Iceman, The (2012) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline: Loving husband. Devoted father. Ruthless killer.

The true story of Richard Kuklinski, the notorious contract killer and family man. When finally arrested in 1986, neither his wife nor daughters have any clue about his real profession.

Ariel Vromen directs this gritty biopic tracing the career of New York contract killer Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon). After convincing his Catholic wife Deborah Pellicotti (Winona Ryder) that he works for Disney when he in fact produces porn videos, Polish-American Kuklinski soon finds himself on the payroll of local mobster Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta) as an 'enforcer'. As he warms to his new role amidst the New Jersey underworld, despatching 'contracts' with clinical precision, a striking contrast begins to build between that of the outwardly devoted family man and the ruthlessly efficient, emotionless killer.

Storyline: In the 1960s, Richard Kuklinski is working as a porn film lab tech until his mob bosses persuade him to change his career into that of a contract killer. For years, Kuklinski gains a reputation for cold blooded professionalism even as he raises a family who are kept in the dark about his true career. Unfortunately, mob politics ultimately forces him to secretly work independently with the psychopathic Robert 'Mr. Freezy' Pronge. As much as Kuklinski tries to keep his lives separate, circumstances and his own weaknesses threaten a terrible collision as the consequences of his choices finally catch up to him. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

User Comment: bandito_2000 from Chicago, IL, USA, 19 May 2013 • The Iceman was an enjoyable movie with very good acting, but ultimately quite unrealistic.

The Iceman, Richard Kuklinski, comes off as a very sympathetic character in the end, whereas in real life he truly was a cold emotionless and sociopathic killer. His family weren't so much cherished and loved as they were possessions that were his and his alone.

Much has been learned about sociopathy by interviewing Kuklinski, but unfortunately none of this was used to shape and portray his real character in the movie. Nonetheless, the movie is worth seeing, but more as entertainment than enlightenment about Kuklinski's life of crime.

Summary: A Good Movie, But...

User Comment: Julian0922 from United States, 20 May 2013 • I had to drive over 70miles one way to watch this movie and was it worth it? Hard to say if one watched "the iceman tapes" from HBO. To me personally it was disappointing, but I probably expected way too much. So lower your expectations and you will have a nice evening in the cinema.

Shannon is great, superb, I guess nobody could have played him better, but the editing, the storytelling is very abrupt and a bit too edgy. Its not a good fellas, its not even close to it, don't expect even a mob flick. Its an OK movie that had so much more potential. YET it is still worth watching since you don't see movies like that nowadays very often.

The potential of the story would have been an 11, this movie is a 7 with an extra point for Shannons performance. And in relevance I should mention that I would give broken city a 3.5, gangster squad a 4.5, so I guess people who watch this movie with not so high expectations will love it!

PS. No "the iceman" did NOT got his nick because he was so cold, like another reviewer wrote, but because he froze a body for two years. The officials gave him then that name. All this is well known through the "iceman tapes".

Summary: A great story ruined!?!? OR did we (or just me) expect too much???

[CSW] -2.4- It was fairly good, but not as good as it could have been. Maybe they didn't want to shock the audience or to turn them completely against Kuklinski, but he did a lot of things that the movie didn't touch upon. I don't think they showed the "charm," for lack of a better word that Kuklinski showed in his interviews. Kuklinski was a horrible, pitiless murderer, but he had a twinkle in his eye and a subtle energy that this movie didn't capture. I do think I gave it a higher rating just because I started with such a low expectation. This is one movie that you can pass up if you want to but if you do decide to see it, please start with very low expectations and you might be mildly surprised.


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