This week, Anchor Bay will be releasing writer/director Austin Chick’s (XX/XY) female revenge thriller, Girls Against Boys, here in NY. The film follows a college student named Shae (Danielle Panabaker) who, after being assaulted and possibly raped by two men in a matter of days, is drawn into her attractive co-worker Lu’s (Nicole LaLiberte)sadistic plan to get revenge against all the men who did something wrong to her. Throughout one weekend, the two go on a violent killing spree, killing both criminals and other men that get in their way, even the innocent. When the weekend is over, Shae returns to school relieved of the stress while the very influential Lu, who has a lesbian-like obsession with Shae, anxiously waits for her return. What starts off as a simple friendship soon turns to an intense Jealousy as Shae must eventually pick sides, Lu or life.
I went into Girls Against Boys hoping for a good amount of revenge bloodshed by the victim but the film isn’t nearly as twisted as what I was expecting. While I was hoping for something like Lady Vengeance or Bedevilled, what I got was a more toned down film with the supporting character Lu being the only sadistic psycho. Additionally, one also has to examine the weak script because while the movie tries to get psychological, it never succeeds and eventually leaves us with a bland mix of emotions. This is unfortunate since all revenge thrillers tend to take its target audience seriously and create a work that should evoke something more than nothing.
While I can accept a more grounded thriller like this, I have a problem with the repercussions of the girls’ actions. Over the course of the film they kill seven guys but not once are bullets heard from neighbors, not once do cops investigate missing people and at no point does either girls care. Lu I can understand not caring but somehow Shae, the rational one, manages to push the idea out of her brain even though she has much more to lose than her seductive counterpart. It just doesn’t add up even if it obviously isn’t the focal point of the movie. SPOILER Somehow the bodies just disappear at the end, does that mean that Shae was dreaming it all? Nothing is conclusive and it ended with me not caring enough to figure it out END SPOILER.
I have to give props to Austin Chick for his pacing. Though it seemed like nothing really happened for the first half of the film, the movie flew by and got across everything it intended to in its 93 min. duration. Unfortunately for the viewer, you eventually see how the relationship is going to develop between Shae and Lu which makes it really easy to see how the film is going to end.
Girls with short skirts and guns will be the main selling point for Girls Against Boys but it’s a shame that it doesn’t offer anything more stimulating than that. There was potential for getting really psychological, dark and appropriately crazy, but instead Chick holds back and ultimately brings us a film that isn’t much fun but thankfully doesn’t waste much time either.
Rating: A bland revenge movie that’s lacking in the enjoyment department. A rarity, I know (3.8/10)
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