Some movies, it would seem,
are not really meant to draw an audience regardless of their merits.
Despite being somehow snuck into theaters and occasionally boasting a
surprisingly stellar cast, these types of movies tend to range from
forgettably fun (Monster Trucks) to trying-too-hard wastes of time
(The November Man) and, unfortunately for said movies, this tends to
lead not only to lackluster returns from audiences (both of the
aforementioned movies failed miserably at the box office) but even
prevents the opportunity for cult-status due to lack of any clearly
redeemable aspect (only Monster Trucks has had any kind of limited
fandom since its release). Now, with The Baker Brothers' first
attempt at feature length science fiction with Kin...maybe these
young directors should take some courses in advertising.
To be nice, Kin is a fun,
if flawed movie with enough humanity to bear its heart and enough
flair to keep you interested for its nearly-bearable run time. Myles
Truitt is fun as the young lead Eli, Jack Reynor and Zoe Kravitz
acquit themselves nicely as surrogate parents of the moment to the
kind of wayward youth, its message about how good is always the
hardest choice borders on charming and, yes, the actual effects
centered around the weird space gun Eli finds is both cool and
intelligently implemented for the best audience-pleasing effect
possible at this kind of price range. Throw in yet another creepily
sleazy turn by James Franco and heartfelt blink-and-you'll-miss-it
performance by Dennis Quad and you even have some better named actors
giving it their all despite not really needing to considering this
movies prospects. It was a movie meant to fail and those involved
tried their hardest anyway. That would be inspiring if it weren't so
depressing.
Unfortunately, while the
human aspect of the movie aims for the stars and comes just short,
the actual twist to the movie is both forgettable and poorly
implemented. Sure, its always fun to watch Eli blow holes in walls
with an alien ray gun, but the actual reasoning for it existing where
he found it to begin with feels cheap and forced. And, while its easy
to get behind Franco's angry gangster working through his losses with
really bad behavior and Quad's stoic father figure trying desperately
to protect his youngest son from falling in with the bad side of the
world, the rest of the bigger-named cast feels tacked on and
forgettable. Seriously, how do you manage to snag Carrie Coon and
Michael B. Jordan for the equivalent of five minute cameos and have
them feel so blasé?
As for watching it, wait
this one out for a few months. Television is where this movie should
have begun and is likely where it will (hopefully) find an
appreciative audience. Still reeling from an absolutely dead August
and wishing September would just get better faster? Well...Peppermint
comes out next week and it seems pretty cool? Patiences is a virtue?
Jonathan and Josh Baker
graduate from short sci-fi with what would be expected with Kin, an
at-times brilliant movie about family with an alien ray gun thrown
into the mix that never really gets beyond that due to budgetary
constraints and obvious first film jitters. While attempting to
scavenge abandoned buildings in Detroit for copper wires, wayward
teen Eli (Truitt) stumbles upon a group of dead alien-or-future
soldiers and promptly steals one of their weapons, setting off an
extended chase sequence across half the country involving a violent
street gang after his older ex-con brother Jimmy (Reynor), a stripper
from Nebraska named Milly (Kravitz) and lots and lots of wonky sci-fi
explosions that culminate in epic-for-its-budget shootout and a
lackluster ending you wish you saw coming an hour earlier. I've had
worse times with no-budget sci-fi.
My score: 6/10. Is it weird
that the dialog in this script seemed to be aiming for an R-rating
but, when it came time for violence, stuck strictly to the PG-13
angle? It often confuses me when a movie with this much swearing acts
scared to show any blood.
