When I read Leonard Maltin's review of this film (which I'd never heard of), I was instantly intrigued. After all, who doesn't want to see a film starring Brad Douriff, David Carradine, and the guy who played Bluto in Popeye which, according to Maltin, "was filmed for no apparent reason but to offend and appall?" When I finally tracked it down via a bootleg site years later, I was expecting an unredeemable gorefest, but instead, I got a quirky, sensitive, sorta moving flick about child abuse...kind of. I mean, it ain't The English Patient--it's got a deputy getting exploderated at point blank range with a Howitzer and a cigar-chomping David Carradine in full drag (one of his best performances, by the way. Utterly believable--and he even sings the theme song!), but it works more as a drama than an exploitation flick. Some budgetary constraints show, particularly in a mostly offscreen Frankensteinish angry mob scene, but I wasn't disappointed, despite the fact that I was expecting a horror gore comedy and got an offbeat indie dramedy. Someday, this truly unique flick will be a cult classic. Watch it now and say you saw it first. (By the way, I got my copy at Nightcrew Video, a great bootleg site.)
Review of Sonny Boy
