The Craigslist Killer (2011)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Good movie but grossly overrated

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A well made true life murder movie tragedy. This Lifetime movie about the Craigslist killer is well cast and well acted with a likable cast. The screenplay is well written and shows what you want to see. The story is so interesting that the movie is fascinating to watch.Jake McDorman looks suitably wholesome as the medical student with a dark side who had a promising future. The escalation of his obsession is frightening to watch. Agnes Bruckner is quite good as the girlfriend who had no idea she was living with a killer.The needless self destruction and insane obsession that led to killing is quite tragic.Worth a watch.

This is not a story that deserves a film adaptation, however the Lifetime network felt differently and produced a movie based on this very benign story, that captivated the nation. For those who are unaware, this is a true story that happened in Boston, five years ago. A Boston medical student, on the verge of getting married, spends his nights cruising Craigslist's exotic services page, in order to find woman he can humiliate, but the story takes a tragic turn when he accidentally kills one of them. The story made national headlines and people became obsessed with why such a smart, successful man, would do these terrible things. Usually, films that are based on real life events are the most compelling, but the Craigslist Killer is different, for the fact that he wasn't active for very long. Much of this movie is focused on the killer's normal life and relationship with his fiancée. It's a lot of romantic garbage and stuff about their relationship and in fact we don't see his dark side revealed until much later in the movie. There wasn't even an interesting police angle or manhunt for this guy, as the police simply traced his IP address and got his picture from security cameras. The acting was the only thing I enjoyed about this film as Jake McDorman is fantastic playing a man with two personas. His fiancée is played by the beautiful, Agnes Bruckner, who was also very good, if not a bit naive and obsessive. The true story may have captivated the nation, but the film about the Craigslist Killer has no bite and was just plain boring.

I haven't seen any other 2011 movies yet, because I just haven't wanted to, but I really enjoyed this movie, despite it being a lifetime movie.I didn't really know much about the Craiglist Killer, but I was interested, so I decided to watch the movie on Free Movies OnDemand.The director and writer made the movie so it wasn't disturbing, but you got the message very quickly about what's going on, which is what it needed to be (especially for a lifetime movie).I usually don't watch many TV movies, although I've really liked the ones I have seen, Dinner With Friends, The Ron Clark Story to name a few. And this one makes my list of good TV movies.The acting was good, the writing was okay, the direction was as good as it could have been.Will I watch it again? Maybe, but I don't think that's what the movies intent was, it wasn't meant to be re-watched over and over again, and that's good enough for me.

I thought that this movie was very well done for a Lifetime movie. I thought that this movie was going to be bad but in fact it was thrilling. I was very interested through out the movie. The acting wasn't great but it was a reasonably okay casting. Phillip's acting was up and down, depending on the scenes but that only detracted from the movie just a little. I thought the directing was all right. The lines were just okay. At times they were really good, and others they were just hokey. I would recommend watching but not something you gotta see right away. I give this a good rating because it is not the normal crap movie that Lifetime produces. It is a quality film that deserves recognition. I am glad this was filmed because it does show the true evil that anybody can have. Well, what you define as evil.