HOW TO MAKE A KILLING Review

Much has been made of the lack of true modern A-list stars in Hollywood. Tom Cruise seems to be the last real one (though I'm sure some of his contemporaries like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon might disagree with that assessment), but he is not a young man (and neither are the other two I mentioned). Can Hollywood survive an era where there are no real stars to drive crowds to the cineplex?

It's an interesting determination. What besides supernova actors gets people to the movies? Well, well-produced I.P. can do it, though the saturation of those projects in recent decades have seemingly weakened their pull (for transparency's sake, I'm writing this just days before Spider-Man: Brand New Day releases, so we'll see if that storms the box office as it is suggested it might). So big properties can still be very hit or miss.

Filmmakers still have their fans, as The Odyssey showed this year. People show out for directors like Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese. That said, Steven Spielberg did not have a good showing with Disclosure Day, so they aren't a sure thing, either. But youngster filmmakers like Curry Barker and Kane Parsons are currently building their own legacies in 2026.

Ultimately, I guess nothing is set in stone. But a lack of true A-list talent sure isn't going to help Hollywood going forward.

With actors like Glen Powell, they are still trying, though. Powell is a solid-chinned, bright smiling guy you could build big movies around. And he has a decent box office track record that he is establishing, even if The Running Man did not do as well as was hoped. Hollywood sees a lot in him, and they are banking on his ability to get people into the cinema.

How To Make A Killing is the story of Beckett, a man raised in poverty by a mother who was exorcised from her elite family due to her pregnancy at eighteen years old. His mother stuck to her principles and took care of her child, along the way making him swear to never stop until he got himself the life he deserved.

While still a child, Beckett's mother passed away, and his estranged family still refused to accept or assist him. Somehow, Beckett realized he had never been disinherited, and thus he came upon his plan: if he killed the rest of his family off, their wealth would be his. And he would finally have the life his mother dreamed of for him.

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ The third act lifts the movie up with its reveals and its conclusion, which somehow manages to be tragic yet far better than Beckett deserves. After a very uneven ride to get there, it has a decent payoff. I definitely liked the resolution to this one.

I'm obviously not going to spoil anything here, but I really was reminded of a movie like Tar with the climax to How To Make A Killing. Beckett really gets an ending that makes you go, "Ohhhh. But he deserves worse. But still... ohhhh". It left me feeling conflicted, and I like when a movie can get me tied up in knots over how I feel about it.

+ Glen Powell remains an easy to like star who does good work here. He falls seamlessly into his characters and has real chops for these kinds of roles. He may not be a true A-lister yet in 2026, but he's eminently reliable. Even in projects that might not necessarily deserve him, he shows up, gives his all, and lifts the work up as much as he can.

He hasn't recently had a hit as big as Anyone But You or Twisters, but he definitely keeps trying, and that's great for all of us. I will give him as many chances as it takes for him to find his selection mojo again. He's earned that much.

- The movie even pokes around this same issue, but two of the murders are absolutely pointless, take up a combined five minutes (if that), and make little sense in the grand scheme of things. They are a waste of plot time. You could have just not included these two characters at all and moved the film along just fine without them.

The rest of the titular killings are well-conceived and build the movie as they are carried out (or, in some cases, not carried out). But I feel like these two particular kills are just included to add a body count to Beckett's resume.

- Beckett’s character is all over the map. He starts off as sympathetic. Then he becomes the object of the viewer’s doubt and villainization. And then the flick tries to make him sympathetic again. It just didn’t work for me. It is layered, but it is not with any depth. It’s all just plot machinations to try to manipulate your emotions. It feels sloppily done.  

OVERALL

How To Make A Killing is another odd choice for Powell. It's not a particularly strong film, and its mood doesn't really fit the subject matter. If you tell me the plot to a film is "The youngest member of an elite family kills all his relatives to get their fortune", I start immediately thinking of a comedy. This outing is treated so seriously, though, and that doesn't maximize Glen Powell's talents. All told, this is fine, but little more than that.

🍿 SCORE = 51/100