SummaryJournalist Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) stumbles onto a story which leads to the shady origins of the men who started the crack epidemic on the nation’s streets and further alleges that the CIA was aware of major dealers who were smuggling cocaine into the U.S., and using the profits to arm rebels fighting in Nicaragua. Despite warnings from drug ki... Read More
Directed By:Michael Cuesta
Written By:Peter Landesman, Gary Webb, Nick Schou
Kill the Messenger
Metascore
Mixed or Average
60
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
60
56% Positive
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
42% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Sep 26, 2014
80
The film taps into far deeper, richer veins of material than it has the time to properly mine. It’s nonetheless a flinty, brainy, continually engrossing work that straddles the lines between biopic, political thriller and journalistic cautionary tale, driven by Jeremy Renner’s most complete performance since The Hurt Locker.
Oct 9, 2014
75
Kill the Messenger is compelling material but the recognition that the core of the narrative is based on true events gives it additional power.
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
69% Positive
66 Ratings
66 Ratings
26% Mixed
25 Ratings
25 Ratings
4% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
Nov 5, 2014
10
if you like a real life, documentary type of movie that entertains you...Kill The Messenger is for you. based on true life facts of how the government looked away, and in a covert way, condoned the flow of crack and other drugs into our inner cities at the expense **** of kids, and ruined lives filled with heartache, only to fund the contras... this was a movie you that will have you come away, further enlightened, and somewhat in awe the way the government and media work. Directed by Michael Cuesta, Kill The Messenger will provide a great evening out... Not to be missed ! Well done.
Oct 10, 2014
10
A very good movie elevated into something great thanks to a phenomenal performance from Jeremy Renner. It is painfully realistic, incredibly important. Highly recommended.
Oct 9, 2014
63
It’s an engrossing portrait not only of government intrigue and crusading after the truth, but of media and their tangled motivations. Engrossing enough, in fact, that Cuesta needn’t try as hard as he occasionally does to heighten the drama and give it added flash.
Oct 8, 2014
60
Kill The Messenger isn’t a great movie, but it’s a great vehicle for Renner, and a showcase for the kind of work he should be doing more regularly.
Oct 9, 2014
50
In his performance, Jeremy Renner hints at something dark stirring beneath Webb’s surface, but it never quite comes out, and we’re left with something more on the order of a rough-hewn saint. Kill the Messenger tells an interesting tale, but it’s caught in an odd zone between too-Hollywood and not Hollywood enough.
Oct 8, 2014
25
Kill the Messenger tries to be the “JFK” of crack, but offers only shrill self-righteousness to answer the crazed energy of Oliver Stone’s masterpiece of deceit.
Oct 10, 2014
10
This is a really important movie. It is an interesting, well-acted, absorbing movie experience. More important, it tells the true story of the U.S. government actually facilitating the sale of cocaine in U.S. cities to assist a right-wing group of Central Americans trying to overthrow a progressive Nicaraguan government. Why do we have thousands of scared immigrant children and dozens of messed up U.S. cities? A good portion of the reason lies in the abominable U.S. policies partially revealed in this movie.
Jan 24, 2021
6
An interesting story here but the way in which it is told a lot of the dramatic and emotional pull in should have on it's viewers is lost.
Nov 8, 2019
6
Good performance by Jeremy Renner but a bit of an uneventful story. Fairly well-directed.
Sep 6, 2017
6
A regular job which fulfills but in the most basic points, the story is entertaining, somewhat tragic towards its end but it is an interesting option especially for its subject, the most outstanding thing in this film is the interpretation of its protagonist Jeremy Renner who proves once more that he can act, although most of his work centers him as an action hero.
Jan 23, 2015
0
The plot is already dense enough. why stretch the beginning of the story about irrelevant elements. The result is an unbalanced film. When arriving at the important parts the public is already disinterested.
Production Company:
- Sierra / Affinity
- Bluegrass Films
- The Combine
Release Date:Oct 10, 2014
Duration:1 h 52 m
Rating:R
Tagline:Can you keep a national secret?
Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Women Film Critics Circle Awards
• 2 Nominations
Traverse City Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
