As Yogi Berra is supposed to have said, "It's deja vu all over again."
See if this sounds familiar: A pair of young con artists accidentally kill a man and then wind up on the run from the cops, which turns them into even more hardened criminals.
To be frank, the idea has been done to death about a zillion times since "Bonnie and Clyde" was released 30 years ago. But "Kiss or Kill," an odd thriller from Australian director Bill Bennett, gives the premise a few twists that make things interesting. However, it doesn't have quite enough of them to make the film a completely rewarding experience.
Instead, "Kiss or Kill" runs out of steam about midway through and settles for a disappointingly upbeat ending stolen right from the similarly themed "True Romance."
Another area where the film rises above other films in the genre is in its terrific performances — in particular, the two leads, Frances O'Connor and Matt Day, who were paired previously in the Aussie slackers-in-love comedy "Love and Other Catastrophes."
The two play Nikki and Al, a pair of 20-something drifters who prey on businessmen she picks up in bars — they drug their unsuspecting men before any hanky-panky can take place and then rob them. But during one of their scams, the victim dies and the duo is forced to flee.
Hot on their tails are detectives Hummer (Chris Haywood) and Crean (Andrew S. Gilbert), as well as former sports celebrity Zipper Doyle (Barry Langrishe), who fears the duo will use incriminating evidence about him that they swiped from the dead man.
On their cross-country venture, the couple also encounter an assortment of oddballs, all of whom turn up dead — leading Al and Nikki to suspect each other.
There's also a weird subplot about Nikki's tragic past (when she was four, her mother was burned to death before her eyes), which Bennett ("Two If By Sea") ties in quite nicely.
But too much of the material is unpleasant and things get bogged down in trivial matters that aren't as funny as Bennett (who also wrote and produced the film) thinks they are and instead are as annoying as his "shaky-cam" method of photography.
And as mentioned, things probably wouldn't fly as well as they do if not for the leads, especially O'Connor, who does surprisingly well with such a complex character. And Haywood and Gilbert's give-and-take relationship is so amusing that at times you may wish the film had been about them instead.
"Kiss or Kill" is rated R for profanity, violence, some nudity and a somewhat graphic sex scene (seen on a surveillance tape), vulgar references, attempted rape and brief gore.