafia, by at first dubs Pornographic films but then became a hired-man for Murder, which is something he done before and seemingly have no issue with, and even though he was cut-off by the Mob later-on, he became a typical serial killer with the name the "Iceman". This however, became a personal problem for him between his actual career and his family because of his former connections with the mob, with some threats that he dealing with about his wife and kids, in which lead to him to try his best to prevent any of this. This movie was quite powerful as we see a man who made the bad choice of becoming a Assistant of America's worst ever Crime Organization, despite having a loving family fill with Women, a family he well devoted for, and does not like them being insulted or threaten. Shannon did a good job playing with the right emotions, when Kuklinski is either happy, sad, or mad. My favorite scene of him is when he's talking to his brother, Joey (Played by Stephen Dorff), who is in prison for raping and murdering a little girl. Just a strong anger he gave to him, makes the scene stand-out, and another great one (This is not a spoiler because you can find this chip on YouTube) is when a man who he accidentally bump into his car in traffic, and the man then insults him and his family which pisses him off and then tries to car-chase him with his wife and daughters, that was just crazy, and made them realize something ain't right about him. I also thought it was clever to cast Ray Liotta, who you might be familiar with from the popular movie "Goodfellas", as the lead mob guy of the film. He delivers a nice performance here, just showing your good-old Italian-American Gangster. Chris Evans did a brilliant job playing Kuklinski's partner in crime and obvious comic relief, at first when I saw him in this film, I honestly didn't even know it was him until I check on the rest of the cast, that just surprises me that Captain America plays in this type of film. I thought his character was kinda funny, I even found his first encounter with Kuklinski just great, especially how that particular scene ends, just wow. James Franco was also in this movie but just a minor role however until he's done with. Yeah don't really have anything else to say about of the cast except they're just alright I guess. I really likes the classic Italian- gangster feel of this film, it shows that this never dies even long after the 80s and the 90s with the Godfather movies and the Goodfellas (Back to the fact of casting Liotta).Overall, this movie ain't that bad, but there is a-bit of problems comparing to this film plot and the real-life story of the Iceman, such as not showing his first kill as a child (Yes, that is true) or how his relationship begans which was quite brutal if you're wondering, if you want to hear about check-out Rob Dyke's video about Kuklinski or any of the HBO specials that shows interviews of him before he dies back in 2006. But overall they didn't seems to leave out a-lot of things which is good, I'm even surprise they actually bother bringing-up his abusive father (Which wasn't be a surprise either, as he a psychopathic killer, of-course, pretty usual). Anyways, if you love films like Zodiac or the Goodfellas and Godfather or both, I would recommend you guys checking this out.

I had heard about this film many times a year or so after its release, specifically how good it was meant to be, and I later found out it was based on real events, so I was looking forward to sitting down and watching it. Basically set in the 1960s, Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) dates and marries Deborah Pellicotti (Winona Ryder), they have two daughters, but everything is not ordinary, Richard is very secretive to his family. Deborah thinks that Richard dubs Disney cartoons, in fact he works as a lab technician for porn films, supplied to a mob operated syndicate, he later changes career when his bosses, including the powerful Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta) persuade him to become a contract killer. Richard, who had been the victim of beatings from his immigrant Polish father as a child, is emotionally disturbed and intensely violent, he easily passes his test to kill an unknown homeless man and proving his lack of feeling whilst killing. Over the years Richard spends as a contract killer he gains a reputation for his cold-blooded professionalism, while his family is kept in the dark about his true career, but mob politics force him to go independent, working secretly with psychopathic Robert "Mr. Freezy" Pronge (Chris Evans). Richard earns the nickname "Iceman", for his method of freezing a victim to mask the time of death, but he finds it very difficult to separate his professional and family lives, circumstances and his own weaknesses threaten them to collide and there follow consequences. In the end, Richard Kuklinski is arrested in the year 1986, following an undercover sting operation, neither his wife Deborah nor his daughters ever suspected he was a cold-blooded killer, he admitted to over 100 vicious murders in his 22-year career, he never saw his family again after being sentenced to two life terms, he died under suspicious circumstances in prison in 2006. Also starring James Franco as Marty Freeman, David Schwimmer as Josh Rosenthal, Robert Davi as Leonard Merks, Stephen Dorff as Joey Kuklinski and Erin Cummings as Ellen. This film ultimately belongs to Shannon, who gives a compelling as the psychopathic monster posing as an average family man, the murderer behind the human, there is good support from Ryder, Liotta, Evans and the others, it is almost a traditional mob movie premise, with strong moments of violence, it may slightly slow in places, but there are flourishes of style, and overall it is a good biographical crime thriller. Worth watching!

The Iceman (2012) is a decent hit-man thriller based upon real life events. The story follows Richard Kuklinski ( Michael Shannon), a notorious contract killer. The film is complete with tons of mafia movie clichés: old cars, conversations in fancy Italian restaurants, everyone's wearing leather jackets, the main character goes from rags to riches, there's a scene at a night club, there's a cold blooded killer whose a family man and Ray Liotta is playing some angry mobster. The best part of this film is undeniably Michael Shannon's outstanding performance. His performance is definitely award worthy. However, most of this movie is bland. You don't care about anybody except Michael Shannon's character. You don't give a s*** about his wife ( Winona Ryder) and you ESPECIALLY don't give two s**ts about his two daughters. The film glosses over too much. It consistently time jumps. The action is really good and so is the acting. The story, however, is not as interesting as it should be. A movie about a hit-man with over 100 documented kills should absolutely grip me. This movie didn't do that for me. Its not bad,but its nothing creative or original. Its decent.