No Surrender Cinema: Becky
Paul Kersey became a vigilante because of an assault on his wife and daughter. John Wick was living life peacefully until some goons killed his dog. “Normal” people being pushed too far is nothing new in action movies, but this is a new No Surrender Cinema and we’re going to take a look at the latest citizen to embrace their killer instinct…one who isn’t even old enough to drive. This edition of NSC is all about Becky!
Now, some of you are probably saying Becky, the movie everybody was talking about a couple of years ago? The one that just had a sequel come out? Aren’t you a little late to the party? To that, I say yes and no. First off, we here at Bulletproof Action are proud to deliver quality reviews of practically anything action oriented. Sneak preview screenings of new releases, 50 year old Hong Kong kung fu flicks, it’s all fair game here, timelines be damned. And while time is not always of the essence, it was actually the news of the recently released sequel (The Wrath of Becky) that reminded me I had watched this film back when it first hit cable, and never got around to giving my thoughts on it. With a little bit of fresh buzz around the franchise, now’s as good a time as any to talk about it, so let’s jump right in!
Released in mid-2020 (which probably tells you why it was so easy to forget I had watched this one), Becky tells the story of young Becky Hooper (Lulu Wilson), a teenage girl who is going through a lot. Her mom recently died, she’s getting bullied at school, and her father Jeff (Joel McHale) seems oblivious to her feelings. When he picks Becky up for a trip to the family’s lakeside home, Becky really isn’t about it, and when she realizes that the trip is just a way for her dad to break the news that he’s engaged to his new girlfriend Kayla (who has brought her young son along), she storms off and finds shelter inside of her old fort in the woods. Teenage angst is a bitch, but Becky’s emotions running high is about to be the least of everyone’s problems.
During the beginning of the movie, not only did we get a rundown on what’s going on in Becky’s world, but we also see a group of prisoners that manage to escape from custody. The group, led by an intimidating Neo-Nazi named Dominick (Kevin James, playing as against type as one could get) leave a trail of bodies in their wake, including a couple of kids that Dominick has his henchman Apex (former WWF/WWE star Robert “Kurrgan” Maillet) dispose of off-screen.The paths of Becky’s family and Dominick’s gang soon cross when he knocks on their door posing as someone looking for a lost dog, but his sinister nature soon surfaces, and the gang takes the family, sans Becky, hostage.
Still sulking in her fort, Becky notices the two other members of the gang lurking around the property, and she realizes that something’s up. When Apex, feeling remorse for his actions earlier, enables Kayla and her son Ty to escape, they attempt to find Becky before they’re caught by Sonny and Roman, who kill the other family dog, Dora. Having overheard Kayla mention Becky to Ty, the gang becomes aware that someone else is out there, even though Jeff and Kayla try to throw them off Becky’s scent by saying that “Becky” was the family dog that Sonny just shot dead. The ruse works for a little while, but when the truth is discovered, Dominick begins torturing the family. Kayla gets shot in the leg, while Jeff is brought outside and stabbed with a hot skewer in an effort to draw Becky out of hiding.
It turns out that the reason for the home invasion is because the gang is looking for a particular key, one that Becky just so happens to have on her person (it was previously tucked away in her fort). Her father’s suffering brings Becky out of hiding, but Jeff sacrifices himself in order to give his daughter time to save herself. In a rage after witnessing her father’s murder, Becky takes the key and jams it into Dominick’s eye, doing some major damage and causing him to have to retreat inside and cut the dangling eye out. It’s a pretty grisly visual, and it serves as the turning point in the film where Becky begins to channel her repressed emotions into pure rage, taking out the members of the gang with improvised weaponry like her colored pencils (extra sharp for stabbing), a motorboat (used for cutting one of Dominick’s flunkies to shreds and not for escape purposes), and a riding mower in the film’s climactic struggle.
Truth be told, I had forgotten all about this film over the past few years, even though I enjoyed it so much when I initially saw it that I nearly bought a physical copy at Wal-Mart the first time I saw it. Some how, it just slipped my mind to ever review it, even though I had talked about it and recommended to friends looking for something new to watch. I suppose there was a lot more going on in the world, and eventually Becky just got lost in the shuffle due to the sheer amount of film and television I normally consume. News of the sequel triggered a reminder in my brain, and it was good to revisit one of the positive things to come out of the year 2020.
Becky has a lot going for it. Lulu Wilson was great as the unlikely protagonist, able to invoke sympathy for her plight and cheers for her will to survive. I was impressed with Kevin James here, since we’re so used to him as the lovable oaf. Taking a chance and portraying a sadistic, racist, menacing killer actually felt like a role he’s suited for, and I’d welcome the chance to see him sink his teeth into other roles of this type. The action is slightly over the top, but still grounded in reality, with Becky having to use whatever items are at her disposal to defend herself and her family. It was also good to see a familiar face in Maillet here. Most people will remember him from 300, and although I’ve seen him in plenty of movies over the past 20 years, he’ll still always be the tie dye wearing giant waving his arms to Insane Clown Posse music on Monday NIght RAW.
From what research I’ve done on The Wrath Of Becky, it sounds like the sequel might be a little more Hobo with a Shotgun–ish, and I’ll be interested to see how that plays out. Not many action films start off with the makings of a family drama, but Becky uses that setup to develop our heroine perfectly. The slow build works here, and my only real gripe is that the story of the key that sparked the whole ordeal is left as ambiguous as possible. Becky doesn’t seem to know what she’s holding onto, only that some very bad people want it, and she’s not about to let them get it (save for shoving it into her would-be captor’s eye socket).
It’s on Hulu, it’s on Showtime, it’s on Paramount+, it’s on DVD and Blu-Ray…for us movie lovers, Becky is pretty easy to find. This was a hidden gem from the lockdown days that was well worth the rewatch, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the sequel brings. Whether the franchise takes off will be another story, but at the very least, as a standalone film, Becky is pretty badass.
