Kicking the Dog

First off, this is an independent film, basically in the same vein as two of the most famous - Clerks and Slacker. We all know Kevin Smith made Clerks and went on to a successful career. But you may not realize that Slacker was the first effort by Richard Linklater who's second effort was the legendary movie that began as a cult classic and is now a staple of every teen and 20- something - the great Dazed and Confused. Why am I mentioning this? Because I think that Slacker is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It couldn't hold my attention for more than a few minutes and I only laughed two times. And yet Linklater went on to make an iconic movie about high school kids a couple years later. Lammey's Kicking The Dog, although rough around the edges (we'll get into that in a moment), is a hundred times better than Slacker - basically because it's really funny. I read a review that said something like "Linklater's sophomore effort was Dazed and Confused, which is a classic. Lammey's first effort is a superior movie than Linklater's Slacker, so I'm setting my Google alert so I don't miss his next film"

Basically that's how I feel. each went a different route with their low budget indie films. Slacker roamed around town, never staying on a character for more than a few minutes and never being very funny. Kicking The Dog stays in a single home and has a bunch of characters interact with each other in that house. But the key difference - The Dog is really funny. Both films went in these directions because of their budget. But someone saw that Linklater had potential and he went on to make D&C. As far as pure comedy goes, Slacker is not in the same league as KTD. KTD is funny and often hilarious. Show it to a group of 18 year olds and watch their reactions. Yes, the acting is up and down, as is the story. Staying in one house feels awkward at times. But if you just watch and listen to the comedy, it will keep you laughing.

Sorry it's not really a review. I just watched the movie after not seeing it for a few years and tried to see if Lammey made another and I stumbled upon the review comparing it to Slacker, which made me think. If you like teen sex comedies, watch it. You will laugh.

A group of friends spend their last summer the have before entering adulthood by....staying at home and having fairly lame parties, full of sexual stories of past escapades and hitting on girls. Oh those wild ones.

This movie is full of frank sex talk that i'd guess is supposed to be humorous, but the movie isn't on for long before it just becomes boring and tedious. It seems that the writer of this was attempting to channel Kevin Smith (old "Clerks" era Smith, the New Kevin Smith is too busy trying to channel Judd Apatow), but lacked the ability to successfully pull it off. What we get is an overlong, unfunny, exercise in tedium.

Eye Candy: Lorianne Dye get topless

My Grade: D-

DVD Extras: Just a theatrical trailer for this movie; and trailers for "Hide", "Stormforce", & "Brother's War"

Like most people, the box cover completely threw me off. The artwork is not a good representation of the movie - and in fact the two guys on the cover aren't in the movie as far as I can tell. I was somewhat stunned the first 5 minutes of the movie, since it was nothing that I expected - which was some hot girls prancing around a party and getting half naked. Then I started to laugh - and I kept laughing.

Honestly, I laughed more at this movie than maybe any movie I have ever seen. At times, I was almost ashamed to be laughing - but it was so perfect. Yeah, they say wiener and discuss sex in front of girlfriends - but it took me back to when I was 20 and did the exact same thing. And the conversations are perfect. Yes they're over-the-top at times - but didn't you have 1-2 guys in your crowd that went over-the-top because they knew it was funny? So, yes I laughed a lot - probably more than similar movies. That said, those other movies like Superbad, Amer Pie, Old School - are still better movies because they use more locations (which Kicking The Dog needed) which keep it more interesting, the characters/acting absorbs you more, and there is a plot - which is my main issue with KTD.

KTD needed a cool plot to become a top level movie. It's basically a 5/10 movie with 9/10 humor. But the super low budget gives it a bonus point. It's not like I ever thought, "where's the plot", because there are some, but nothing that sucks you in during those slower moments.

From the ratings, this is a love it or hate it movie. Like when Music Magazines do those "people's choice - best and worst bands of the year" and the same band wins both the best and the worst. That's how I see this movie. If you had similar experiences hanging out with friends, you will probably laugh your butt off and love this movie. If you didn't, then you will probably shut it off after 10 minutes. But there are some genuine moments (the girlfriend is cute and very good actress).

The teen sex genre has been tired since everyone decided to rip off American Pie in the late 90s/easrly 00s. So it's refreshing when a movie comes along that somewhat re-writes the style - and it's actually funnier than most teen comedies - and I dare to say that it will appeal to a wider audience range - meaning from 14 to 40. What it lacks in plot it more than makes up for in laughs.

What we have is a group of friends who have just graduated college and are hanging out at a friends house. I don't know where the parents are at for what seems like 2-3 weeks, but it doesn't really matter. Unlike previous movies in this genre, these guys aren't desperately trying to have sex to lose their virginity - they're just acting like 22 year olds. They want sex, want to get drunk, want to have fun and want to hang out with their friends. And their conversations about life is so perfect and non-stop that you feel like you've been there.

The main story is that the lead actress (elizabeth schimdt is very good and offers an emotional aspect that offsets the boob jokes) is going to graduate school across country while her boyfriend declines a job offer to stay with her, not realizing she's leaving. He feels betrayed and she's confused. She carries these scenes, which saves this underdeveloped plot line. There is also some minor plot lines with some young eye candy as well as some innocent geeks - one of which steals every scene - sometimes with his words and other times with simple expressions.

It only slows a couple times, and never for long. The conversations and jokes come at you as fast as any movie - and much faster than any teen comedy - which makes up for the lack of a great plot (but tell me, how many teen comedies have a great plot) and the fact that too much of the movie is in 1 location. That may be my biggest complaint, I understand it was low budget, but 2 more locations could have made this movie, as they say at the end, "LEGENDARY!" I guess the haters just don't get it. I don't know how. I think of the scenes and just laugh.

First off, if this was on a Hollywood budget, I would have rated it a 6. I considered giving it a 9 because of the budget, but settled on a reasonable 8. It is very funny and at times I caught myself rewinding the movie because I missed a joke because me or one of my buddies was laughing and couldn't hear it.

The context is somewhat simple - college kids (with a few high schoolers, as well as an over-the-hill hanger-on) party on 2-3 weekends and discuss sex while trying to have sex. It's very straight-forward and I've heard my friends have similar conversations many times. The writer has a keen ear for natural dialog and it's displayed with nearly every conversation, which are usually rapid-fire and funny. Even the few argument scenes come across very good, which I definitely didn't expect from this movie (thanks to Elizabeth Schmidt, who we should see more of).

Occasionally you feel trapped inside the house - since nearly every scene happens in a single location. But just about the time you think it's going to drag, the tempo picks up, a location changes, or something bizarre happens (cue the dwarf-3some dream sequence).

One nice thing about this movie is that the girls actually remind me of girls I hang out with. They're cool, can hang with guys, and are not simply an object to be conquered, although the guys are spending most of their time trying to hook up. And maybe that's why it seems so natural - because the guys are being themselves around the girls - having fun and trying to have sex, not just one or the other.

It's not for everyone, but it's worth a look because it you like the humor, you may rate it higher than I did. It also has a very impressive soundtrack, although I haven't found the songs for sale.