In what seems to be a year of unlikely action heroes, we’ve already seen the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal and Dev Pattel get unconscionably ripped in order to throw some brutal hands thanks to the like of Road House and Monley Man, however, with Ryan Gosling set to throw his chiseled pecs into the ring with the upcoming The Fall Guy, it’s time for former Pennywise Bill Skarsgärd to buff up and tough up as possibly the most unpredictable beefcake of them all.
He’s done it in honor of gonzo, ADD affected comedy/actioner, Boy Kills World, the feature debut feature of Moritz Moht that also sees Evil Dead honcho Sam Raimi in the producer’s chair and if anyone knows gonzo – it’s Raimi. However, taking its lead from the candy coloured rampages of Kill Bill Vol 1, can this visually stunning ensemble piece stand out in a year that – when it’s all said and done – will have featured quite a few garish action extravaganzas?
Guess what kids? Its eccentric dystopia time once again, but this time the large amounts of political dissent has seemingly been caused by the Van Der Koy’s, a wealthy family led by the tyrannical Hilda and backed up by her siblings, Gideon and Melanie. In this world we find the deaf and mute Boy, who has been enduring abusive levels of training since a child in order to home him into a perfect weapon of destruction by a man known only as the Shaman. The Shaman’s goal is impressively simple: once Boy is ready, he’ll unleash him on the Van Der Koys in order to end their reign of terror that peaks once a year during an annual tradition known as the Culling, where dissents are rounded up and put to death in very public executions.
Armed with abs you could break concrete on and an inner monologue that he’s taken from a childhood arcade game, Boy hopes to avenge his mother and sister, who were killed during a previous Culling, but the main setback is years of training and drugging by the Shaman has left Boy’s grasp of reality nowhere near as tight as his physique and he’s constantly distracted by the vision of his dead younger sister, Mina, who frequently keeps him company.
However, when a town gathering erupts into a riot thanks to Melanie’s bumbling, cuckolded husband, Glen, Boy is triggered early and before you know it, he’s up to his armpits in freshly mutilated soldiers as his quest for vengence prematurely begins. However, he soon gets some help in the form of resistance members Basho and Benny and soon they’re locking horns with the Van Der Koy’s helmeted, hatchet wielding enforcer, June 27 and countless goons. However, despite his efforts, Boy manages to end up in the middle of this year’s Culling which has been sponsored by a popular breakfast cereal – can he avoid killer mascots and countless bullets in order to reach his goal?
So, from the start it’s pretty evident that, thanks to the backfiring mental state of its lead character, Boy Kills World is a noisy, deranged mess of a movie that assaults the senses with garish colours, ridiculous concepts and a weird sense of humour that draws a bead on a bullseye marked “obnoxious” and then frantically pulls the trigger until its mag is empty. However, considering that that’s exactly how it’s supposed to play, you would be wrong to say that this hyper active action/comedy is pretty successful. It’s absolutely jam packed full of comic book weird, it’s unrepentantly gruesome and it’s got some some legitimately hectic action in there that is beefed up with cinematography so frentic, some motion sickness pills may be in order for those with dicky tummies.
There is a lot to embrace here, chief of them all a lead performance from a Bill Skarsgärd who looks cast out of pure marble who, along with a voiceover by H. Jon Benjamin (yes, the guy who voices Archer and Bob Belcher), creates an anti-hero using only body language, some highly expressive eyes and an impressive aptitude to beating enemies to a bloody ruin with his bare hands. What with the Crow remake flying in later this year, Skarsgärd looks to be cornering the market in at the edgier end of the action spectrum and he’s off to a fairly nifty start as he tears through bad guys like a fucking animals, ripping up armpits with cheesegraters and indulging in the type of mutual bloodletting usually seen in Gareth Evans movies.
It also helps that the rest of the cast is heaving with character actors that help ease along that stratospherically uneven tone. Both Sharlto Copley and Brett Gelman seem locked in a mortal battle of their own to see who can portray the most weasly scumbag they can and the fact that it’s a draw is surely testament to both actors talents of portraying world class douchebaggery. Elsewhere Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery enjoys a major change of scenery as yet another Van Der Koy and it’s fun to see Happy Death Day’s Jessica Rothe sporting a crash helmet that features an LED visor that shows up her thoughts like comic book speech bubbles.
However, as wild as Boy Kills World is, some may find that some noticable (and accidental) similarities with Dev Pattel’s Monkey Man a bit too much to ignore. After all, both are visually inventive, ruthlessly bloody and feature a wildly overacting Sharlto Copley as it goes through its standard revenge plot, but once you get down to the nitty gritty, the actual differences are immense.
However, while Boy Kills World is legitimately funny and features some funky action, unfortunately it doesn’t quite resonate as much as I’d hope. Maybe the fractured tone that gives it that Bullet Train-style eccentricity is the exact thing that stops it from fully connecting, but thankfully a final act tonal shift that suddenly drops the goofy jokes and delivers a final showdown that amazingly, somehow compares favourably with the spectacular, two-on-one brawl that closed out The Raid – of course, it helps that it also features bloodied, exhausted siblings teaming up to fight Yayan Ruhian to the death, but who’s counting?
With his strong grasp of style, an affinity of the absurd and a strong grasp of splattery action aesthetics, Mohr should be a name to watch in the future, but by turns silly, exciting, bewildering and ludicrous, this latest multicolored streak of revenge is mostly rambunctious, but ultimately throwaway fun. However, when it gets to that oddly moving finally, Boy Kills World finally kills.
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