[yasr_overall_rating]
Buddy Hutchins is just a regular guy doing his best to support a wife and two kids. A recovering alcoholic, Buddy hasn’t had a drink for the better part of a year, but it turns out the only reward for his good behavior is a failing business and a cheating wife. Throw in a ruthless bounty hunter and a hot-tempered ex, and Buddy’s already short fuse is about to blow. Pushed over the edge and armed with a chainsaw, Buddy Hutchins is out for blood!
When I first heard of the film “Buddy Hutchins” starring Jamie Kennedy as the titular character, my mind immediately went to a family feature with a dog at the center, either cartoon or “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” style. My assumption could not have been further from the truth (that much can be garnered from looking at the film poster). Buddy is a recovering alcoholic who is down on his luck. The movie begins with heavy rock music and it makes you feel pretty pumped up from the get go, especially when you see guns seconds later and a bloodied Jamie Kennedy slouched against some cabinets. I had two thoughts straightaway: 1) this movie seemed like it might be fun and 2) my, Kennedy sure has aged since the last movie I watched him in (which was probably over a decade ago, and he is human, after all).
Unfortunately, the movie slowed way down from here, and not in a good way. After making me feel like I was going to be in for an action-packed movie, it jumps to a scene starting 60 days earlier. I’m all for back stories, but it took half the movie to get to the good stuff, and not in an awesome Liam Neeson flick kind of way. Not only is it crawling through the first half, but some of the acting is a little forced – like Buddy’s female clerk at his dry cleaning business. A lot of the conversations seem pretty realistic, but some other things were too real, like his family dinner with everybody chewing. Loudly. I felt like I was sitting right next to them. Besides the occasionally poor audio, the lighting at Buddy’s mom’s house was off, too.
At times it seemed washed out, and then it seemed too romantic like a soap opera. His mom reminds me of my Nana, though, so I could not help but like her. This is one of those movies where you don’t really fall in love with the main character. I didn’t feel too bad for him that awful things kept happening during the first half of the movie. Buddy’s reactions to the things he starts doing are probably the best part of the movie, which is a shame because it takes so long to get to that. It almost becomes comically violent, but that is one of the pluses of this film. I couldn’t help but feel like they were trying to showcase the music too much, almost like writer/director Jared Cohn is best friends with Whiskey Reverb, the band featured throughout the film.
Speaking of music, Buddy plays guitar a couple of times, and they shoot it in such a way that he is obviously not playing or he is playing poorly. I would rather he just learned a couple of chords so they could have shown the entire guitar. Overall, missing this movie is not something to lose sleep over. In fact, the first half may put you to sleep if you’re tired enough when you start it. Unless you know the people involved in the filmmaking and/or you are a fan of Jamie Kennedy, I say skip it and just go watch “Falling Down.” If you have so much time on your hands that you want to watch it anyway, I recommend putting your Blu-ray player on 1.5 speed during the first half so you can get the gist of the back story, and then resume normal speed once it gets more interesting.
The standout performances are Buddy’s brother Troy, played by Steve Hanks, and Beth, played by Jordyn Leaf. Kennedy was also a good choice for the lead. Some of the one liners made me laugh, and the campiness was fun at times but that’s about all you have to look forward to.
On Video On Demand and DVD now
