Friday, April 26, 2013

How to be a Serial Killer (2008)



Holy crap.  I chose "How to be a Serial Killer"  as my first movie and almost decided I didn't want to do it anymore. (Spoiler alert below.) The plot according to IMDb: 

"A serial killer decides to teach the secrets of his satisfying career to a video store clerk."

I thought it was a pretty awesome premise with a lot of possibilities considering it was a comedy.  The main character, Mike Wilson (Dameon Clark), has these stand out moments between scenes where he's standing on a stage presenting as though he's a motivational speaker/magician telling the audience the do's and don'ts of being a serial killer.  

Within the first ten minutes we meet Bart (Matthew Gary Gubler).  Bart's a mousy video clerk who can't stand up for himself and let's the world ignore and treat him like crap.  Mike's in the video store watching Bart taking crap from a customer and decides to take a chance. After a short hussed conversation with Bart, Mike thinks Bart could be his protege and teaches him how to kill.  

Let's be clear.  Mike's a serial killer, but he does have rules.  I honestly don't recall all of them but it was about the gist of:

  • Shitty people can be killed,
  • Old people might want help dying so go head,
  • Don't rape or steal,
  • Keep yourself emotionally distant unless you want others to find out.
Thus begins this journey of Mike sharing knowledge with Bart.  Also, we learn Mike has been in a relationship for about a year and he's pretty fond of his woman, even if he deflects every question she ever asks.

Oh, and occasionally you get scenes if a psychologist in his office talking about how unfeeling and psychopathic serial killers are.  Duh.

::Sigh:: I'm bored just writing this.  

You know how sometimes you want to have something on, even it's just going to be background noise?  Yea, this movie wasn't even good for that.  It was shot as though in the typical way dark comedy's are done.  Dark and washed out.  Kind of reminded me of how "Clerks" was shot. Personally, I'm a fan of Gubler and overall, I think the acting wasn't horrible.  Just bad direction and timing.  Mainly, they had a decent story idea, but not a well thought out plot.  



SPOILER ALERT


Mike's girlfriend gets suspicious about his sneaking around, he finds he has to killer her.  He's distraught and unthinking and goes on the run with Bart.  He gets cornered but says Bart's his hostage, thus Mike goes to jail and Bart goes free. 

Overall, it was a disjointed movie I had a hard time wanting to finish.  Watch if you want, but don't say I recommended it.  

First Post

So, I love Netflix.  I think between that it's a fantastic service that provides what I want.  Shows and movies to watch.  With that said, they have some of the weirdish, most obscure options available.  I'm not just talking movies that went straight to DVD.  I mean movies that I haven't even seen in the $5 bin at Wal-mart. Bottom of the barrel. Sometimes though, you can find an awesome hidden gem in the midst of all the crap.  I want to help everyone sift through it all.

I will be watching the weird movies that no one wants to waste time on.  And giving as much of a review without spoiling it all.  Actually. I might spoil, but I will share that early.

If you have an recommendations, I'd love to hear them and watch your terrible movie picks.  I'll try and update once a week.  Maybe more, given time.  

So, let the games begin.