Buddy Hutchins stars Jamie Kennedy. While he's not exactly a household name and you might not immediately recognize his face, Kennedy has been a busy actor with about a hundred credits. However, I just can't see how doing films like this one will help his career or land him choice roles.
The first half of this film is very good and Kennedy is great playing a guy whose life keeps getting worse and worse and worse. At first you like him and he's trying to do the best that he can, but his sobriety and family life soon start crumbling away. But it gets far worse. In fact, I challenge you to find a film where anyone's life gets THIS bad so quickly! Heck, guys on death row would probably feel sorry for Buddy--it's THAT terrible! I appreciated this and expected that sooner or later Buddy would just snap. And, when he did, it was not his fault. I liked that the first two people he killed were clearly cases of self-defense--it made for an exciting second half. Unfortunately, when the film should have hit its stride, the movie just fell apart and looked almost like a Friday the 13th film--with Buddy brutally killing people who just didn't deserve it. And, many of the killings were frightfully gross (think chainsaws). Because of this, because the second half of the film lacked a plot and the resolution was so poor and because I worry that some folks might enjoy the movie TOO MUCH, I just hated Buddy Hutchins by the time it was over...and it took way, way too long for the final credits to roll by the way. It's all a shame, as clearly Jamie Kennedy is very talented--he did a great job in making you care about him and played an excellent 'dry drunk' (in essence, a guy who isn't using but is still stuck in the sick patterns of an alcoholic).
However, if you do watch this film, look for a very funny mistake. During Buddy's divorce trial, the judge says that the case is in California and there is a California flag behind him. Yet, there ALSO is a state seal for Nevada next to the flag as well. Oops!
