K-11 | DVD & BLU-RAY 4.23.13
Can you believe that a movie featuring a drug-addled protagonist thrown into a special ward of a prison reserved for homosexuals (what?) who then has to navigate prison politics, as administered by a transsexual boss named Mousey comes off a little … exploitative? Insensitive? Trying so desperately to be edgy and offensive to middle-America’s “backwards” sensibilities, that it just offends the rest of the world for being, well, bad?
Here’s a tip: if you want to push the envelope, start by casting men, not women, as at least a few of your transvestites and M-to-F transsexuals.
Here’s another: don’t watch this schlock.
BAD KIDS GO TO HELL | DVD 4.9.13
There’s a not-very-fine line between what makes a dark-comedy “thriller” worth watching and unwatchable: self-awareness.
Bad Kids Go To Hell, which mashes up The Breakfast Club (recasting Judd Nelson as the principal) and Final Destination, knows it’s predictable; it ladles on the winking references gleefully.
It revels in horror clichés (sexy nubiles, anyone?), while simultaneously laughing at them.
No, it’s not the cleverest entry in the horror-comedy genre, and comparisons to dark comedies like Heathers and Jawbreaker flatter it a bit too much, but if you go in expecting a few laughs and some goofy gore, you’ll be more than rewarded.
