The movie landscape is littered with films about our sexual coming of age, though none have done it better that “Fast Times At Ridgemont High”. “Kaboom” tries to take us this ‘trip’ as we follow an 18 year old film student named Smith (Thomas Dekker from “Nightmare on Elm Street”) who despite a strong sexual appetite, has declared him “undeclared” as he shares gossip with his best friend Stella (a lesbian who also likes having as many partners as possible). We also have the roommate Thor who talks straight but acts like a closet gay. The sci-fi part of the films comes from some dreams Smith is having in regards to two visually sexy women who eventually bleed over into his real life leaving him to wonder if he has discovered a potentially world altering conspiracy or maybe just some bad drugs.
The movie starts off fun and it is easy to get carried away by some of the bizarre situations (this film actually brought back memories of “Liquid Sky”) but the film squanders this by its ending. My favorite part is where the character London, Smith new girlfriend who is also having the same dreams, explains in detail to a boy how to please her. It is so matter of fact and sexy that one wishes the whole film was so adventurous. The main thing I wonder about is how the main character is always obsessing about getting laid when it seems to be thrown at him every day. This film had a lot of potential and has a lot of nice moments and dialogue. It even has a killer soundtrack with bands like The Big Pink, Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs but if they could only come up with a better ending, this could have as good as “Kick-Ass” or “Scott Pilgrim”. It still has some nice reasons to watch but it could have been so much more.
My grade is a C and starts Friday, March 18 at the Main Art Theatre.
