Boy Kills World

After seeing the trailer for director Moritz Mohr’s new movie Boy Kills World, you might ask yourself, do we really need another one-man-against-an-army movie?  Surprisingly, the answer is a resounding “YES!”, as I am of the opinion that you can never have enough of these movies. The goal, of course, is to stand out, because as stated earlier, we have seen all shapes and sizes when it comes to guy kicking a lot of ass and taking names. Boy Kills World finds a way to do that, with some great and violent kills, and even throws in some killer cereal mascots for good measure.

The Boy (Bill Skarsgård) had something bad happen to him as a kid. His sister Mina (Quinn Copeland) and his mother were shot in front of him, while he was left a deaf mute. A Shaman (Yayan Ruhian) found the boy and took him in, where he trains him to be deadly when he is ready. As he grows up, he becomes skilled with weapons and his fists, but the Shaman does not think he is ready to be unleashed quite yet. After a massacre in a market in the city, The Boy can take no more and becomes unleashed. He doesn’t show his skills in that market; no, his mission is to kill Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen) the source of pain and misery, and he will not stop until he does. So The Boy hides in a trunk and makes it inside the Van Der Koy’s lair, where he makes quick work of a lot of her soldiers. Everything seems to be going to plan, and soon Bennie (Isaiah Mustafa) and Basho (Andrew Koji) join the fight, and they have a plan to help The Boy complete his mission. Fists fly, blood is spilled, but can The Boy kill enough to get to his target?

Written by Tyler Burton Smith, Arend Remmers, and Moritz Mohr, Boy Kills World was once a short film, and while it is a typical revenge flick, there are a few fun twists. You may think with your lead character being a mute, that maybe the gimmick won’t be enough to make this enjoyable. However the writers take care of this by providing an inner voice (H. Jon Benjamin), who provides some plenty light-hearted moments with his banter. That voice doesn’t stay there for the whole movie, as at a little past the halfway point, it then goes mostly silent, and the fighting takes over. This is simple cinema, but while it might feel a little long, and the violent kills start to lose their shock value, it’s still fun to watch.

Boy Kills World is a live-action cartoon that is colorful, brutal, and even a little charming at times. It is also a delirious action romp, that will leave your mouth open at some of its action sequences, while you mouth ‘hell yeah.’ Even when things get serious, the filmmakers never take themselves seriously and are never afraid to have their cake and eat it too. We are not too worried about the story here, as you know The Boy’s goal, and instead, we are focused on the action and man, does it commit to that. Skarsgärd is fantastic, and he will impress even the hardcore action movie fans with his blunt force of a performance. This movie has to be seen to believed, as you probably won’t have a more chaotic/fun time in a theater this year.