rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2009
Directed by Randy Scooter Lammey; produced by Randy Scooter Lammey, Malachi McGlone; written by Randy Scooter Lammey
Starring Carl T. Evans, Elizabeth Schmidt, Laura Bach, Jarrod Pistilli, Scott Laska, Vedette Lim
The star awarded to 'Kicking the Dog' is for the admiration of Randy Scooter Lammey, who wrote, produced, directed and edited this film. Oh, he did the casting too. The film feels like a 1970's comedy written by Kevin Smith in bad shape, but it is obviously playing in the post-'American Pie' era.
Like 'Clerks' it builds on dialogue, or better, monologue. Different characters, twelve in total, have their anecdotes about sex and "love" in their last summer together. When people talk this much, you would guess they know how to do exactly that. Not so. None of the characters says something remotely interesting, and even the way they talk is kind of silly. The performances do not help either.
Now I know this is all done on a very low budget and I kind of appreciate the effort, but still, a bad movie is a bad movie. 'Kicking the Dog' is not interesting enough to let it take some of your time. That said, I would like to see what Lammey could do with more money and better actors. His writing could be a lot better too, but hey, you do not have to do everything for yourself.