Film critic Josh Bell has two quirky picks in this week's Bell Breakdown.
It's a slow week for major new releases, so we have a couple of offbeat picks for you this week. First up is The Kid Detective, now available for video on demand rental following its theatrical run. Adam Brody stars as the title character, who was a crime-solving child prodigy like Encyclopedia Brown, but is now a washed-up private eye in his 30s. He gets a chance at redemption when he's hired to solve a murder that may tie back to the case that broke him when he was just 12 years old. The movie mixes deadpan humor with an intriguing mystery and film noir style, acknowledging its goofy premise while building a surprisingly engrossing plot. Adam Brody is perfect as the world-weary gumshoe in a town full of colorful and shady characters. That's The Kid Detective, now on VOD.
Also available now for video on demand rental is the amusingly ridiculous horror-comedy PG: Psycho Goreman. Writer-director Steven Kostanski combines Troma, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and 1980s kids-adventure movies into this story about a pair of young siblings who unearth an ancient alien evil. The title character is determined to exterminate humanity, but some entitled brat finds a gem that controls him, so he's stuck playing kids' games instead. The movie mines a lot of humor from PG's frustrated threats of planetary destruction, and creates some fantastic practical effects for PG and his alien enemies. It might have worked better as 20-minute short, but fans of self-aware kitsch should still find plenty of entertainment here. That's PG: Psycho Goreman, now on VOD.
