Booley (2010) User Reviews

Well-acted, satirical and fun revenge flick

[diretto-699-334777 · 8/10 · 2 June 2011]

"Booley" has a story that's familiar to most of us; a story about being bullied and deceived until finally reaching one's breaking point. Shot and edited digitally on a low budget, you'll find many indie movies exploring the same themes as "Booley", but few with the wicked sense of satire AND the exceptional acting and direction to actually pull it off.

In reading some of the other IMDb reviews, it appears that Carmela Hayslett's performance is a bit of a lightning rod. Personally, I thought she nailed the brooding, immature "Rose"; giving her just enough weakness to make her sympathetic. Honestly, I didn't think there was a weak link among the actors, with Tom Detrik perfectly cast as the downward spiraling "Angus Booley", Christopher Mann satirically portraying a motivational speaker named "Jack Harrington" and Carmela's "Rose" each standing out. To have this many good performances in a low budget movie is really a tribute to the director, Christian Grillo. He truly understood his characters (it's his screenplay too) and got great performances all around.

We all know what's going to happen to "Angus Booley", but the manic energy he emanates as his vengeance spirals him out of control is worth experiencing. The solid (and often exceptional) acting keeps things interesting and there's a good musical score too. I was glad to read that "Booley" is now available on DVD. I'm looking forward to watching these performances again.

Killer Fantasy that works.... mostly

[BigMister · 7/10 · 14 November 2010]

The 'man in the middle' character is timeless in revenge fantasy, a weak and submissive male who plays by the rules and gets crapped on. Then things change, for better and then worse. "Willard" had his rats, and "Falling Down" had it's bag-o-guns. Christan Jude Grillo's patchwork feature called "Booley" uses modern day 'guru culture' as a weapon for empowerment in a downsizing America. Can a family man find his inner he-man.... or is he just a murdering fool? "Booley' answers that question, like a sledgehammer to the kneecap.

Angus Booley is our man in the middle, and Tom Detrik is perfectly cast, looking like a grown-up version of the "Waldo" kid for Van Halen's classic 'Hot For Teacher' video ("SIT DOWN WALDO!). Office geek who is pink-slipped, outsourced, and shown the door. His teen daughter Rose (Carmela Hayslett) is a bullied victim by mean girls in class. His wife Fiona (scream queen Raine Brown) is cheating on him, and he can't figure a way out of his pit of sh*&t... until he watches a hack motivation speaker on late night TV named Jack Harrington (Christopher Mann). The mantra speak in Booely's head has set a killer loose on Philadelphia. Murder and mayhem are the solution to our problems. In real life, that is what disgruntled killers do.

Grillo's "Booley" has all the right elements for a classic black comedy and uses a cold Philadelphia to it's advantage. The script is pretty brutal, and Dertick is a very talented actor (casting a big name like Crispen Glover would not have worked as well because of typecasting). The best performances are the family of actors (Raine Brown is a revelation, and Hayslett reminds me of Christina Ricci at her best). Chris Mann is well cast here, doing a jerk-off Montel Williams impression. The support cast hold up, with tired cops (Bonnie Loev and John Hunt)doing sardonic humor at the multiple crime scenes.

The problems are clear when the clock time of "Booley" ticks past the hour mark, it needs another edit. Sometimes the movie stops in it's tracks right when things get interesting and over the top. Like a muscle car ride with a fuel injector that stalls out at every turn. Stunt casting the jack-ass comedy team for the Howard Stern Show, Richard Christy and Sal The Stockbroker in a throw-away scene in the final third of the movie hurt the momentum of the chase. Mean girl student is too old (Gina Lynn is good, but looks 32). The soundtrack is overkillin small scenes, and sloppy dubbing in others.

To Grillo's credit, he is doing something good with a micro budget, and doing it all himself. His writing is superior, his vision is solid, and he may be Philadelphia's version of Lucio Fulci (a mad genius). "Booley" is clearly a team effort between Grillo and Detrik, and the reaction from a full house of horror junkies was positive. Judge for yourself!

Booley

[tafolger · 10/10 · 11 June 2011]

Booley was great. i loved the characters and the acting in it. Everyone did a great job. Carmela Hayslett did a wonderful job. Carmela had a real natural flow when she had to be mad and upset. I say in my opinion she made her character real believable and made me feel like what is going on is real. Every character had a purpose and a cause for being in the movie and I liked that very much as well. To Christopher Mann, Bonnie Loev, Tom Detrik, Raine Browne, Carmela Hayslett, John Hunt, Jennifer Butler, Gina Lynne (if i misspelled your names im sorry) you all did a terrific and a wonderful job. I give my hat off to you all as a cast and crew and especially to the writer and director Chris Grillo for at least giving us a movie that is not everyday Hollywood movie and giving us the audience or me what i longed to see. Congrats to all and i hope to see more movies that you come up with. Great Job! I wish you all the best in your travels.

A review by someone NOT involved in this film

[iraz · 2/10 · 4 March 2014]

I watched this film after the glowing reviews by both the external reviews and those posted on this website. Be forewarned this is an extremely low budget film with terrible acting, camera work and music among other things. The story is less than interesting and I am posting this review to maintain some integrity to this site. I question the professionalism of those who write reviews for some of the film websites. To rate this so high is beyond me.

So, the movie is less than interesting because all aspects of the production are amateurish. A movie viewer should be able to rely on other people's honest appraisal of something that is going to cost them money. I hope this review will be read along with the glowing ones!

Cult Style Horror Does Not Star Sandra Bullock

[ntwing82 · 10/10 · 19 January 2011]

While Sin-A-Man is entitled to his opinion and i can respect anyone's opinion as long as it seems well rounded and not like a round of trash talk. He compares Carmela Hayslett to Christina Ricci then Ricci to Sandra Bullock. The fact is that having a Philly accent is not a hindrance when THE MOVIE TAKES PLACE THERE!!! She isn't Ricci or Bullock and to compare her to either is both in accurate and unfair as both of them had budgets and well seasoned crews. The fact is that this was a first outing for many involved and while it is apparent that there is some choppiness to the editing it would be apparent to me that this is intentional as it is clearly aiming for the genre of cult horror and even if it weren't I think it works for a story about a crazed man on a killing spree as any movie with this topic that was too cleanly cut would suffer for the cleanliness of the movie. I will agree that Gina was a little on the older side for a high school student but the fact is with horror you pretty much cast hot chicks for the sake of having hot chicks in it. I will also agree that Detrik was brilliant in this movie. I just think when you review a movie you should take into account what movie you are reviewing and accommodate its review by not comparing it to Hollywood flicks because this movie definitely holds its own with all the Halloweens, Blair Witches, and other independent projects. I think Mr Grillo has made something to be proud of and look forward to seeing how his film career evolves and unfolds.