Barely Lethal (2015)

This movie is absolutely ludicrous! The core of the story is simply unbelievable. However, this is movie meant to entertain and I dare say that the target audience is not exactly my age. This is clearly a teenage movie. Well, I guess that there is still a bit of a child in me because I found it rather entertaining even though, with a bit less “Hollywoodish” and more intelligent directing it could have been a lot better. I would say that this is a quite nice family movie. Well not for the really young of course due to the amount of action. Saying that this is a family movie is probably going to annoy a lot of people in the “bible belt” due to previously mentioned action as well as the fact that there is a bit of partying going on, including consumption of fermented and even distilled beverages on but hey, I am Swedish, when I was a kid, way too long ago, there was not a teenager around that had not tasted HB which is the Swedish term for “Hembränt” or in English home brewed alcohol. Anyway, unless you are a moral fanatic, there is really not much to be upset about in this movie apart from the laughably ludicrous story. Kids being trained as assassins from young age. Ehh, okay. Could have been half plausible if it was not for the “training” scenes in the beginning of the movie. Toddlers operating machine guns and driving cars like Vin Diesel? Okay, maybe they were just above toddler age but I was laughing so hard it was difficult to judge. What follows is pretty much without surprises (if you have read the blurb at least). Our heroin goes to school and, deprived of a normal childhood, finds it not so easy as she perhaps imagined. Here is where I feel there are a lot of missed opportunities. Our teenage assassin never really gets to truly impress. Sure, she gets to do a bit of clobbering but it is constantly hidden in a veil of ridicule. With a more intelligent script writer this could have been a really cool part but as it plays itself out it is just “okayishly” funny. Naturally a few bad guys arrive in order to crash the party and, well, we get a bit more of the same as before just with some more action. The action is not bad, for this kind of movie at least, that has to be said. Unfortunately the way it plays itself out is a wee bit disappointing. It is just unintelligent. The beginning of the movie seemed to hint that these teenagers were trained in all areas, including the grey cells, but certain scenes where just, “I cannot believe that you were that stupid”, and for the record I have a teenage son that made the same remarks! Nevertheless it was indeed a quite entertaining movie. Far from great but definitely worth watching.