There is a touch of Richard Condon's dark humor in this exceedingly complex story of a conspiracy to assassinate a Kennedy-like president. The story is confusing enough that I lost track of it before it was half over. In a way, it resembled the detective stories of Raymond Chandler who was fine with his characters and slapdash with his plots. (Who DID kill the chauffeur?) Jeff Bridges plays the Philip Marlowe part and goes from one oddball character to another, bouncing along comically but playing it straight. John Huston as Bridges' ultra-rich father commands the screen whenever he's on it, even if dressed only in crimson briefs and a flowing white kimono. A number of familiar faces crop up in lesser parts, including Richard Boone and, briefly, Elizabeth Taylor who has no lines.It's for specialized tastes. Condon was a hilarious novelist. His prose was thick with impossible lists of, oh, the courses of one of Alfred Hitchcock's meals or the attendants at a funeral. The movie, for the most part, is unable to capture that excess. And, really, it couldn't, because what's amusing in print doesn't always translate well to the screen. If, in the novel, someone's hand is caught in a door that slams, she may "scream like a lunch whistle." How do you transpose that simile to the cinema? You can't.There are amusing moments but Jeff Bridges' mournful presence keeps dragging us back to the serious side of the movie. I couldn't say whether the movie was more enjoyable than not. That judgment is up to the viewer.

i can't say i liked this movie very much.it has some amusing moments,but it doesn't seem able to make up its mind whether it is a comedy or a drama.it doesn't really work as either.it's too light in tone to be a drama,and the amusing moments are few and far between.it also doesn't make a lot of sense.things seem to happen for no reason.and it's also extremely convoluted.i feel like they just made things up as they were going.if they had just taken a bit of time to explain things,this might have been a better movie.i would say the ending was anti climatic, but that would mean the rest of the movie had actually been building up to something,which it didn't.it just sorts ends,and that's that.i didn't find it boring,really,but like i said,there there just isn't any point.i'll give Winter Kills a reluctant and weak 3/10

'Winter Kill's from the novel by The Manchurian Candidate/ Prizzi's Honor Author Robert Condon, Jeff Bridge's play the brother of an assassinated President (This film has star tingly real comparisons of the Kennedy dynasty,) Bridge's seemingly lives in a sheltered existence but is brought out in the open when a dying man claiming to be the rifleman responsible for his brother's murder reveal's in the throes of death where the rifle is, Bridges is sent on a genuinely weird wild goose chase to find out who was responsible for his brother's death, but his perilous search lead's him to not one but many red herring's and in to the path of danger, by the mafia, The legendary John Huston, play's Pa Keegan the gruff patriarch of the Keegan family and also uncouth millionaire, it's one of those roles which Houston alway's makes endlessly memorable, 'Winter Kill's' Also features cameo's by many actor's/Actress's from the golden age, particularly, Anthony Perkin's Toshiro Mifune, Eli Wallach, Dorothy Perkin's 'Winter Kill's Thrill's

Winter Kills is a wild, breakneck ride, impossible not to enjoy if you can muster up a two hour attention. Dullards who like to browse or half-watch will be quickly mystified and thus bored, but this film rewards those who make the investment. An excellent, creepy movie--funny and insightful, particularly relevant in these strange and disturbing days. John Huston gives a great over-the-top performance that seems more like a cartoon version of himself than the Joe Kennedy caricature he is meant to be. Tony Perkins is the embodiment of everyone's paranoid suspicions about who really runs things. Karl Rove must have sat spellbound in the theater as a young homunculus, taking notes as he ate his popcorn. Bizarre cameos and way inside references provide the icing on the cake.