DVD REVIEW: KABOOM

Bullsquash. This is one of the funniest and craziest movies of the year. NEVER a dull moment.

Gabe - buddy, pal - there isn't one moment of this film that an easily amused 15 year old who just watched Sixteen Candles and Weird Science could not approximate. It's easily one of the laziest films I've seen in a long time.

The scatter-shot, faux-zany approach wouldn't be so grating if it was funny enough to back it up, but in the end all the biggest laughs are unintentional ones.

I repeat: clock-watching after 45 minutes.

I dunno, man - "The Apocalypse is coming, but I'm too busy fucking EVERYONE" seemed like a pretty cool angle. Plus, JUNO TEMPLE. UGH JUNO TEMPLE. I could never clockwatch when she's around.

On paper, sure. But then the desperately lame smut talk takes over... without anything of note to latch on to. Just fooling around and even more fooling around. I'm sure that's great if you want to watch a saucier One Tree Hill, but it takes more than that to qualify as sexy and hilarious to my mind.

That's why I don't even think the "it's just not my cup of tea" criticism applies here. I like this sort of stuff when it's done well. Chasing Amy used this kind of dialogue 14 years ago as more than just a shock tactic. And The Rules of Attraction has more style in its first half an hour than all 86 minutes of this. Kaboom really did feel at a certain point like nothing more than a vessel for some scene ideas that Araki had lying around.

For something obviously shooting for the same kind of disaffected "whatever, dude" tone as its protagonists, it's so generic and beholden to conventions. The characters, the frank sex dialogue, even the "plot" all feel humdrum. His influences are first-class, but his execution is wearying.

A fine review! I've decided to join LoveFilm just so I can watch these films you find Bobby, though "a wearying trudge through the plot of a typical Hollyoaks episode with delusions of grandeur." probably puts this one quite low on the list. I put myself about town as a film buff but I'm clearly a novice, time to play catch up methinks. 

Keep em coming BB!

Many thanks, buddy! I'm seriously flattered. If The Lady in Red is on there, might I humbly suggest you bump it to the top of your list? That flick has more sex appeal in its wee toe than Kaboom.

To be fair to you, this only got a pretty limited run in cinemas here (there was a tiny review in Empire a few months ago) so it's not like it was putting itself about all over the place or anything. It was definitely a slip through the cracks kind of deal that just happened to catch my attention because of its name and a trailer. I hoped it would be comparable to its influences. Alas, twas not to be.