Starring: Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Mary Kay Place, Stephen Root, Claudia Choi, Toby Huss, Patrick Warburton, Erik Charles Nielsen, Peter Stormare, Kumail Nanjiani
Review: Duncan (Ken Marino) is under a lot of stress. Whether it's a tough day at the office or making the big decision to start a family, poor Duncan is at the end of his rope. As the pressure builds so does the worst gastrointestinal distress he's ever experienced. It's not constipation. IBS would be more tolerable. Duncan's actually got a pint-sized demon living in his intestines, who exits the rear from time to time to reduce his stress by killing those who caused it. Yes, you read that right! I don't think WebMD can help him now!
Bad Milo! gets an "A" for originality. A stressed out guy develops a murderous "butt demon" who dispatches those that have wronged the dude who's keister from which he's sprang. You can't get more original than that. It's a shame that it doesn't quite get beyond its premise.
I really think the problem is the movie's tone. Bad Milo! starts out as a comedy, then turns to horror, then becomes a horror-comedy, then it kind of becomes a heavy-handed drama that has a husband and wife having heart-to-heart talks while battling a derriere demon. It just doesn't work. And it's a shame. I wanted it to be so crazy good.
Comedic actor Ken Marino (Role Models) really gives it his all as our poor protagonist. He really looks stressed and miserable all throughout the movie. You really do feel for him, but his character never seems to get beyond that. I wanted him to have some fun with the silly situation, but he's our straight-man. Gillian Jacobs, Mary Kay Place, Stephen Root, Patrick Warburton, Kumail Nanjiani, and the amazing Peter Stormare, all seem to be having so much more fun in their roles. Gillian Jacobs' Sarah really seems to care for Marino's Duncan all through the craziness, but the rest of the cast seem more like cartoonish characters that you'd expect to see in a movie where horror springs from a man's haunches and brings toothy terror with it.
And the monstrous Milo is a practical puppet, and not a digital effect, which I appreciated very much. He's as cute as he is vicious, but he's not scary or very threatening looking so that doesn't help to sell the idea that he's a baby doll sized killing machine.
Bad Milo! is such a unique premise that just can't quite stay solid all the way through. I really don't want to dump on it too bad, but I just can't hold it in. It's definitely one of those that has to be seen to be believed.