BOY KILLS WORLD
(director/writer: Moritz Mohr; screenwriters: Tyler Burton, Arend Remmers; cinematographer: Peter Matjasko; editor: Lucian Barnard; music: Ludvig Forssell, El Michels Affair; cast: Bill Skarsgard (Boy), Cameron Crovetti (Young Boy), Nicholas Crovetti (Young Boy), Famke Jannsen (Hilda Vander Koy), Yayan Ruhian (Shaman), Bret Gelman (Glen), Sharlto Copley (Gideon), Michelle Dockery (Melaney), H. Jon Benjamin (voice-inner monologue), Jessica Rothe (June27), Isaiah Mustafa (Bennie), Andrew Koji (Basho), Quinn Copeland (Mina); Runtime: 111; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Sam Raimi, Zainab Azizi, Roy Lee, Wayne Fitzjohn, Simon Swart, Stuart Manashil, Dan Kagan; A Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions; 2023)
“An artless film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An extremely bloody action pic slickly made for midnight audiences (meant to be a cult film) and for fans of meticulously made but bad movies, who could care less about the narrative as long as the action scenes hit their mark. It marks the style over substance feature debut for German director Moritz Mohr. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world, and revolves around a revenge plot.
A child called Boy saw his family killed by the ruthless oligarch Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen), the ruler of a dystopian future society, who then made him a deaf/mute.
For years Boy underwent a grueling training in the martial arts under the training of his mentor, Shaman (Yayan Ruhian). As an adult, Boy (Bill Skarsgård) is ready to get his revenge on Hilda. But she’s surrounded by protective family members, including a propaganda minister (Michelle Dockery), a speechwriter (Brett Gelman), and a public relations expert (Sharlto Copley). There’s also a helmet-wearing female warrior called June27 (Jessica Rothe) guarding her.
The comedy is derived from the non-stop hyper-violence over the revenge fightsbeing .
It’s an artless film, lacking imagination, whose ongoing interior monologue of the anti-hero Boy, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, being both cloying and annoying.
Not watchable, unless you get off on watching gross-out video gags.
The movie has a video game called “Super Dragon Punch Force 3,” modeled on the one that inspires Boy. Yikes!
REVIEWED ON 5/3/2024 GRADE: C