Sunday, September 6, 2015

"Girls Against Boys"... Or Slow Against Boring, Which Will Win?


The Trailer:

Director: Austin Chick
Cast: Danielle Panabaker and Nicole LaLiberte

Synopsis: After being assaulted twice by men, Shae (Danielle Panabaker) teams up with Lulu (Nicole LaLiberte) on a killing spree of various men that have crossed their paths recently.

Where to start? I think there is an overall message that all girls aren't inherently good and that all boys aren't inherently bad, but it took too long to get to this point, and honestly it was just a bore to watch. There is nothing innovative about this tale. A girl gets raped and then her and her unstable friend seek revenge on, not only her rapist, but just men in general because they "are all guilty of something". Though Danielle Panabaker and Nicole LaLiberte do their best at portraying such flimsy characters, there is simply nothing interesting about this movie that seems to drag on forever and ever. And the more the movie progresses the more sloppy and messy it becomes. *Sigh*

The killing spree. Okay, not really a killing spree; in the course of a day, as a couple, they kill three individuals. And then both Lulu and Shae go on to kill one other person, each on their own. I simply cannot wrap my head around the kills. They all seem so unnecessary and pointless. Also, I am completely incredulous to the idea that after seeing Lulu kill the first victim, Shae just goes along with it without a second thought. And then, after the first kill, they sit and have a bowl of cereal. I guess this is to show to us how ruthless and heartless these characters are that they can sit and eat while a dead body is laying beside them, but just comes across as pretentious and plainly put, dumb. Also, at the end of the movie, after they've killed all these people, we're supposed to believe that they didn't get caught. Because never, not once in the movie do they question their involvement in these murders and if the police are looking for them. They are not skilled murderers, they are amateurs that left messes and bodies lying about, how were they not caught? It's pure silliness. My suspension of disbelief could not stretch far enough to cover this absurd implication.

Also this movie has little dialogue. I get that in certain movies talking is unnecessary as what is being conveyed to us can be shown through body movement and facial expression, but this is not one of those movies. There needed to be discussion between the characters, and real discussion. Not pointless guessing-game talk about the percentage of vitamins and ingredients in Captain Crunch cereal. There's also quite a few filler scenes that serve no purpose. Like Shae just walking about a farmers market, or sadly walking to class, or writing notes in class. None of these moments make Shae seem more relatable or whatever it is that director was trying to shoot for with these scenes, they're just ineffectual. Also, on a side note: what was Shae's deal wit bathrooms? Every time she was feeling uneasy about something, she went into a bathroom. I don't know, I think that may be something that only bothers me.

I can't say this is a horrible movie, because it's not, but it's also not good in any way. As a drama, horror, thriller (as it's classified on IMDb) there's not nearly enough blood or scare components to make it a horror, and there's not enough emotional substance to be a drama either. It's just sort of blah. Also, as another side note completely off topic: I'm not entirely sure that Lulu is a real person, she could be a separate sect of Shae's psyche that is a much more extreme version of herself, but this is only a theory and I don't really have enough evidence to support it. All in all, I probably wouldn't watch it again.

No comments:

Post a Comment