Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

sol- Found in the back of a stolen car, an infant is raised by a crime family to be a "lean, mean and hungry" killer in this unusual film from 'Dr. Giggles' screenwriter Graeme Whifler. Only a handful of scenes are spent on the title character's abusive childhood, but they are highly memorable, accompanied by poetic narration from Michael Boston, who plays the character as an adult. Never uttering a comprehensible word (his character's tongue was cut out for a "birthday present"), Boston is excellent, utterly sympathetic when staring into mirrors and wondering what he has become. There is also a great scene in which Boston finds solace in Christ with wounds similar to those that his adoptive parents have afflicted on him. Impressive as Boston is, 'Sonny Boy' is best known as the film in which David Carradine plays a female character. In all fairness, Carradine gives it his all, donning a dress and exuding maternal instincts. He is never convincing as a real woman though and always looks like a man in need of a good shave and therefore his performance is sadly distracting in a film with otherwise serious undertones. Indeed, 'Sonny Boy' has lots to offer as a personal identity study, a look at the effects of improper parenting and an examination of choice. There is also a lot of mindless violence near the end and a bland romance that likewise distract, but in general, this is a solid motion picture. Making his feature film directing debut, Robert Martin Carroll does a great job matching the desert locations to desertion themes at hand and Boston's performance is simply exquisite.

Cujo108 Terminally weird indie film with Paul L. Smith playing Slue, a small town crime boss. David Carradine plays his transvestite (I think) squeeze, Pearl, while Brad Dourif and Sydney Lassick are his two henchmen, Weasel and Charlie P. Weasel kills a couple and steals their car, which he brings to Slue. He didn't realize, however, that the couple's baby was asleep in the back. Slue wants to feed the kid to the hogs, but Pearl sees him as the son he could never have. They raise him as a killer to be used against Slue's enemies. They also cut out his tongue as a birthday present?! When Sonny Boy gets loose, his actions threaten to turn the town against Slue.I had wanted to see this one after reading about it in "Terror on Tape", and TCM gave me the chance when they aired it as part of their Underground lineup. As you can plainly see from the plot description, it's certainly offbeat. Sort of an allegory in disguise for the effects of child abuse, you might expect this to be a disturbing film. Not even close. Instead, it's just strange. Slue has an old canon, and in a wicked scene, he uses it to blow apart a nosy deputy. There are also some obvious parallels to Frankenstein towards the end. Had I not known it beforehand, I would have been shocked to see that this was released in '89. It felt like something straight out of the 70's. The main giveaway was the computer font which tells how much time had passed. While I would hesitate to call "Sonny Boy" a good film, it's worth a look if only to say that you've seen it. For fans of bizarre cinema, there's enough of a novelty present to warrant at least one viewing. Personally, I'm still not 100% sure if Carradine was supposed to be playing a guy in drag or an actual woman.

Michael_Elliott Sonny Boy (1989) 1/2 (out of 4) Sick, twisted, disturb, morally insensitive, vile, strange and repulsive are a few of the words that others have said when reviewing this film. All of them might fit but I'd also add horrid. A crackhead thief (Brad Dourif) kill a couple and steal their car not realizing that their infant son is in the back. The thief gives the kid to his angry boss (Paul L. Smith) and his wife (David Carradine in drag) who raise the kid in all the wrong ways, which leads him, known as Sonny Boy, to become a raging killer. No matter how you look at it, this is a crazy little film that one really does need to see in order to get its full impact. Yes, seeing Carradine in drag is the main draw and to me it was pretty much the only draw as I found the film to be boring from start to finish. There's no pacing, no style and nothing here to really be interested in. It seems as if the filmmakers sat down and thought about making strange stuff but they didn't do anything with it. I'm sure a more polished film could have been made with this subject matter or perhaps a more depraved John Waters like film. Either one of them might have worked but what we got is something in the middle and not nearly as effective. I'm really not sure if this film was meant to be taken serious, seen as a joke or some type of spoof on the whole serial killer genre. It doesn't really matter in the end as it fails on all levels. Seeing Carradine in drag is just plain weird but it's the main reason to watch the film. I somewhat liked the fact that they didn't try to hide his "man ness" and let him talk in his normal voice and didn't have him shave all his hair off. Dourif isn't too bad and neither is Smith but they're lost in a worthless movie. It's was mildly entertaining to see Sydney Lassick and Dourif working together as the two previously worked in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

laymonite-2 This is one of the most ignored and genuinely horrific horror films I've seen, and I consider myself a connoisseur of these type of films...This ranks with Irreversible, I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left, Hostel etc for pure nauseous shock - a child's tongue is cut out by his perverted 'parents' as a birthday present which is utterly normal in the context of the film...Forget Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes - this is real US horror, like The Girl Next Door (though not that shocking).Utterly nihilistic, very strange and well worth a look if you can find it!