King of the Ants (2003/I)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Stuart Gordon

Writers:

Charlie Higson (screenplay)
Charlie Higson (novel)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

A young drifter discovers his true calling when he's hired by a mobster to stalk and kill a prominent accountant, and then decides to seek revenge when the stingy thugs try to kill him rather than pay him.

Plot Keywords:

Accountant | Drifter | Golf | City Hall | House

Cast

Chris McKenna	...	Sean Crawley (as Chris L. McKenna)
Kari Wuhrer	...	Susan Gatley
George Wendt	...	Duke Wayne
Vernon Wells	...	Beckett
Lionel Mark Smith	...	Carl
Timm Sharp	...	George
Daniel Baldwin	...	Ray Mathews
Carissa Kosta	...	Maureen (as Carissa Koutantzis)
Briana Beghi	...	Maureen's Daughter
Carlie Westerman	...	Catlin Gatley
Ian Patrick Williams	...	Tony
Antoine Joseph	...	Drooling Idiot
Shuko Akune	...	Meade Park
Steve Heller	...	Gary (as Steven Heller)
Ken 'Bam Bam' Johnson Jr.	...	Apartment Kid

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Germany:18 (SPIO/JK) | Argentina:16 | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Finland:K-15 | USA:R | Netherlands:16 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Anthill Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Benchwarmers (2006)

Sick and unpleasant watch

This movie is written by Charlie Higson, who has before this done the "legendary" Fast Show and his own show based on one of Fast Show's characters (Tony the car sales man). He's also written James Bond books for kids.

Actually I've seen before this only Gordon's movies that are based on Lovecraft's stories, and every one of those is marvelous. Here Gordon tries to do something different. The style is totally "contemporary", which means shaky camera, fast and strange cutting, cool chillout music in the background. It works quite well here, I guess, but it's still pointless and cheap. It makes me often think of the cameraman who's shaking his dv-camera in front of the actors/actresses and try to make stylish moves in the pictures (hoping that something tolerable would come out of it). The casting is good, and there is a whole atmosphere, which is the result of good directing. I think the main character, the "zero" young guy, is quite interesting in his "zeroness". The fat guy is also good. And the guy who looks like Alec Baldwin, but is not him. But pretty soon after the beginning the movie turns out to be something not-so-interesting: In this case I mean an endless line of scenes of sadism and sickness. There is not much humanity in this film/story: It's totally pessimistic, and every person in this movie is disgusting and hopeless, or soon dead. Needless to say that there is no humor either. It's a 1'40 long vomit without no relief in any moment. Anyway, Gordon remains to me one of the most interesting movie makers that are active today, and I think of this movie as an experiment, and as a failure in that. Everyone has to experience getting lost sometimes, just to learn and to find their way again. This might be Gordon's most uninteresting and empty work.