Bullet Points: Kush
Characters in action movies can often find themselves in sticky situations. Most of these times it is because characters make bad decisions and try to fix those bad decisions with compounding bad decisions. When these cacophony of failures happens in real life it is a sad train wreck to watch… but when it happens on film you are hard pressed to find better entertainment. I recently watched the 2008 action film Kush that is a little slice of the high life and features some mondo bad decisions. Luckily for you, I just so happen to have some Bullet Points so grab some snacks as I shine a light to Kush.
- Dusty Bits – Kush takes a harsh look at the lives of some California marijuana dealers. Our hero, if you can call a drug dealer a hero, is Dusty (Bret Roberts). Dusty is the kind of guy you can root for because he is a smart, well thought out guy who wants to cash out of the game with his burgeoning crop of kush. He still requires some Canadians to supply the majority of his product and works under the aptly named King.
- Miscast – King is played by perennial film asshole William Atherton… except King is not an asshole in Kush. King is the wise veteran dealer who has taken Dusty under his wing as a son… except King has a son named Christian (Mike Erwin) who is an asshole. Ok, it makes sense now.
- Cocaine Wars – The Canadians that are supplying Dusty want cocaine in exchange for the weed because I guess the great white north is not white enough. Dusty wants nothing to do with the coke but that doesn’t stop the Canadians pressuring Dusty to get their booger sugar.
- Not So Christian – Do you ever see a character in a movie that just annoys the stink out of you, but is written that way on purpose? That is Christian. He is a wannabe tough drug dealer who doesn’t want to listen to Dusty or King. If you still don’t feel much dislike for Christian after first meeting him, Kush throws in the storyline of Christian getting his girlfriend pregnant and immediately asking her to get an abortion.
- Smoke Screen – Once Kush gets rolling after starting all about Dusty, the main story veers away from Dusty, although it all comes back to our hero, and focuses on Christian. To fill out the middle of the film for Dusty we get to see a love story between Dusty and Blaise (get it!) although that goes about as well as everything else for Dusty.
- Bad Business – Christian wants to enter the big time so he is eager to make deals. In his eagerness, to become more like Dusty and his father, Christian sells some weed to a new customer named Todd. You ready for a major bad decision? Christian sells the drugs to Todd on credit and you better believe that Todd never pays. Christian is what they call in the business a fool.
- With Friends Like These… – Christian hangs out with some serious SoCal slackers who don’t help lead him on the right path. His crew knows Todd’s younger brother Bret and they decide to kidnap the teenager as blackmail to get the cash from Todd. I love these compounding bad decisions.
- My Good Friend – Did I mention that one of Chrisitian’s friends is really proud of his MAC-10? Well he is and you can see that the machine pistol was going to be a major player in Kush when first introduced. I don’t want to spoil anything, so let’s just say that Bret and the MAC-10 were eventually introduced. Screw it, I want to spoil it, Bret gets gunned down when trying to escape Christian and his crew.
- When One Door Closes – Christian being involved with a murder closes the door on Dusty getting out of the drug business, and Blaise screwing another guy doesn’t help. The murder is the perfect door opening for the Canadians to keep their hooks in Dusty.
- Sudden Lin Shaye Alert – After an hour and ten minutes into Kush, Lin Shaye shows up, chews up all the scenery for five minutes and disappears to where she came from. I could not have loved it more.
- Kush Kast – The cast of Kush is what makes the movie worth watching as the action is on the light side. Christian and his collection of POS friends are some familiar faces and watching them make bad decision will make you want to do something with your life. Bret Roberts as Dusty is the moral backbone in a moral corrupt ecosystem and Kush made me not hate William Atherton.
- Only in Film – If I knew the characters in Kush in real life I would be filled with sympathy for everyone involved and all the lives ruined with the bad decisions. However, Kush is a movie and I cannot get enough of all the bad decisions and related comeuppance that these characters suffer. Watching Kush is not a bad decision, and one thing that Kush does not have and that you can only get in real life…
Bonus Bullet Points
- “I Wanna Be Your Dog” – Many people claim that Kush is a knock off of Alpha Dog and that may very well be true. I only saw 30 mins of Alpha Dog and probably never will see the whole thing after the untimely passing of Anton Yelchin.
- Promise – Kush was one of the first films for talented writer/director York Shackleton.
- If You Ever – … wanted to see some sorry pot dealers slap each other around than Kush is for you.
- A Little Harsh to Kush, but Sadly Accurate Quote – Oh God, I hate you.”
- Satisfying Ending? – The ending of Kush shows the consequences for the three of the main degenerates which brings two questions to mind. 1) Was it really all worth it to look tough? And 2) Does anyone watching really care about these three idiots?
