Quick Review: The Violent Kind (2011)

"The Shitty Kind."

The Butcher Brothers. The Brothers Strause. McG... Is there a filmmaker(s) out there with a pretentious name that can actually make a decent movie? I'll give the Butcher Brothers credit for The Hamiltons, which was decent, but other than that, the answer is no. You shouldn't be able to make up a nickname or special moniker for yourself, until you've, oh I don't know, earned the right?  

The Violent Kind opens with a clothed sex scene and a drug deal gone wrong, and an avant-garde credits sequence. Woo! 

It's really about group of bikers that couldn't make the SAMCRO cut if their lives depended on it, and their crazy adventures at a birthday party. They walk around, talk, stare at girls, and mean mug for about 20 minutes, until Tiffany Shepis gets possessed by... aliens (I think) and tries to kill a guy for fingering her. She also climbs on the ceiling, and acts all possessed. Up to this point, the movie isn't all that bad (though dull), but don't worry, the Butcher Brothers have an ace up their sleeve: ghostly greasers. 

No.

Yep, a gang of ghost greasers shows up, lead by Giovanni Ribisi's less-talented brother, and proceeds to listen to crappy oldies and act all 50's style. And Talk. Talk, talk, talk. From here on out, there's something about aliens (?) and an event that will change the world, and we're not really sure what happens. The main problem here is that this movie thinks itself clever, and spends most of its running time showing the audience, just how clever it is. Over, and over, and over again. 

There's a good flick here somewhere, but it's buried underneath so much quirky and lame shit that it ceases to matter at about the halfway point. There are some things about this movie that are interesting, though they never full amount to much. Here they are:

The chicks, man. This movie had some pretty hot chicks.

Tiffany Shepis. It's always fun to watch her act slutty.

This Scene. I was like, "WTF?!?"

The possession stuff was mildly interesting, until we realized it was all a ruse.

That sky. It was pretty bad ass.

This shit, whatever it was, was kinda cool looking.

Everything else about the movie was a mess. The story was confused and vague, the acting was over the top and annoying, the CGI blood sucked, and most of it made little sense. It's obvious that the movie was meant to be equal parts disturbing, clever, and deeply original, but in the end what it ends up being is frustrating and tedious. I blame Rob Zombie; everyone these days wants to make their own Devil's Rejects, but none seem to be able to.

Any way you slice it, Tiffany Shepis is a vision of loveliness.