A deaf and mute dude violently kills people in the off kilter society of Boy Kills World, which feels like an alternative and more ambitious R-rated version of The Hunger Games.
Bill Skarsgaard plays the scrawny and brutal fighter known only as Boy, who has been trained his entire life to take down the evil Van Der Koy family that rules the city with a ruthlessly closed fist. Skarsgaard is great, but it’s his pairing with the gravely voiced H. Jon Benjamin—who speaks his inner monologue—that sets Boy Kills World apart from other revenge action movies. Funny, unhinged, and irreverent, the Voice adds an extra layer to the overall experience—the movie lives and dies by it. When Benjamin is chatting up a storm—again, paired with Slarsgaard’s physical acting—Boy Kills World is an absolute blast. When director Moritz Mohr forgets about the Voice—it’s notably quiet in the final climax—the movie isn’t quite as compelling.
Regardless, the action is pretty killer. Boasting some terrific choreography and playful (if still incredibly violent) action sequences, Boy Kills World will go down as one of the year’s best action movies.
The world that Mohr has created is also sort of fascinating; the Hunger Games mixed with Mad Max comes to mind, though it’s neither of those. I would have liked to see the world fleshed out further, but that’s not the movie Mohr set out to make.
Boy Kills World doesn’t entirely slay though. The surprise twist doesn’t really work; the movie would have worked better as just a straightforward (albeit outlandish) revenge thriller. The twist seems thrown in to just extend the story rather than elevate it; frankly, I would have loved Boy Kills World more had the filmmakers done away with this reveal and ended the movie 20 minutes earlier.
Still, there’s a lot to love here. Great action, superb choreography, and offbeat humor make Boy Kills World a must-see for an action aficionado, warts be damned.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.
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