366. Becky; movie review

 

 

BECKY

Cert 18

94 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, gore

Hold on, is that bushy-bearded white supremacist, Paul Blart, mall cop?

Yep, for the first time, I was watching comedian Kevin James play a hard-as-nails, unhinged villain.

And I have to report that he was pretty convincing too! 

That said, Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion's revenge thriller Becky wasn't my cup of tea. I found the threadbare plot and non-stop violence a turn-off.

The title character, played by Lulu Wilson, is an angry teenager who takes the grief of losing her mum out on her hapless dad (Joel McHale).

It appears he is trying to please her when he organises a trip to the holiday home where they shared fond family memories.

But he makes a ghastly mistake by also inviting his new love (Amanda Brugel) and young son (Isaiah Rockcliffe) without telling Becky.

Thus, she runs off to a small cabin in the woods in a huge strop and, while she is there, a gang of escaped prisoners barge into the main house, taking her dad, his girlfriend and her son hostage.

They are in search of a key and proceed about vicious torture with the aim of getting it.

Meanwhile, they counted without Becky... a girl who seems to have lost her own moral compass since her mother died.

Thus, she has her own rather creative thoughts on how she will defeat the hardened criminals who would like to see her dead.

In this regard, she reminded me of McCauley Culkin's Kevin in Home Alone - but 100 times more violent against much more determined opposition.

The most ruthless is James's character - a thick-bearded monster who kills without conscience.

He joins the legions of comedians to go straight and I found him far more engaging than the comedy turns I have witnessed over the past decade.

Indeed, just to see the transformation would be worth 94 minutes.

Reasons to watch: To see Kevin James as never before

Reasons to avoid: Very bloody

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? According to a Washington Post ABC poll in 2017, nine per cent of Americans said holding neo-Nazi or white supremacist views was acceptable. If extrapolated to the entire US population, nine per cent would equate to 22 million people.

The final word. Joel McHale: "When I heard they got Kevin James as the villain, I was like, ‘That is really crazy and great. You get The King of Queens in there with a swastika on the back of his head and it’s like, ‘Well this is different!’"

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