In The Company Of Men & The Kill-Off

In The Company Of Men: The meanest cruelties imaginable are presented in this twisted tale of two friends/business executives prank against womankind. But one of the execs is a wimp and doesn’t have the stomach to go the whole nine yards in the malicious dating game they play on a handicapped temp secretary. However, his *friend* and co-exec (brilliantly played by Aaron Eckhart) is an undiluted sociopath—and has nary a qualm in seeing the prank through. . .even to its bitter and surprising (to the wimp) end. Eckhart's character, a vicious narcissist devoid of empathy, is one of cinema's greatest monsters. Warning: this movie may provoke heart failure in the politically correct.

The Kill-Off: Old bag with young, semi-retarded stud husband stays in bed all day making malicious phone calls. . .naturally, complications ensue. Exceptional film treatment of the Jim Thompson novel—a frame by frame rendition of Thompson’s prognosis for the human condition: death, by way of incest, insanity, impotence, alcoholism, greed, fetishism and lust. Every character is an emotional cripple—torn and twisted by the land mines hidden in their brains.