Some Guy Who Kills People (2011)

Directed by Jack Perez - Written by Ryan Levin
Starring Kevin Corrigan, Barry Bostwick and Ariel Gade
Runtime 100min. - Rated R
2.5 Stars (out of 4)

"Some Guy Who Kills People" is available on DVD and cable/satellite on-demand.
A google image search reveals that the film's various movie posters and cover art get 4 stars.

Here's a joke for you. A guy attempts suicide and endlessly fantasizes about murder upon his release from a mental hospital. Did you laugh? Neither did I. Yet that's the setup for the film. The punchline I suppose would be that he has a daughter who never knew he existed. She would have probably never known about her father if it weren't for the fact she's a character in a movie. It's a joke people, stay with me here.


The movie wasn't a total failure at extracting laughs from my over-sized belly. Barry Bostwick plays a sheriff that had me slapping my knee with every line. When he arrives at a murder scene he offers valuable insights such as, "You gotta be pretty angry to cut a man's head off". His deputy is a big part of the humor's success because he's a surrogate for the audience. When they approach a man with an axe in his skull the sheriff complains of a "splitting headache". Like the audience, the deputy is unsure if the pun is intentional. He, of course, joins in with the axe jokes until he's reprimanded by the sheriff who actually did have a splitting headache.

Ken Boyd (Corrigan) is the "some guy" in question. Maybe. He's fresh out of the "looney bin" (his words, not mine) after a wrist-cutting incident. He had an extremely brief romance with a girl that resulted in a pregnancy. To clarify, she got pregnant, not him. That would've been much more interesting. Anyway, he decided to propose so the child wouldn't be born out of wedlock and his proposal rejected. As you've already surmised, he didn't handle that rejection well.

Now let me give you another look at Ken Boyd. He works a dead-end job at an ice-cream parlor and lives with his mom. He occasionally gets asked to serve ice cream at birthday parties where he's forced to dress up like a waffle cone. One day, a daughter from a previous relationship learns of his existence for the first time and decides to seek him out. She calls him dad though she barely knows him. After their initial meeting she decides to move in with him regardless of his protests.

The first Ken Boyd paragraph paints a dark picture. This is a guy who belongs in a horror movie or some dark drama. The second paragraph is the perfect recipe for a comedy. The problem is, both paragraphs are accurate descriptions of the same character. It would take a lot of effort to reconcile these two character summaries. The duality didn't work for me.

The film is actually pretty slick on a technical level. If you were to deconstruct the script you could have made two very good movies. The acting talent serves the cause well. Kevin Corrigan is pretty good as a brooding ice-cream server and amateur comic book artist. The British actress Lucy Davis starred in the original U.K. version of "The Office" and had a nice role in "Shaun of the Dead" so you can imagine she's right at home with this material. Not enough praise can be heaped upon Barry Bostwick as the bumbling sheriff with the occasional brilliant insight. Ariel Gade plays the spunky daughter who's too smart for her own good. Miss Gade has a bright future. The U.S. has had a great crop of child actors in recent years and she'll stand out among them. She reminds me a bit of Abigail Breslin.

I hesitate to criticize the dialogue because my screener was supplied by the film's writer, Ryan Levin. Personally, I thought the conversations were a little stagnant in the dramatic parts of the film. In contrast, he hit a home run with the comedy. The actual kill scenes and subsequent investigations were my favorite moments and provided some badly needed comic relief.

All told, the movie provides is not a waste of time. There's enough entertainment to satisfy even the hardcore nitpickers. I am unqualified to say whether I am a hardcore nitpicker, but at times like this it seems likely. However, I enjoy laughing and the occasional splattering of blood, which is just what this movie supplies. There are countless others who crave hemoglobin and chuckles as well. You know who you are. This movie is for you.