You won't be disappointed!

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Kevin Smith's dark Comedy Vulgar reminds me of World's Greatest Dad that I reviewed about two months back. Sure it's way newer, but they both have a way of mixing dark humor with Comedy. Plus this one is very clever on dialogue (typical Kevin Smith). I don't think there has ever been a KS movie that has disappointed in terms of dialogue.Vulgar features one of my favorite actors, Brian O'Halloran who plays a twenty-something loser on the verge of becoming suicidal. He is a party clown at kids birthday parties under the name of "Flappy". His dad is dead, his mom hated him, and he is harassed every day by his redneck neighbors. He then decides to become a party clown, then gets gang raped on his first gig, and is taped doing it too.On the edge of becoming suicidal and mentally depressed about the situation, he decides to do something daring, and saves a young girl from her abusive father. Flappy, who was once a loser, is now a big time clown with his own TV show.I don't want to say the conflict, but this movie, surprised me much so. I didn't think I would like this, but ultimately I fell in love with it. I cant figure out why this is quoted "the unknown Kevin Smith movie". This had a pretty low budget like Clerks and Mallrats, but it seems other Kevin Smith movies like Chasing Amy and Zack and Miri Make a Porno covered it up as well. All I have to say is, this movie is not what you would expect from Kevin Smith. This is about as extreme has I would want a KS movie. If you saw the original ending to Clerks, you could see that Kevin Smith wants nothing but misery for poor Brian O'Halloran.

Vulgar comes right out of the View Askew universe, sort of. It was produced by the brain-children of the group, Scott Mosier (producer) and Kevin Smith (director), who in their first film Clerks featured its logo for their company as a clown in a tutu and doing a dance around some little kid. It was cute. Really, it's a nice little animation for their company, even if it's never mentioned in the film it gives a good idea of what to expect from the company, their mind-set. But a whole film to that idea, of a clown caught up in dangerous s***? And where the birthday clown decides to be a bachelor party clown as a joke and winds up getting gang-raped by an old crazy bastard and his two grown-man kids? And then he gets a TV show because he decides to save a little girl from the clutches of her father holding her hostage when she should be having a birthday party? And then he... oh, nevermind.Explaining the plot of Vulgar is kind of tiring, and yet it isn't always tiring, or boring, to watch the film itself. As Bryan Johnson's one foray into directing (who knows if he'll have another go, perhaps once was enough, or all that could be given at the time), it goes into dark ground, of which Smith's films usually don't go into (another film, un-seen by me, called A Better Place from View Askew was similarly dark and filled with crime and tragic consequence). Johnson is able to set up and follow through on the dramatic situations- the gang-rape scene, contrary to what some have criticized it, is warped and delirious and just this side of harrowing to keep it something worth watching. And the scenes immediately after it are very good as well, giving Brian O'Halloran (famous previously for "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" in Clerks) some ample room to spread his acting chops, which are limited but present.It's when the film turns its eye at the TV angle, of 'Vulgar' being wiped from memory from William and going back to the happy clown that kids want to see at the Funhouse, that it gets wobbly. A third act involving a crap blackmailing scheme by the old-bastard and his sons is a mixed bag, only getting intense in that final confrontation at the motel room. In-between Johnson, trying to be hip and edgy with his dialog, gives characters witty or just declaratively amusing things to say, and only Smith himself, playing a TV producer-impresario, gets it and kind of pulls it off to the best of his abilities. Johnson should have taken a side: make a really nasty drama that turns violent and really gets into the psychology of a character dejected throughout his life, or make it a character in a really deranged comedy, perhaps not unlike Goldthwait's Shakes the Clown. Johnson mixes and matches, and tries his darndest to make Will a likable character. He's only halfway likable, and even then what his mother keeps telling him he is, a loser.There's promise here proposed with the premise, and some of it is followed through. And sure, there's some fun in seeing a few familiar faces (Mewes plays a junkie, producer Scott Mosier looks clean-cut as a TV talk show host), and Johnson himself gives himself a reasonably interesting side-character who acts as the sound-board for William. But in general, it's a weird package, and not totally sure of its tone to make itself a cult-crown sensation or something worthy of some of its inspiration: Blue Velvet.

I have seen a lot of bad movies. However, I suspect "Vulgar" was intentionally bad. The film plays like a drunk nihilistic comedy that demonstrates an absolute vile contempt for humanity and life in general.Brian O'Halloran is not a very talented actor and should especially steer clear of serious roles. Of course, "Vulgar" falls into that genre of "other". It tries to be a comedy, but there is no comedic value in rape, even if the raped is dressed as a transvestite clown.Everything about the film equates to "vulgarity". Its mixture of sexual violence with children's television shows, its poking fun at psychological anguish suffered by a son mentally abused by his mother, and its apathetic attitude towards murder and death.Films like "Vulgar" cause me to feel unclean, a filth that only the buffer of several days can rinse away. Even then, the film leaves a permanent residue.

okay. this is a very bad movie. it is not because of the subject matter, which is occasionally disturbing but so nonsensical that even the darkest moments tend to undermine themselves. kevin smith(whose work i sometimes really like) has his fingerprints all over this movie. the stilted dialogue, the poor plot logic, the uncanny ability to pick a cast who have no acting ability. brian o'halloran is always awful and the rest of the cast deliver their lines as if from cue cards. the one exception is smith himself, whose cameo role is the best actual performance he's turned in to date. i really sort of believed him.anyhow, one of two things will happen. you will either get irritated with the illogical, aimless plot and clumsy acting and struggle to wade through the final 30 minutes (by the climax i couldn't have cared less about what happened) or you will find something in the concept and odd execution here that makes you forgive all that. for me, not possible.