...with the only thing of note about it being that it was made in Ireland, and given the over(t)ly earnest attempt to imitate American cinema/TV, its Gaelic origins hardly matter.
If "Boy Eats Girl" really had a $5mil budget, the bulk of it must have gone to one of its ostensible leads, pop singer Samantha Mumba, who had a moment in the sun in a smallish part in the mostly-wretched 2002 remake of "The Time Machine," and apparently came away from the experience with the idea that she's an actress. She's not, and her casting in this bit of romzomcom dross is ample proof of that. She qualifies as a pretty face with a certain zaftig appeal, and, I'm sorry to say, not much more.
The rest of the cast doesn't fare much better, and as is always the case, the blame must be placed squarely where it belongs, on the inept shoulders of the screenwriter, although I suppose the questionable efforts of a visionless director might also be to blame. The listless, threadbare plot, such as it is, focuses on a pathetic pretty boy who can't seem to score with the girl of his dreams and opts for suicide to relieve his miseries (apparently, he's never heard of masturbation). Mom resurrects him, though, thanks to a handy-dandy book of spells she's stolen from a nearby church, only she somehow overlooks a missing portion of the potion and ends up with sonny-boy as a slowly degenerating, infectious dead thingamabob who soon spreads the zombie meme to his classmates. The ensuing mayhem, delivered with all the finesse of a hamfisted school boy, features little in the way of hilarity, virtually no suspense, no horror, no pathos, and certainly nothing in the way of a fresh take on the genre. There's plenty of gore, which is eventually released in such paroxysms of spew and rubbery body parts that this viewer could only suspect that someone was trying desperately to make up for the paucity of everything that had gone before; none of it works on any level at all.
I'd give "Boy Eats Girl" (said title, btw, being an insultingly brazen example of misrepresentation) an even lower rating if it weren't for a certain level of professionalism concealed within the thing. The cinematography is passable, if derivative (pointless dolly shots that do nothing to advance mood or plot, for instance), and the sets and locations, costumes, and so on are miles ahead of most exploitation cheapies, but none of it is of any avail. The best intentions still end up you-know-where.
Boredom viewing only. Utter waste of time otherwise.
If "Boy Eats Girl" really had a $5mil budget, the bulk of it must have gone to one of its ostensible leads, pop singer Samantha Mumba, who had a moment in the sun in a smallish part in the mostly-wretched 2002 remake of "The Time Machine," and apparently came away from the experience with the idea that she's an actress. She's not, and her casting in this bit of romzomcom dross is ample proof of that. She qualifies as a pretty face with a certain zaftig appeal, and, I'm sorry to say, not much more.
The rest of the cast doesn't fare much better, and as is always the case, the blame must be placed squarely where it belongs, on the inept shoulders of the screenwriter, although I suppose the questionable efforts of a visionless director might also be to blame. The listless, threadbare plot, such as it is, focuses on a pathetic pretty boy who can't seem to score with the girl of his dreams and opts for suicide to relieve his miseries (apparently, he's never heard of masturbation). Mom resurrects him, though, thanks to a handy-dandy book of spells she's stolen from a nearby church, only she somehow overlooks a missing portion of the potion and ends up with sonny-boy as a slowly degenerating, infectious dead thingamabob who soon spreads the zombie meme to his classmates. The ensuing mayhem, delivered with all the finesse of a hamfisted school boy, features little in the way of hilarity, virtually no suspense, no horror, no pathos, and certainly nothing in the way of a fresh take on the genre. There's plenty of gore, which is eventually released in such paroxysms of spew and rubbery body parts that this viewer could only suspect that someone was trying desperately to make up for the paucity of everything that had gone before; none of it works on any level at all.
I'd give "Boy Eats Girl" (said title, btw, being an insultingly brazen example of misrepresentation) an even lower rating if it weren't for a certain level of professionalism concealed within the thing. The cinematography is passable, if derivative (pointless dolly shots that do nothing to advance mood or plot, for instance), and the sets and locations, costumes, and so on are miles ahead of most exploitation cheapies, but none of it is of any avail. The best intentions still end up you-know-where.
Boredom viewing only. Utter waste of time otherwise.