Title – Becky (2020)

Directors – Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion (Cooties)

Cast – Kevin James, Lulu Wilson, Joel McHale, Amanda Brugel

Plot – Sick of the grind of policing a mall and getting around on Segways, Paul Blart/Dominick (James) has joined the Aryan Brotherhood. Escaping from prison, he rudely interrupts angst-ridden teenage girl Becky (Wilson) and her widowed father Jeff’s (McHale) getaway at their lakeside cabin in what turns out to be a blood thirsty game of cat and mouse.

“I’m not going to let them get away with this” 

Review by Eddie on 03/08/2020

Being a mall cop ain’t easy despite what many may think.

Tired of chasing teenage shoplifters and getting about on an outdated Segway has clearly taking a toll on poor old Paul Blart, leaving behind his seemingly simple life to join the Aryan Brotherhood and live out a life of crime, Blart now goes by the name of Dominick, a man who likes home surgeries, tattoos and pure breed Rottweilers.

Dominick and his evil companions violently escape the confines of their imprisonment in the judicial system and set out on a quest to find a mysterious key that opens up a box that could easily be accessed with a simple utensil or tool, but find trouble when they come across Jeff from Community who is now a widowed father trying to connect with his depressed and tormented teenage daughter Becky.

See Jeff was just hoping for a quiet weekend with Becky, in a quest to reconnect in the wake of her mothers and his wife’s death and to also connect her with his new love interest but when Dominick and his “sons” interrupt their retreat in search of the key at the heart of this revenge tale, everyone involved in this situation realizes they have entered a life and death game of cat and mouse.

Directed by the duo behind the Oscar-snubbed Cooties, Becky is the type of generic horror/thriller that tries hard to distinguish itself from the pack with a fair portion of inventive violence and casting decisions that clearly couldn’t be more noteworthy than casting Doug Heffernan from The King of Queens as a bald-headed, bearded Nazi psychopath but fails to justify itself in a story that is both tiresomely predictable and utterly unbelievable.

There’s novelty value to be found in watching James try his hardest to shed the image he has created for himself across a career littered with horrific crimes against cinema and his arguably the best thing about a film with barely anything within it worth recommending but even the sight of James going about his dastardly deeds is not enough to make Becky the pulse-pounding affair it badly wants to be.

Trying also to be oh so now with its teenage and female orientated example of the everyday person taking it to those that think they are entitled to take what they want, how they want it, Becky feels in most instances like a film trying very hard to impress, without actually earning any of the respect from its audience it is demanding.

Final Say –

A daft, dumb and mostly thrill-less affair, Becky may offer the rare chance to see James try and act but this violent and unoriginal effort is a tough watch for all the wrong reasons.

1 blunt pair of scissors out of 5