Bullies

A mother, son and new stepdad move from the big city to a rural area in the shadow of the Rockies in the Great Northwest (Janet-Laine Green, Jonathan Crombie and Stephen Hunter). The teen meets an intriguing lass (Olivia d'Abo), but she's a member of a hostile moonshining family that grossly bullies the citizenry of the area. Dehl Berti is on hand as an American Indian who befriends the kid.

"Bullies" (1986) is curiously listed as a horror flick in some sources, but it's not; it's a hillbilly romance mixed with crime drama/thriller. The confusion is likely due to it being directed by Paul Lynch, known for "Prom Night" (1980) and "Humongous" (1982), plus the fact that there is some shocking gore for back then in the last half-hour. The movie is actually a meshing of the basic plot of "The Karate Kid" (1984) with the setting of "I Walk the Line" (1970) and "First Blood" (1982), along with the one-man-army element of the latter.

The first two acts are a really good set-up despite the overdone villainy of the antagonists (I mean these guys are just frothing at the mouth with ee-vil). It smacks of a real-life situation and you care about the protagonists while loathing the arrogant intimidators. At around the hour-mark, however, there's some awkward editing and the story switches to an over-the-top action flick while inexplicably forsaking a key character. It's as if the writers never heard the proverb "Less is more."

Still, if you can roll with these issues there's enough good here to make "Bullies" worthwhile for those interested. For instance, the relationship of the boy and Will Crow, some quality life-lessons, the teen romance and Olivia d'Abo's fun swimming scene.

The film runs about 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in Marysville & Kimberly, British Columbia, which are located an eight-hour drive east of Vancouver in the Canadian Rockies of southeast BC, as well as Thunder Hill Provincial Park 40 miles north of there.

GRADE: B-

The Cullen boys are a nasty bunch. They take whatever they want from the local shops, dance with whoever they like at the local bar, beat their sister and blame it on one of the local boys. If anyone stands up to them, they know they're in for a taste of Cullen family attention, which is particularly brutal.

There are a few good scenes of intimidation, especially the treatment of Vern the mechanic, but somehow, they're just not made out to be as scary as they should be. Pity, because the actors were good at being bad when they were allowed to be.

this movie really contain a lot of brutal action... i really like this movie indeed... it has a lot of action, and the story line goes well. this is one of the better grade b movies i have seen! come on guys... this is not a stupid movie. give this movie a chance. it deserves to be rated 6 and above in IMDb list. what can i say about this movie?? the actors are unknown, but still, they perform well in this movie! the story line is pretty good too! i'm giving this movie a chance! so i'm giving it 10/10..

try to watch this movie.. i really recommend this movie to everyone... every movie should be given a chance... as a conclusion, this a GOOD MOVIE!!! BRAVO !!!

10/10****

It seems to me that perhaps the incessant violence in this film is what saves it, and what ruins it. I have to confess, the first scene of senseless violence got my attention in a big way, but after a while it began to get rather repetitive. There were just too many beatings, and there was too much intimidation for the film to be enjoyable. Was it interesting? For the most part, yes. Unfortunately, anyone who has seen a film before would know that this family would eventually be put in their place, so the interest was only maintained by waiting to see who would be attacked next.

Olivia D'Abo in a wet T-shirt is the only thing this movie has going for it. Other than that, this Canadian production about a man taking out a vicious band of hillbillies is not worth anybody's time. The writing is bad, the acting is poor and the direction is sub-standard.