Film Review: Bums

"no bums were harmed in the making of this movie - I think"

BUMS (unclassified)
Dir. Brett and Jason Butler

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

There are some perks to having a film review gig on the side and one of them is that from time to time film makers, games producers and car manufacturers send you free product to review… I’m actually still waiting on the free cars but hey… it could happen…

Anyway, I was sent a DVD from sibling writer directors Brett and Jason Butler who wanted to show me their Bums… And here is their yet unclassified slice of Canadian slackerdom that walks in the indie footsteps of Clerks and tries really hard to get a buzz out of its zero budget day-in-the-life of six class ‘A’ loser friends semi documentary feel.

My wife watched the trailer and stated that it looked so poor shed have to be sedated in order to sit through the feature. Not having my chloroform to hand I let her escape and watched this one solo, and found myself enjoying it.

Despite the rawness of the ‘acting’ – I use the term advisedly after consulting with my lawyer – there is some cool stuff to be found here. I’m a sucker for Top Gun dialogue being quoted and could relate to the characters debating their Top Gun later egos. A couple of the women are cute too but nothing very much happens – no action, no sex, nothing but chatting and drinking really – but that’s not actually as bad a thing as it sounds. Bums serves as a snapshot of young waster’s views on the world of relationships and from that perspective it will probably be referred to in the future as “The Authoritive Voice of Canadian Semi Youth”… or not.

I’ll certainly be interested to see what the Butlers get up to next film wise – if slacking is of interest to you Bums should be on you ‘to see sometime’ list.

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Action ö – pretty much an 'anti action film'
Laughs ööö – if you relate to the characters you'll laugh with 'em
Horror ö – move along - nothing horrible to see here
Babes öö – couple of cuties

Overall öö1/2 (slack but fun)


"Evan Rachel Wood - not in Bums alas..."


Darkmatters: H O M E