Julia X is kind of a confusing movie with a very odd flimsy story and tone that feels a bit goofy and experimental. For about half an hour I didn't care for what it seemed to be, which was yet another pretty girl being kidnapped by some sadistic asshole, sure wasn't like I hadn't seen that too many damn times before.. And even after the twist that the girl was neither helpless nor innocent but was in fact a killer herself was revealed and the hunter became the hunted, I still wasn't that keen, the quality was kinda sucky. But when I got what it was really going for and the real fun began I got into it and ended up having a pretty good time, it was dumb but it rocked. I'm not gonna say it's not, it is a very sloppily put together movie, it's like the writers had a good idea and had no clue as to how to fill up all the little details that make a full length feature. And by the end there are so many hopelessly loose ends that never come together that I could see why some would plain hate it, but I just personally enjoyed it for the action and unintentional comedy. What little plot there was felt like a mere contrivance to pit psychos against each other in a macabre royal rumble, and in that sense it delivers in spades. It doesn't even bother with fancy luxuries like atmosphere and adequate characterisation. Just. Plain. Business... So, I really wasn't buying Kevin Sorbo as a vicious serial killer for a moment, the guy is just too naturally likable, he's got all those years he played heroic Hercules hanging over him that he'll never live down that it's kinda hard to see him in that light. And it's weird hearing him swear, like hearing your grandmother! That said, I may not have believed him as scary killer guy, but I thought he excelled at being comically twisted beat-up guy who was getting a perverse kick out of a horrendous situation of constant brutality and the pain he was continuously receiving and dishing out, he was much better at conveying all that dark s**t.. He looked good and totally in his element in the physical action scenes, it's what he does the best. I don't think I've ever seen another independent horror movie with such extensive stunt work. And of the two women, I thought Alicia Leigh Willis played crazy a lot better than the other, I thought she was really funny with all her kinky body language and the creepy mischievous look on her face, she would have made a great Harley Quinn! She had such killer legs.. The scenes with them all yield such marvellous mayhem, I mean compared to what it starts out as this film goes so completely off the rails that I wasn't sure when to laugh or be shocked because the tone veers crazily between brutal and dangerous to almost cartoony madness that I found it such a mindless but fun and entertaining blast to watch! It had me laughing at how absurdly unrealistic the results of the injuries were. Like Sorbo's character suffered so many stabbings, pelvic limb and vertebral fractures, not to mention concurrent massive head traumas with being cracked over the head so many times that he should've been dead at least twenty times over! And something else that I enjoyed was how there was nobody to root for! All three were completely unsympathetic pain-loving maniacs! The only sympathetic character was Joel David Moore who played an abducted car mechanic who I think was meant to be a little slow in the head, and who is strangely and unexpectedly let go completely unharmed.. He's so lanky and cute, I do so like 'em nerdy! It was sick but fun-sick, never too unpleasant. I guess the most noticeable and disturbing thing about this movie is the definite theme of sadomasochism that runs through it. What a wild show. It takes a while to get going, but once it does it runs like a mother***ker!!!
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