There's more than one way to kill a man

Men's Fitness, June, 2003 by Dean Brierly, Mike Carlson, Allan Donnelly, Ben Kallen, Susie Kim, Bobby Lee, Dennis Nishi, Jim Shiebler, Mark Thorpe, Tom Weede

ANOTHER, SHALL we say, killer release is the Criterion Collection's two-disc set featuring the 1946 and 1964 versions of The Killers, both based on Ernest Hemingway's famous short story about an ex-con who calmly awaits his execution at the hands of underworld enforcers.

THE ORIGINAL is a taut film noir with Burt Lancaster a the unlucky chump, a rogue's gallery of classic crime film heavies, style to burn, bad-ass attitude aplenty. The Killers' fatalistic tone and hard-boiled ethos continue to influence contemporary directors like Quentin Tarantino and John Woo.

THE REMAKE STARS Lee Marvin as a robotic assassin (can anyone say Terminator?) who, after rubbing out race car driver-gone-bad John Cassavettes, hunts down a missing million dollars, tramp vamp Angie Dickinson and mafia mo'fo' Ronald Reagan (you gotta soe him to believe it). Watching Marvin's tightly coiled hit man erupt in spectacular eruptions of violence reminds us why we love movies in the first place.

$29.99; Criterion Collection; available at Suncoast Video