Film Review – The Belko Experiment

Before he became the affable architect of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, director James Gunn was once a filmmaker who reveled in extreme violence, always sold with a dark sense of humor. With credits such as “Super” and “Slither,” Gunn’s particular way with tone was always polarizing, and while he doesn’t helm “The Belko Experiment,” his inky fingerprints are all over this oddball slaughterhouse movie. Gunn hands control to Greg McLean, who tries to keep up with Gunn’s scripted vision for nonstop carnage, but so much suffering and whiffed jokes tends to wear down any possible appreciation of the material’s study of abominable human behavior. Gunn cherry picks from the boldest in battle royal cinema (including the 2000 Japanese cult hit, “Battle Royale”), but doesn’t sharpen the effort into a fine point, content to manufacture a massacre, but wary of assigning any deeper meaning to it. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com