In a case of the actor is better than the movie, Andrew reviews Jamie Kennedy in Buddy Hutchins.
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| "How did I end up here? Nevermind. Prepare to die." |
Every now and again, a bad movie with either a great
or otherwise unique performance comes around.
Films like House on Haunted Hill with
Geoffrey Rush doing a spin on Vincent Price crossed with John Waters come to
mind. In the case of Buddy Hutchins, writer-director Jared
Cohn’s dour and misguided retread of Joel Schumacher’s 1993 Michael Douglas
vengeance picture Falling Down, Jamie
Kennedy is the actor in question.
Ordinarily cast in comic roles, the idea of the goofy and meek looking
Kennedy turning over a murderous alcoholic couldn’t be more remote on
paper. Because we’re not ready to accept
such a notion, the casting works all the more for a role which allows Kennedy
to present himself in a light never seen before. It’s too bad all his hard effort will
disappear within the mire that ultimately is Buddy Hutchins.
Technically, Buddy
Hutchins is pretty lousy. From the
onset, low budget production values, cinematography that inexplicably drifts in
and out of focus coupled with jagged editing don’t bode well for what is
clearly a no-budget effort. There’s
something to be said for how many rooms in both Buddy’s home and his peers look
half-furnished and barren.
Unprofessional technical merits aside, the real reason to see Buddy Hutchins, if at all, is to behold
Jamie Kennedy the serial murderer.
Seeing the bright comic gradually devolved into dishevelment before
being covered in blood and scars is a sight for sore eyes and much like Steve
Zahn’s turn in Werner Herzog’s Rescue
Dawn, the performance is a revelation of the comic actor’s dramatic
abilities. Still, you know your film is
the real problem when you can fill Buddy’s shoes with any actor and the end
result is still an overextended exercise in depressing exploitation.
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| "Like my suit? No. Meet my chainsaw." |
Unlike the infinitely greater revenge drama Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Buddy Hutchins is cheap trash and time
wasted. What could have been an engaging
character study is just a thick skulled hunk of ultraviolence for gore
hounds. Tonally, Buddy Hutchins isn’t sure where its attitude lies, occasionally
lifting the downbeat veil for heavy metal clearly rooting for the needless
bloodshed obviously purported by a sociopath.
Spoiler free, the ending is such a total copout that actually negates
all the wrongdoing that preceded it.
This was not fun or interesting to look at and it mistakenly wants us to
side with an unmitigated monster who completely deserves his downtrodden lot in
life.
Other than giving Jamie Kennedy
the benefit of the doubt as a potentially credible dramatic actor, Buddy Hutchins is better off avoided
altogether.
-Andrew Kotwicki