Zero Dark Dirty

[StevePulaski]

Zero Dark Dirty (2013)
Directed by: Lex Lvovsky

May Summer and Belvis Bash in deal with being kidnapped in Zero Dark Dirty.

Rating: ★★★

I'd say in politically correct America, awarding Alexander Loy and Joe Walser's politically incorrect comedy Zero Dark Dirty a positive rating is a very risky move. You run the risk of facing major backlash from all over the spectrum, and had this been a more mainstream movie than it currently is, I would assume the media would smother the film with so much controversy and bad-buzz that they'd potentially scrutinize and unintentionally blacklist the actors involved from future films.

I'm here to report that while the film will be found extremely insensitive and offensive to a certain group of people, it is also very funny in the area of light-hearted humor. The film takes many jabs at religious and political notions surrounding the nation of Islam and the Islamic religion, while allowing criticisms towards Christianity and Judaism to be heard as well. The end-result is a film so silly and asinine that to take it seriously and allow yourself to be offended by it would be embarrassing on your part.

The story centers on Alexander Loy's musician character "Belvis Bash," a second-rate singer with the vocals and looks of Elvis and the swagger and clothing of Johnny Cash. Belvis spends most of his time playing at smaller dives until he is discovered by Major Emile Hickory (Mark Metcalf), an unabashedly outspoken man who believes he'd be perfect for the job of traveling to Afghanistan with other musicians, comedians, and actors to perform for the Afghanistan people to show that America isn't populated with a large amount of ignorant, close-minded buffoons who are war-crazy.

Belvis reconnects with May Summer (Noel Britton), an old friend he knew from long ago who aspired to be a singer and is now performing her talents for people in Afghanistan. The other man he meets is the fearlessly racist and hopelessly incompetent comedian Samuel Stilman (Corey Feldman), who doesn't seem to think before he speaks, resulting in the three talents being kidnapped and taken into custody by a group of Afghanistan radicals.

Admittedly, the first forty minutes of the film are a drag. I sat there worried the film, which I had absurdly higher hopes than I should've had for, would quickly evolve into a sea of monotonous jokes and wind up possessing a premise that wasn't fully realized. Then, the film began to realize it was a lawless work of parody, anarchic humor, and politically incorrect silliness, and allowed its actors - particularly, Corey Feldman in one of his most memorable roles in years - a release to play around with the dialog possible in a film like this. Some lines he delivers are innocuous, like when he's riding on a camel through the desert, "This mule needs to go faster!," he yells. Some are more racist and discriminating and not fit for a place in this review.

The reason I'm giving Zero Dark Dirty (whose title is an obvious play on Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty of last year) a positive rating is because it has an unsettling and uneasy premise (especially in today's timid times) that it makes good use of. As mindless as the dialog is (written by co-director Alexander Loy), it provides for some shockingly memorable laughs and hilarity if one chooses to make an attempt not to get offended. This film barely takes itself seriously; the last thing you want to do is take it seriously.

Starring: Alexander Loy, Noel Britton, Corey Feldman, and Mark Metcalf. Directed by: Lex Lvovsky.