Crazed, 2014.
Directed by Kevin A. McCarthy and Edward Payson.
Starring Michael McCarthy, Jordon Elizabeth, Kane Hodder, Wade Gallagher and Harry Aspinwall.
SYNOPSIS:
Vigilante cop Ronan Pierce is on the rampage around Harbour City, hoping to track down and kill the key members of the Luna Cartel, a vicious group who have built a lucrative criminal empire on the organ harvesting and the trafficking of women, including Pierce’s wife. Teaming with former circus clown Karina and his partner Gallagher, Pierce tears around town leaving a trail of bodies in his quest for justice and revenge.
I love what I do here at the Flickering Myth, I love writing about films and I love discussing films. The part I love most about this job are the online screeners, this is when my Flickering overlords point me in the direction of a film they wish to have reviewed, and I happily accept the offers, not knowing what goodies they might be sending my way. Today’s review is one such film, the action-packed Crazed, a film that couldn’t have picked a better title.
Those expecting a careful meditation on the human condition a film worthy of Bergman or Tarkovsky might want to look elsewhere, Crazed offers no such intellectual chin stroking, instead going for a fast-paced blend of action and rampant profanity.
The acting is hardly Shakespearean, but who cares when it’s this much fun. Our hero, the renegade cop to end them all, speaks in curses and threats with a voice that suggests he drinks a morning cocktail of grit and glass, sounding eerily reminiscent of Christian Bale’s Batman all the while his eyes threaten to pop out of his skull.
Our villains are disgusting misogynistic pigs, which makes it all the more satisfying when they meet their violent ends, but the villainous one-eyed Logan seems to have wandered from the ring of WWE for all his over the top posturing.
For my money, though the “best” performance has to go to Harry Aspinwall as the psychopathic killer Lukas Lodder. Spitting and tongue waggling his way through the ridiculous dialogue and clearly having a ball of a time hamming it up, Aspinwall’s performance is so larger than life he feels like he should be the villain in an especially dark pantomime.
The film is largely silly, although it does seem awfully fond of putting scantily clad women in pretty horrible situations, which can feel a bit jarring against the largely silly style the film seems to be presenting and might put people off from enjoying the film wholeheartedly.
The dialogue is frankly awful throughout, with the liberal profanity making it seem like an angry teenager wrote it, and while at first pretty funny and adding to the over the top nature of things, it soon becomes grating especially when the final act rolls around.
Crazed is a surprisingly difficult film to review. On one hand, it’s bloody terrible, consisting of terrible over the top performances, with worse dialogue and barely enough of a plot to fill 90 minutes. On the other hand, though, it’s just too daft to hate, with the over the top performances being too funny to bash, and the macho, rogue cop on a rampage story being just a lot of fun to watch.
Crazed is one of your “so bad it’s good” kind of films, one that’s likely to find an audience amongst bad movie fans eager to find something to gather round and have some fun with, and to that crowd I recommend it. To the average film viewer, maybe give it a look; just leave your brain at the door beforehand.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Graeme Robertson
Originally published October 19, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
