Product: Kids (1995)
Rating: 3.0
Call me jaded, but.....
...I believe the knuckleheads who claim this is what their life is like just as much as I believe the people who make the same claim about the television show 'Friends'. Our protagonists are a pair of mush-mouthed idiots, Telly and Casper, who engage in alcohol abuse, drug abuse, sexual abuse/rape, petty theft and assault as a lifestyle. We all know that adolescence can seem pretty grim, but we are given no reason at all to sympathize with or identify with these two or any of the film's other characters. We just watch the boys bully their female friends, parents, local shopkeepers and anybody else who enters the frame. That said, I really didn't find this to be a 'wake up call' to anything no matter how stridently its proponents howl. I'm already well aware of what happens to children when they are raised by Viacom/MTV instead of mommy and daddy. And although this film may be an exaggeration of those consequences, we only see the effect on society. From Kids, the message continues to be that crime is cool, urban culture is the only culture (as evidenced by the list of trendy concerns in the special thanks section of the credits), and you won't be held accountable for your actions. The only thing really shocking about this movie was watching Telly try to taste the stomach contents of his victims. Gross. But I did sit through the whole thing, and probably will again.