Metascore

Overwhelming dislike - based on 10 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 34 Ratings

  • Starring: Brian O'Halloran, Bryan Johnson
  • Summary: The misadventures of Will, a struggling professional clown, determined to make a living performing at kids' parties. Downtrodden in every respect, Will reinvents himself as Vulgar, the transvestite clown, improving his fortunes with his shock performances at bachelor parties. (Lions Gate Films)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 9 out of 10
  1. 75
    To say that Vulgar is not for all tastes might be the understatement of the year. For starters, this black comedy has a male rape scene that makes the one in "Deliverance" seem mild by comparison.
  2. Reviewed by: John Dentino
    20
    First-time director Bryan Johnson's failure to resolve the film’s two moods -- psychopathic sexual brutality and light social satire -- proves fatal.
  3. 10
    The acting tends toward the cartoonish (not in a good way), and the story is built on a series of illogical motivations.
  4. Reviewed by: Henry Sheehan
    10
    Johnson does seem to have some psycho-sexual ax to grind amid all this visual and sexual crudity. For instance, women barely figure in the action, with Will taking on various stereotypical feminine attributes. But good luck finding meaning in all this mess.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 21
  2. Negative: 13 out of 21
  1. EllenA
    8
    While not the best crime/thriller movie, it certainly deserves a far better rating than most critics gave it. The only obstacles to being a truly great movie are the low budget, and bits of clumsy acting here and there. For the most part, the acting is actually average, though at times it jumps to life with both brutality and real human feeling. It's also worth pointing out, that gritty and disturbing or not, this movie is truly original. The fact of having never seen anything like it actually heightens the suspense. Any possible predictability is thrown off base, and this without resorting to many true plot twists. All said, this is a movie with a tragic hero, a scary villain, and an unusual story with bits of black humor. It is clearly not an attempt at the kind of TRULY vulgar humor of, for example, "Clerks 2", though it seems to be perceived this way by some reviewers. While this movie has it's definite flaws, it's not crap, even if it shows us human ugliness at it's worst. Expand
  2. StephenC.
    1
    An insult to amateur filmmaking. I have friends who's college movies were better than this very badly acted and written and directed movie that wants to be "indy" but looks like someone shot it with a camcorder. Didn't find it disturbing because I didn't buy a minute of the movie. Terrible. Expand
  3. JakeH.
    0
    I don't know what anyone else thinks.... but this was horrifically disurbing
  4. JohnC
    0
    Ugly, absurd and absolutely terrible. So dirty you will need a few showers after this one.

See all 21 User Reviews

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