FTT Movie Review: God Bless America

Now available on DVD, it's Bobcat Goldthwait's impassioned screed over how the country has gone to hell in a handbasket, and while it's a mighty big straw man, you can't say he's wrong for, well, anything.

The plot is basically a more comedic version of "Breaking Bad", where the beaten-down and broken-down protagonist is divorced, overweight, fired without cause and driven to suicidal urges after getting a diagnosis... but instead of acting to destroy himself, he decides instead to start ridding America if its worst elements. After he offs the embodiment of what he considers to be the reason why his young daughter is turning out badly, he meets up with a kindred spirit in nihilism

Goldthwait is, of course, the one-time spiritual twin of the comedy boom with Sam Kinison, and the glee in which he sets up his pinatas is palpable, along wit his subversion of action movie paradigms. Kills aren't clean, the tone isn't consistent or obvious, and he's damn lucky that his murder spree in a movie theater scene happened (a) in a mostly missed indie movie, and (b) before Aurora. He also coaxes good performances out of Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr, and while the speeches get a bit thick, it's still reasonably good fun... despite the fact that the film's morals quickly kind of collapse on itself, and the lack of budget is too easily apparent in too many scenes with too few extras, and the most lax police work ever for a killing spree with a stolen muscle car.

I'm quibbling.

Oh, and a fair amount of this absolutely qualifies as aging lefty porn, assuming your aging lefty porn tastes comes with a side order of justifiable homicide, and a not inconsiderable amount of distaste for your own nation. I don't want to violate any spoiler protocol here, but obvious targets are taken down.

Anyway, if you've in the mood for the logical follow-up to "Natural Born Killers", only with a lot less over the top editing or repugnance, and with an actual conscience, give it a spin. It's dark, fun, worthwhile, and maybe even has a good message. And, even, ending...