Jerry and Tom (1998)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

hyped garbage

Good movie but grossly overrated

Crappy film

Jerry and Tom are two hit men who engage in clever banter before brutally killing people. This movie has been described as a black comedy. I found it brutal and distasteful. It treated cold blooded murder lightheartedly. The audience is subjected to short, repetitive vignettes featuring the violent ways used to kill the victims. We are also lured in to care for the victim and their plight before the killers kill them. The killers show no remorse for their actions. Are we in turn taught to have no remorse for brutality? Are we to be charmed by the killers and ignore the unfeeling, inhuman treatment of the victims? What did the victims do to deserve their fate? We are never told. Is it no surprise that young people can kill and exhibit no remorse for their actions. To them isn't a High School just another vignette. Joe Mantegna plays his usual Mafia-type hood and Sam Rockwell plays a slovenly, moronic thug who becomes increasingly mean through the movie. This could have been a much better movie if the killings and the various inhumane methods used were kept off screen. We know they were hit men and we know, from their frequent inclusion in Hollywood films, what they do, so why dwell on the act instead of on the story. Maybe the story was the brutality. This movie's celebration of killing and matter-of-fact brutality combined with its light tone desensitizes its audience. We are victims of this movie.

There are moments of drama and irony in this film, but mostly it's a very well-written and well-acted comedy that is at times hilarious for the ease with which it captures icons and styles from other films while at the same time twisting and mocking them. There is some very cool, matter of fact dialog that brings home the idea of all jobs and actions creating their own reality around them and becoming mundane, no matter how unusual or dangerous the work. While making the viewer laugh, it also brings home the pain and horror the hit men create, especially when they don't behave professionally or fail to follow their own code of distorted ethics.

Oops. Another victim of the indoor winter warmth. (I fell asleep again.) Jerry and Tom seemed like a pleasant enough story but with a final catch which didn't really unfetter my disinterest. Sorry. Another video review*. I must get out more.Ron* Jerry and Tom went STRAIGHT to video in the UK. I add my weight to those who think this is inexplicable

Jerry and Tom is similar to Pulp Fiction, with many of the same silly dialogues about trivial things, followed by intense action as a mob movie. But some people might get tired of the nattering in these scenes, it didn't have the same power as Pulp, and nowhere near the power of The Money Kings, another recent mob movie with Peter Faulk. It's worth a rental as long as you don't get your hopes up too high.>