So, I'm going to review a movie.

Wikipedia entry

I keep stumbling upon these strange dark comedies at the top of NetFlix's comedy section, perhaps influenced by my watching choices? I don't know. I knew nothing about this film other than its NeFlix blurb and info. I figured written by Goldthwait and put out by Darko Entertainment sounded up my alley, so I gave it a go.

If you liked Natural Born Killers and Lolita but hated all the sex and also hate stereotypical Americans you'll love this movie.

The first approximately 24 minutes of this film could have been edited into five minutes and keeps crawling up its own ass in self important, high horse preaching. After that it picks up speed and gets quite enjoyable, though it never quite revs up to full speed and really good pacing like Natural Born Killers. It starts getting up to a good speed, and then they pause and crawl back up their own asses. However, the characters they want you to hate are really easy to hate. Our heroes are very likable despite their occasional obsession with crawling up their own asses. The soundtrack is great, I was incredibly entertained. But I felt like there was a brilliant movie in here that I could have edited from the existing film.

For anyone who feels like stereotypical Americans and American reality show/pop culture bullshit is 95% of the country, and that somehow nobody seems to notice how vapid and materialistic everybody BUT YOU is, this movie will hit home. You will really relate to our heroes. But instead we have a sad middle aged man who has been dealt a lot of shit hands and feels overwhelmed by the vapid shit around him, and a teenager who probably would have grown out of it once she found a world outside high school.

All that said, after another ham handed monologue the movie finds the balls to give a simple and clean ending.

It is at this point that I should probably explain the eris scale of movie ratings, as I don't know if I have before as I usually only do this sort of ramble in person.

It's a x/3 rating in which x is how many of the three points it hits.

1. An interesting or engaging world/universe. It doesn't matter why, just that you enjoyed the world or premise that the film exists in. This can be something as overarching as the universes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Firefly, et cetera. As evidenced by the mass of fan fiction that exists in these universes, they clearly earned that point for many people. Was the universe engaging? Was it believable? This is a point that is often flat out earned or gained by default in movies based in something almost identical to our reality, and is more of an important point in larger fiction.

2. Well written. Did the characters talk like real people? If not was it sufficiently entertaining as to not matter, or if not did it fit the universe (see last point)? Did it flow well? Did the story make sense?

3. Likable or hatable characters. Did they seem like fully realised characters. Did you adequately love or hate them as intended by the presenters?

As much as I enjoyed this movie, I was torn on whether it was a 1/3 or 2/3 for me. It really only firmly hit the last point. I really liked the characters despite their occasional forays up their own ass. The flow was hitchy, the points were ham handed and preachy. Therefore I sadly had to settle at 1/3. Which I feel bad about because Bobcat Goldthwait. I don't know if it was the fault of the original script, or if something was lost in the direction/editing. But it never quite got up to speed. And the reason it didn't default earn the first point despite not being hugely fiction, is that it was still more of an Idiocracy universe, which panders to those who feel they are above or better than the vapid idiots they see or think they see around them.

In the end, it just made me want to watch Natural Born Killers again. But I do not at all regret watching God Bless America, it was entertaining.