Review: 'Killing Jar' a mindless bloodfest

Put seven people in a diner. Have a guy come in with a shotgun and start blowing them away. That's entertainment.

Well, no, it's not; but that's about all "The Killing Jar" has going for it.

Michael Madsen is the guy with the shotgun (naturally), in this little piece of sickness written and directed by Mark Young. He stops by a diner in the middle of nowhere just after the locals there have heard reports of a murder over the radio.

Those locals being suspicious country folks and Madsen's character looking and acting like surly Michael Madsen, all eyes fall on the stranger. He takes offense to their suspicions, walks out to his truck, comes back with the gun and the fun begins.

Actually, there's little fun involved, for either the audience or the diner patrons. Madsen's character blows away a local cop and the cook; then some wheeler-dealer (Jake Busey) drops by the diner planning on paying the aforementioned murderer, who it turns out was a hitman for hire. Only it wasn't Madsen; it must be someone else in the diner.

The plot thickens. Except, it doesn't really; it just breaks into little 10-minute chunks where the guy with the gun tortures somebody else in the diner. All for no apparent reason aside from the presumed bloodlust of audience members who can do without silly things like logic, motivation and character.

Harold Perrineau ("Lost") plays a guy who just stopped for a cup of coffee; Amber Benson ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") plays the lone waitress. Let's just say they'll be watching the Oscars from home next year.

As will writer-director Young, unless he can come up with something more than a dominoes-inspired kill fest for his next movie. "The Killing Jar" is DOA.

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