How to Make a Killing is devoid of meaning. Its ending sneaks up on you in its suddenness, revealing itself as a sort of parable, contained within a weirdly almost epistolary voice over which drains it of tension or subtlety. The best kinds of movies that use voice over narratives have a sort of push-and-pull quality to their unreliable narrators which derive humor from the distance between the focalized narrative and reality, but there is no such craft here, just expedience of a full movie lore drop with little else to show for, no surprises. Cameos from a hodgepodge of character actors and stars past their prime, uneven performances at best and sloppily uneven script at worst–why have seven relatives if only four of them are going to actually act? You’ll either be surprised the ending hits you so quickly or relieved.
