Boy Kills World (2024)

It always happens. One great success leads to numerous imitators. That can lead to other successes, as has happened in recent years with a certain kind of action cinema. It can also lead to the occasional mid-step, at best. Boy Kills World is a mis-step, although it’s one that I know plenty of people enjoyed more than I did.

Bill Skarsgård plays our main character, a mute man who narrates his own life in an inner voice (H. Jon Benjamin) that he used to enjoy hearing in one of his favourite videogames. He is living in a strange dystopian world, one in which the rulers occasionally just pick people to kill/sacrifice, and his own loss drives him on a wild and bloody quest for revenge.

What you get here, when it works, is an enjoyably creative killing spree centering on a main character who is skilled and fortunate enough to deal with waves of disposable villains. The action is certainly fun and energetic, and everything is underlined by a streak of hunour that many will enjoy (although it didn’t work for me).

Director Mortiz Mohr, making his feature debut, feels like someone making a feature debut. This has a great idea at the heart of it, it’s trying to boil down a pure and simple action movie aesthetic into something even more pure and simple, but the end result is too messy, with a muddled plot, clumsy tonal movement, and characters that you don’t ever care about, even if Skarsgård has an innate likability to him.

The script, fully fleshed out by Arend Remmers and Tyler Burton Smith, is a mess. I never once believed the world depicted onscreen, and the attempt to add some twists and turns were altogether unsuccessful. Either keep things rooted in pure action madness or try to deliver plotting that people will care about. This moves between both, and that caused it to leave me unsatisfied with both aspects.

Skarsgård makes up for many failings though. His wide-eyed turn is very enjoyable, and he looks more than capable when in full-on rage fighting mode. That’s a good thing indeed, because almost everyone else here is wasted. Michelle Dockery, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Famke Janssen, all wasted. It should be a crime to waste Janssen this badly. Jessica Rothe is also wasted, as is the fantastic Yayan Ruhian, although he gets a few good moments throughout, and it’s at least good to see him in a fairly central role.

I really wanted to enjoy this. I expected to enjoy it. While I didn’t hate it, I was surprised by how poor it was. Is it worth a watch one evening when you want some bloody entertainment to accompany snacks and drinks? Yes. Is it worth a rewatch at any point, and will it stay long in your memory once you go on to many of the other action movies from the past few years? Absolutely not.

4/10

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Netflix And Chill: Metal Lords (2022)

Ahhhhh the joys of discovering metal music. Arguably more than any other genre of music, aside from punk, metal speaks to the anger and frustration within us, something that is even more in need of an outlet when we are teens than when we are adults. As an adult, metal becomes more about the musical skill and ear-splitting wall of sound, generally, but it's hard to argue against the idea that most would first really tap into the music as a teen. It is, just like punk, the kind of music that doesn't need a lot of extra equipment to have a go at (a guitar and a loud amp will do), and it scares away a lot of people who may have already been viewing someone else as an outsider anyway. And it can become all too easy to lean further into that comforting world of noise, scaring more people away, either accidentally or deliberately, and claiming the outsider status as a badge of honour.

Metal Lords is the tale of two such "outsiders" who have decided to fight against the world together. There's Kevin (Jaeden Martell), a newbie to the music who is an excellent drummer, and Hunter (Adrian Greensmith), a talented guitarist who lives and breathes metal. Having said they will participate in an upcoming "battle of the bands" competition, the two struggle to find a bassist. Fortunately, there's a new way to present the songs if they team up with a cellist named Emily (Isis Hainsworth). Kevin thinks that could be a great idea, but he also ends up in a relationship with Emily, much to the displeasure of Hunter.

Written by D. B. Weiss, who has done the rest of his writing work for TV (including a small show you might have heard of called Game Of Thrones), Metal Lords is a mess, initially, and I can see a number of viewers giving up before it really hits its stride, which is actually just before the halfway point. That's not to say that the messy parts are bad, but they are certainly more enjoyable for those who can recall some awkward years in their teens, and for those who have at least dipped their toes into the hallowed waters of metal. Weiss maybe errs slightly as he makes his lead characters a bit too determined to keep some others at bay. Well, it's Hunter doing the pushing, but Kevin sticks with him throughout the first half of the film. The fact that the actors are great in their roles is another big help.

Martell and Greensmith both look as if they know their way around the respective instruments that they're playing, whether through natural talent or the editing of the film, and they feel spot on in their central characterisations, with the former being open to eventually connecting with other people as the latter keeps putting up metal-spiked walls. Greensmith becomes irritating quite early on, but he's supposed to be. That's all nicely in place for a grin-inducing grand finale. Hainsworth is wonderful as the young woman who could work well with the central duo, despite Greensmith's character viewing her as simply coming between them. Fiery-tempered, but also very sweet in the company of those she cares for, Hainsworth is at her best when cursing people out in her Scottish brogue and priming herself to jump on their heads. She also looks as if she knows what she's doing when it comes to the scenes that have her playing the cello. Brett Gelman also has fun, playing a doctor who hasn't connected properly with his son in years, Noah Urrea, Analesa Fisher, Phelan Davis, and Rachel Pate all have one or two good moments, and there's a very amusing little turn from Joe Manganiello, not to mention fun cameos from four fully-fledged "metal lords".

Director Peter Sollett works well with the stumbling script, keeping everything in place until things settle into the better sequences. He allows the characters to show their facades as being just that, he keeps the metal tunes coming, and a special mention should go to the absolutely superb use of "War Pigs" throughout, and he conveys a faith in the material that is infectious. While viewers may be unsure of how much of the journey they will fully enjoy, they can always sense that things are heading towards a destination that is both predictable and joyous.

I feel like I've been a bit harsh in this review, but it's important to warn people that the film feels a bit tonally erratic for a while. And I'm not sure how I would have felt about the whole thing if it had stayed that way. It doesn't though, and I'm glad that the right choices were made to turn this into something that should please anyone who enjoys teen flicks, metal music, and underdogs having their moment in the sunshine (metaphorically, because metal fans usually prefer the pitch black of night to any beach trips).

7/10

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Harpoon (2019)

Written and directed by Rob Grant, Harpoon is the kind of black comedy thriller best described as enjoyably vicious. It takes three people, throws them together in a small environment, and starts to allow them to twist the knife into one another. And twist. And twist.

It all starts with Jonah (Munro Chambers) packing up things after the death of his parents. He is visited by his friend, Richard (Christopher Gray). Richard punches Munro in the face because he believes that Munro has been cheating with Richard's girlfriend, Sasha (Emily Tyra). Once that misunderstanding has been cleared up, the three head off on Richard's yacht for a day trip. Tension is still there, as well as a spear gun that is a birthday surprise for Richard.

Framed by the words of an unreliable narrator (Brett Gelman), Harpoon moves deftly between the very funny and the very painful. The truth can often hurt, but so can a swift kick to the balls. The latter will also happen to make viewers laugh. The three central characters show themselves, at various points, to be people who aren't really very nice, which makes their pain ultimately more satisfying, and also more expected as momentum starts to build towards the finale.

The praise must all go to Grant for his script (with some input from Mike Kovac). He's managed to take a simple three-hander of a tale, add some more humour and uncertainty with the help of that sharp narration, and somehow keep things both blindingly obvious and yet entertainingly serpentine at the same time. Everything is there from the very beginning, in many ways, as you are shown the characters, their actions, and main relationship dynamics.

It helps that the main cast all do very well in their roles. Gray is, of course, the one we take an immediate dislike to, being the rich kid who comes onscreen and punches his friend in the opening sequence. Chambers is enjoyably mistreated by Gray, the two of them perfectly illustrating an unlikely, and unhealthy, friendship, and Tyra is a perfect third point in what is set out as an obviously problematic triangle.

Although not as simplistically entertaining as Mon Ami (a 2012 film from Grant, featuring Kovac in a lead role), Harpoon is a similar tale of snowballing events leading up to a finale that looks set to be pretty bad news for everyone involved. It's still just a little bit too slight, and not quite as sharp as it could be, but you can certainly see the growth in Grant as a film-maker, and good to see him recently getting some more praise and attention from genre fans.

7/10

You can buy the movie here.