Gutterballs (2008)

Brilliant and touching

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This movie is pretty good. I see people who review claim the movie is misogynistic and amateurish and they are Liberal Feminists who do not know the difference between art and monkey crap.It has a nice dirty video look that is meant to imitate the 70's drive in theaters from the yesterdays. It is filmed with a nice unique style and the filters again imitates the 70's dirty film look. It actually has a good musical score.It's a movie that is about torture and men who act and portrays teen films from the 70's and 80's where men called each other names, had sex and committed crimes for the sake of revenge.It's rude, disgusting and entertainingly fun. I give this a must see.

Gutterballs (2008)** 1/2 (out of 4) A woman is brutally gang raped by four men. The next night those men, the woman and his other friends meet up at the same bowling alley and one by one people begin to get brutally murdered.GUTTERBALLS is a film I had never heard of before joining a few Facebook groups and it seems this title was popping up all over the place. Writer-director Ryan Nicholson wanted to make a throwback to the 80's slasher film and he certainly accomplished that and a whole lot more. I'm really not sure who to recommend this thing to because it's going to either offend most or it's just going to drive them crazy by annoying them. If you "get" the picture then I think you'll have a good time but viewer discretion is certainly advised before attempting to watch this thing.This is the type of film you really watch as a dare because, like I said, it's pretty brutal from start to finish. It's certainly not graphic like the recent trend of torture porn because the film is so over-the-top that you can't take it too serious. This includes all the characters who are downright stupid and annoying but I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose. The film is notorious for the death scenes and there's no doubt that there's some original and memorable scenes. If you've seen enough horror movies then you know it's hard to see something original but we get at least five original deaths here. Some are so downright crazy that you really have to see them to believe it. Needless to say, even Lucio Fulci would tip his hat.While this film will always be remembered and talked about for its gore, I think the strongest thing is the technical aspects. There's no doubt that director Nicholson does an extremely good job at telling the story and there's no question that he can handle a film. I'm not sure what the budget was but I'm sure it was low but the film still has a professional look to it. The most amazing thing is that the film really does look like it was filmed during the early 80's. A lot of filmmakers try to capture that "look" but most fail That's not the case here. There are some flaws with the picture including some of the performances, the annoying characters and I think the film runs too long but there's still no question that GUTTERBALLS is quite an original film in many ways and that makes it worth watching if you can stomach it.

I don't get why this movie is listed under comedy. It deterred me from seeing it for so long, but I have learned my lesson not to judge a movie from it's (marketed) genre.You see, I detest 99% of comedy movies. Jim Carry and Adam Sandler Will Farrel and Steve Carrell have never made me laugh the way everyone else seems to respond to them almost institutionally. And even tho i'm a horror/dark drama/gorest-y type I have never really known a horror movie that doubled well as a comedy (intentionally that is) ex1 Slumber Party MassacreThe comedy is certainly low brow. It's not exploitative of women it's equal opportunity exploitative of all the genders in the spectrum (i say this because the movie happens to have an ambiguously gendered preoperative transsexual as one of the key characters.) "She" --i'm telling u this as a member of the LGBT community myself] that if you truly wish to be polite-- 'they' want to be referred to as the gender they are PRESENTING. It's really pretty simple but the movie does address and trample the issue in a funny way. (You need to have a sense of humor:P)The movie also features borderline XXX HETERO-sex as well. Points for this a nod to Jess Franco? Also another awesome bonus is the very ambiguous(80's?)time setting with a very arcadey vintage touch. Not the annoying hipster kind :)So rent it buy it see it. Easily the best Slasher since Scream (1996) and don't be deterred by the comedy as it just happens yo be silly.Acting : 6 /10 Kills : 10/10 Gore : 10/10

The spoiler is very minor-- I discuss an early scene in detail and other stuff in a very vague manner.Gutterballs is an odd and unsettling movie, especially in the uncut edition that I saw.Like Irreversible, Gutterballs subverts expectations by giving you a much worse version of what it advertises...a very, very unpleasant and nasty rape sequence that left me unsettled for the remainder of the viewing experience and not ever able to engage at the level of "enjoying" the piece. I believe this is by design and not actually a flaw. Unlike Irreversible, the shot selection of the heinous act alternates between empathizing with the victim (unflattering close ups of the bad guys) and exploitation of the victim (overhead shots of the victim as an object), which gives the movie an odious taint. Again, this seems by design.After this very unpleasant sequence, the movies depicts loads of mean, dumb and hateful teens, all of whom give over the top performances, though not all of these performances are bad. Several of these histrionic performances are in keeping with the hateful tone of the movie, especially the main bad guys, who were like amped-up versions of the bullies in "History of Violence." They are not at all realistic, yet in this stylized world they are believably malefic. This is one of the reasons the rape sequence is so unsettling-- I completely believe that these guys are capable of doing this even if everything is pushed into cursing caricature.It's surprising to me how often people refer to this movie as "fun." Although it has a retro slasher facade, the heart of this movie is mean hate and covered with thorns.If the humor was ever funny in Gutterballs (I laughed more watching August Underground) or if any of the characters were likable, Gutterballs would have been an emotionally richer experience, and a better movie, rather than a monotonously mean one. If the revenge element were logically motivated throughout the piece, I might have engaged at that level of feeling some satisfaction/gratification with the crimes when they are committed, but that is not the path Ryan Nicholson hews with his machete.As is, Gutterballs is suxxxesful as a piece of hateful exploitation, showcasing some expert gore, but is a monochromatic viewing experience.