God Bless America (2012)

Wasn't expecting anything when I stumbled upon this.Quite low-key, small budget.What a brilliant, hilarious film.The interaction between the 2 protagonists is wonderful.Plenty of throw away lines, and slick references.Plus the added bonus of mindless visceral violence.Don't agree with all protagonists' view points, but there's enough there to keep you engaged. And after all it's a (dark) comedy.A very enjoyable way of spending 1h 45m.So, if you have a couple of spare hours, give this little gem a whirl.You could do a lot worse.

Frank Murdoch (Joel Murray) is tired of the crass popular culture. His ex-wife Alison is remarried and moved out of town with their daughter Ava. He gets fired from his job and told that he has brain cancer. He watches a reality show of spoiled entitled teen Chloe and sees her influence on his daughter. He kills Chloe which impresses smart-mouthed teen Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr). She talks him out of suicide and they go off on a killing spree.Bobcat Goldthwait delivers a scathing diatribe against the modern popular culture. It is unrelenting but it's not done in a funny manner. It's a satire that is too close for comfort and ends up not being that funny. Murray is a sad sack everyman. The girl has plenty of sass. The elements are there but I'm not laughing.

God Bless America is a violent black comedy mixed with a satire of modern-day life in America, directed and written by that annoyingly squeaky-voiced guy from the POLICE ACADEMY films, no less. While this wasn't perhaps as good as I was hoping for - it's a little too crude, and perhaps not as clever as it thinks it is - it's hard to resist a film that successfully lampoons the current state of America (and the western world in general). It also feels very similar to the superhero spoof, SUPER.Joel Murray gives a sympathetic turn as a guy who's reached the end of his tether, although he's no Michael Douglas in FALLING DOWN. I did like Tara Lynne Barr's fresh-faced role as the girl who ends up joining with him. There's a lot of extreme violence here, but it's less impressive than you'd expect and becomes a little repetitive. The put-downs aimed at various celebrity figures and institutions and the various references for genre fans are far better and keep the film moving along until the inevitable - and somewhat predictable - climax.

I really love it. I do like satires like Thank you for smoking. And this flick is really cool. I like how Frank is so annoyed by today's media and the people from the so called "high society". It is just a fun movie to watch. Not to mention the soundtrack, it is just awesome made, I haven't seen a more fun movie in a long time. Frank is a great character, so is Roxy. Well the end is a bit over the top in my opinion, but that's fine because the rest of the movie is 11/10 stars. The movie theater scene is exactly the reaction I almost have every time I go to the movies. Love it, and recommend it to anyone I talk about movies.