Boy Kills World (2023)
Written by Tyler Burton Smith, Arend Remmers and Moritz Mohr
Directed by Moritz Mohr
Review by: Mark Walker
Boy Kills World (2023)
A fever dream action film that follows Boy, a deaf person with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, he is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.(IMDB)
With a poster and biker-chick baddie emblazoned in “Kill Bill Yellow” there are definite undertones of Tarantino’s grind house duology rumbling beneath Boy Kills World’s revenge actioner. Bill Skarsgård is Boy, deaf and mute apprentice to the mystical Shaman (Yayan Ruhian) being trained to take revenge on the tyrannical Van Der Koy family led by the mildly unhinged Hilda Van Der Koy (Famke Janssen). Hilda rules her city with an iron fist, regularly kidnapping and executing alleged threats to the “peace” created by her family through fear. Having murdered Boy’s mother and sister in one such purge, Shaman is training Boy to fight with the ultimate goal of taking down Hilda and her family to restore peace and freedom to their city.

As with any such tale of revenge, events conspire to push Boy into his roaring rampage of revenge before his training is complete. Is he ready to take on the Van Der Koy family? Does he have the skills to beat their seemingly invincible assassin June27 (Jessica Rothe)? Will he survive a Running Man-esque battle with Breakfast Cereal Mascots?
Yep, you read that right. Breakfast. Cereal. Mascots.
BKW does not take itself seriously.
At All.
Which is fine.
So strap yourself in, sit back and just let 111 minutes of wacky fun wash over you, all narrated by Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) from Bob’s Burgers.
That should be enough to tell you how seriously you should be taking BKW.

Not that this makes it a bad film at all,
but it may affect how much you enjoy it. I have read a few reviews from people who hated the voice over and felt it ruined the film for them. Personally, I thought it worked really well. It was suitably exuberant, being based on Boy’s favourite arcade game from when he was a kid, and humorous enough to not get tiresome. Not all the jokes around it land, but then very few films have a 100% hit rate where comedy is concerned and, quite frankly, that is all so subjective it isn’t worth getting into a debate about. You’ll either enjoy it or you won’t.
I did.
Skarsgård does a great job of portraying the desperate-for-revenge-but-mildly-naïve Boy as he fumbles his way through a variety of set-pieces and action fist fights on his way to the Boss. He works his way through a roster of Van Der Koy baddie caricatures all played with scenery chewing relish; from Sharlto Copley’s whiney, spoilt rich kid Glen, to Brett Gelman’s jaded miscreant, Gideon, up to the wannabe toxic matriarch, Melanie (Michelle Dockery), all before he gets anywhere near Hilda.

And, somewhere in between all that he has to face the “not quite what she seems” June 27, a paid assassin who definitely gives Boy a run for his money.
The script and direction are frenetic, and the whole film clips along at a fair pace. Some of it is predictable, but that, I believe, is likely deliberate as it is a bit of a parody of the movies it is also celebrating. I didn’t quite see the twist coming though, so there was still enough intrigue and mystery to keep me engaged. It has to be said, the twist may upset a few as it could be seen to undermine the spirit and reason for Boy fighting back and may even make the viewer question their allegiance to various characters but, at the end of the day, Boy fights out against all the tyranny and oppression metered out on him, breaking free of the past and earning him the right to be called a hero.
And, also, it’s not really that deep…
Boy Kills World is silly fun, but in a really good way, and I enjoyed it a lot. It is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but it held my attention and even made me chuckle aloud a couple of times which is largely unheard of when I watch a film alone. (I’m not miserable, but laughter IS infectious.) The semi-running gag around “The Plan” was wonderfully underplayed and all the more humorous for it. The interaction between Boy and the resistance fighters he pals up with is pure buddy-movie fun. Andrew Koji and Isaiah Mustafe play Basho and Benny superbly and were possibly my favourite characters despite being on the screen far less than they deserved to be! A running joke around Noy’s inability to read lips through Benny’s beard is delightfully childish and silly.
If you are a completist, don’t forget to watch until the end of the credits. It’s pointless, so don’t come for me if you do, but I do like unlocking a new achievement.

Boy Kills World is streaming now.
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