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  • While a cheap production isn't necessarily a bad one, this movie lacks to introduce the characters, actually it doesn't introduce them at all.

    And so you will have a hard time developing any relationship or care for the actors.

    While the idea for the movie is a good one, I love movies about contract killers..

    This production lacks any love, intelligence, fun and joy..

    ..and you see it in the movie.

    The movie is just boring, it's not worth to waste any more words on it.

    I am not sure why it won two prizes.

    Maybe the other movies were even worse. Or there were no other movies. Probably that.
  • Well, let's just say that there was more life and entertainment value in the corpses than the actors doing the killing. This film needed a bigger budget than the £35 they seemed to have spent on this load of old cod's-wallop.

    This could have been a very, very good film, if only the director had had a clue to what he was doing, editing is all over the place, the sound track through out the movie was heavy handed and completely unnecessary in places.

    I think the biggest problem with this movie is that the majority of the dialogue is delivered in a manner of someone reading from idiot-boards, in a very dull monotone sort of way.

    The one bright spot in this movie was Jake Canuso who played Alessandro, a schizo mafia thug in the best tradition of movie mafia thugs. Good Job..

    Don't waste your time with this, it will only encourage them to make something else even more banal.

    You've been warned...
  • When I saw this film I revisited his Genesis in Concert film from 1976, I have tried hard to forget that crime against the band and fans and to this day I can't figure out why he won't release the film in its entirely and without atomic bombs and comic garbage....

    it is clear now, he thinks is great and this film proves that he lacks common sense.

    Bad editing

    Looks and feels cheap

    Nothing original, bad directing and story

    Could not finish it, at your own risk
  • As the last reviewer said, this is not your average Hollywood show. It's a cold, calculated look at the life of a contract killer. There's not much emotion - after all, killers need no emotion - and this comes through in the film. It's a simple tale, told simply with unknown but good actors. One reviewer said we are not introduced to the characters. Well, for the first twenty minutes we basically have a monologue of the main character describing her life, her loves and all the important characters in the film. What more do you need??? Apparently it's based on real life and that's what you get here - no Hollywood soundtracks to add to the ambiance. Perhaps the only criticism I have is that the main character is so devoid of feeling that it's hard to believe she loves her child. Perhaps that could be explored a little more. But something different to watch. Give it a try -- you might be pleasantly surprised.
  • Just a quick review as I still feel this film is a bit overrated. I am a huge fan of independent films, strange films, not-as-the-others films or whatever... and usually enjoy even average killer-related films.

    I did not expect much... but this film did not reach this very average level. I saw many better low budget direct-to-TV-or-DVD films than this one.

    Dialogs quality is going worse and worse through the film... of course there is no real action but that's not even the problem... characters are empty. We totally don't care about the sad-mother side of the killer... and the four last scenes of the film are so bad it reminds me parodies.

    a REAL waste of time I hope you can avoid (that's why I am making my first review on IMDb).
  • From the comments that I see on this board,it seems that some people have a problem with anything that is not the "usual" Hollywood fare. This movie kept me on my seat for the duration of it.I could name a few "big budget" movies where after a 20 minutes I felt like getting up and having a beer. "Journal of a contract killer" is quite remarkable,meaning that with a very good story,some unknown actors and the right director you can create something to remember.That's quite an achievement nowadays where just the marketing budget of some truly horrible movies (that you watch once and never again),mostly coming from,where else,the USA,is more than the budget for this movie.Well,enough said,I will recommend this movie to all my friends.
  • yeomanflood11 November 2009
    Warning: Spoilers
    So I'm a huge watcher of movies. I've probably been going at a run rate of over 300 movies per year for the last several years. I enjoy assassin movies - who doesn't? I had relatively low expectations for this movie given the poor ratings here on IMDb. In general, I find that about 80% of the time I'm directionally aligned with IMDb scores, so I use them as a proxy for what I choose to watch, but sometimes the scores are just totally opposite of what my opinion is and I'm compelled to write a review. I haven't even written that many reviews and I only seem to be motivated enough to write them when I totally disagree with scores. Anyway, JOACK was much better than expected. The acting overall was done well. And while there were certainly aspects of the storyline that could have been better developed (such as the mother-daughter relationship), the overall storyline was quite good. Even if the acting seemed a little too flat sometimes, even for a cold-hearted killer-type movie, the dialogue and timing of the actors was done well, for the most part. I also liked the slight twists and turns of the story over all. In summary, I thought the movie, especially compared to how many bad movies are cranked out every year by Hollywood, was good and worth watching. I score it a solid 8, but give it a 9 here to try to offset the bad score average it has right now.
  • Greywolf90716 October 2009
    8/10
    wtf?
    ...Like the previous poster, I am at a loss why this film has such a low rating.

    Taut, well directed story telling of the highest order, featuring pretty well unknown actors.....by and large thats what we have here...actors...not 'stars' I would rather watch this a million times than have to watch some drippy Hollywood movie full of teens and explosions.

    Highly recommended to anyone who likes their films British and well acted.

    It's a new take on organised crime, and keeps enough of the kitchen sink (literally) element that marks all great British cinema, well worth a watch.
  • This is truly how I welcome the cinema .. A story that has real world characters who have depth and soul... and knowing that it is based on a true story adds even further to the impact.

    The violence is portrayed in a meaningful manner, it is not glorified with typical Hollywood "drama", here it is cold, quick and without remorse...

    This is not a film that the mainstream media can love because it portrays the kind of reality that it far too heavy to immediately digest. It is in essence a philosophical/sociological view on the darker side of society.

    You can't just walk away from this film and forget it...