The Wrath of Becky

The title is, I hope I’m not reaching here, a play on a recent Jason Stathan movie called The Wrath of Man. Hopefully the makers aren’t trying to subtly hint that this teenage girl who runs as badly as Angelina Jolie and Sigourney Weaver is the female equivalent to Stathan. The film gave me several feels for other works. My biggest takeaway from the film is how sad it is that there never seems to be a shortage of bad guy stereotypes for carnage fodder, no matter when the film is made.

Oddly enough, it was the trailer that drew me in. It’s odd because I don’t trust a trailer as far as I can throw it. This one reminded me a bit of the Harley Quinn movie Birds of Prey with its hint of devil may care sarcastic cynicism from a wee bit of a girl who is more badass than she seems. She also looks like Buffy the Vampire Slayer when covered in a bucket of gore.

This is a sequel to a revenge porn film called Becky, where she gorily dispatches a bevy of neo-nazis who done her wrong. I haven’t seen that one, but the top of the film took care of that for me. To begin with, we encounter a hugely smiling Becky being introduced to her new foster parents. This is where we learn how duplicitous she is, after immediately escaping with her beloved cane corso dog Diego. The film then begins a sort of new age filmstrip of her misdeeds after striking out on her own at age 13. They involve theft and property damage and the back of a police car. As the film catches up a voice over then tells the viewer why she’s an orphan, and how she ended up living in a nice old farmhouse with an older woman named Elena. Elena is cynical and “hates everyone”, but you can tell the two love each other, meaning Becky isn’t totally bad. Bad things happen, chaos ensues.

Like a good zombie movie, the film uses a tried and true format, in this case of revenge porn. This one has brain dead right wing dude bros giving her an excuse to gear up with the most painful killing utensils she can find and dispatching the evil morons in kinda clever and bloody ways that gave a little Final Destination. It’s not as mean spirited as I Spit on Your Grave and very non sexual, which is great considering Becky is only 16 years old. I did appreciate that all the bad guy kills targeted a part of the body that spreads overheated woman hating messaging.

Probably the weakest part of the film is the acting from the bad guys. They tried hard to appear hateful, bless their hearts. It did disturb me how well they portrayed kinda stupid.

I wouldn’t call this movie harmless fun, because there is great harm done, but it is a lightly entertaining bit of revenge porn that is not X rated. It annoyed me how easily Becky was overcome when the plot calls for it, considering how badass she is portrayed when it suits the filmmakers’ agenda. It also has a wide open to sequel ending that didn’t bother me a bit. Overall, this is a fairly fun movie that didn’t offend me to any great degree, so enjoy it if you’re in the mood.

Triggers: Oh yeah, gory violence and one really squicky death.

Available on: Netflix, google play, fandango at home, youtube (for $), amazon prime and apple tv

LINKS:

• The Wrath of Becky –
• The Wrath of Becky – IMDB
• The Wrath of Becky – Wikipedia

CFR: In Addition

Wait?? Wait? Wait? She saves her dog?! Oh Hell yeah.

Thanks Cranky.