American Bully

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Audience Member Prior to seeing this film, I have often imagined how bad an R-rated after school special written, directed, and produced by the ACLU would be. Well, now I know. This movie has no redeeming qualities. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member American Bully is one of those film that has a message to tell. What that message was is still a complete mystery to me. This entire film is based on a single act, which wouldn't be such a bad thing had they showed what led up to the act or what the results of the act were. The film is short to begin with, at just seventy-five minutes, but for the material presented, that was still too long. The entirety of this movie features a bunch of high school kids hanging out, getting drunk, and expressing racist views. After an hour of absolutely nothing going on, an opportunity presents itself, something finally happens, and the film is over. I thought with the subject material that this was a film that could have gone in a million different directions, but literally almost nothing happens! Matthew O'Leary stars, and while I consider him to be an underrated performer, it's roles like this one that are going to keep on the b-movie list. When actors are capable of so much more, why take a role like this? Clearly American Bully was a low budget, independent film, and without a payday or a strong leading role, there simply isn't a reason to take on a role of this nature. As I said the film has a message to tell and it seems pretty cut and dry until the end. The big left turn may have made the ending a bit more interesting, but calls into question the entire message the film had originally intended to portray. Overall I found the whole thing to be just a strange experience severely lacking in almost every category. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member American Bully tells the story of seven white American teenagers from a small town let post-9/11 paranoia take hold when they decide to engage in a prank that goes horribly awry. The subject matter would lead one to believe that a profound statement on xenophobia could be made but the film never rises above production values and dialogue that are more suitable for an 80s after school special program. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member While it does at times appear to be nothing more than a catharsis for xenophobes, it presents an interesting premise regarding the corruption of young minds, but ultimately fails to build upon that exploration. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member It's not really as profound or hard-hitting as I would've expected. It's dark and chilling in the thought that some fruit-nut, middle America teenagers probably DO think like this. In fact I have little doubt that they do. But the acting is pretty poor. The final moments where the lady reports on the events is a little unbelievable too. "Severe gunshot wounds"? I've never heard anyone say someone died from "severe gunshot wounds". Fatal, yes, but severe? What other kind of gunshot wounds are there? Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member I liked this movie. The teenage acters were very good. A very sad movie. The characters are actually personifications of different types of people in society. People that wont go to war but want to kill those that are different and the people that want to join the military but aren't looking to go in to shoot and kill people. it also shows how a persons mind can just take over, misfiring, and the brain starts computing that is killing thing is a mad rush. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

American Bully

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