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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Vulgar

EMAIL PRINTLions Gate Films Inc.

4.1 User Score:

Overwhelming dislike

Based on 10 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Bryan Johnson

Directed by: Bryan Johnson

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 26, 2002
DVD: September 3, 2002

Running Time: 97 minutes, Color / BW

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for disturbing sexual violence, some shootings and strong language

Starring Brian O'Halloran, Bryan Johnson, Jerry Lewkowitz, Ethan Suplee, Matthew Maher, Jay Petrick, Jason Mewes, and Kevin Smith

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)

Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

New York Post Lou Lumenick

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.

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LA Weekly John Dentino

First-time director Bryan Johnson's failure to resolve the film’s two moods -- psychopathic sexual brutality and light social satire -- proves fatal.

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New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

The acting tends toward the cartoonish (not in a good way), and the story is built on a series of illogical motivations.

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Los Angeles Times Henry Sheehan

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.

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The New York Times Dave Kehr

Too campy to work as straight drama and too violent and sordid to function as comedy, Vulgar is, truly and thankfully, a one-of-a-kind work.

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San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

It's impossible to imagine why Lions Gate, the indie distributor that released "Monster's Ball," would bother with this garbage.

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Variety Dennis Harvey

Inexplicably mixing lamer-than-lame "bad taste" comedy with yea worse traumatized-assault-victim histrionics, pic's only entertainment value lies in viewer weighing whether pic is primarily a.) offensive b.) amateurish c.) pathetic or d.) a cry for help.

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Village Voice Mark Holcomb

Sure to appear in everyone's worst-of lists at year's end, to say nothing of a few bad dreams, Bryan Johnson's Vulgar is an unclassifiably awful study in self- and audience-abuse.

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TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Vulgar doesn't begin to describe it: Try one of the foulest, least funny films ever made under the rubric of black comedy.

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Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The only thing shocking about it, however, is the degree to which self-congratulatory gutter exhibitionism has become the degraded ash end of indie ''edge.''

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 4.1 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John C gave it a0:
Ugly, absurd and absolutely terrible. So dirty you will need a few showers after this one.

Ellen A gave it an8:
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.

Jake H. gave it a0:
I don't know what anyone else thinks.... but this was horrifically disurbing

Stephen C. gave it a1:
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.

Sam gave it a0:
Absoloutley overated. Notice the 5 on the metacritic score, YOU FOLLOW?!?

Nanrek K. gave it a0:
Watching this movie is almost as painful as getting kicked in the groin!

Robin K. gave it a5:
Well, it certainly caught my attention. Graphic, violent, sick, frightening because you know this sht has happened (well, maybe not to a clown). I found myself getting bored in spots though. It was a long, but interesting half hour.