I thought this was going to be a punk movie in the realm of Class of 1984 or Repo Man but instead I got something that was more dark and depressing. The more this movie went on, the more I kept thinking I recognized it from somewhere. Eventually, my confusion was sated when I realized that this movie was first released on VHS back in the 90's under the title Generation X-Tinct. I had always been curious about this title back in the shot-on-video boom of the late 90's as a depressing drama about a group of directionless losers seemed quite out of place amongst the horror films of Kevin Lindenmuth, Ron Ford, and others.

Mike Passion stars as Bobby Tilton, a small-time hood who thinks he is a lot more badass than he is. Bobby spends most of the movie screaming at people and having difficulty managing his level of testosterone. This gets him into trouble when he tries to prove his toughness by degrading a yuppie dude in a parking lot. Shortly after this incident, Bobby's friend is killed and Bobby mistakenly thinks the yuppie is responsible. This leads to a chain of events that gets a couple more of his friends killed and puts him in a situation where he is mixed up with a local crime lord who is much more dangerous than him. Bobby ends up losing his dignity and eventually becomes truly dangerous when he realizes that he has nothing else to lose.

Movies like this about the dark side of humanity used to intrigue me but I find them depressing nowadays. Mike Passion does a good job playing Bobby but it is hard to get away from the fact that this is a character who is completely unlikeable. His constant negativity and screaming give little to root for and I am not entirely sure what the point of the whole exercise is. Not a lot happens in this movie other than Bobby being a dick to everyone and, other than being a study in how nihilistic the youth culture in the late 90's was, there is not a lot to speak of in the script. Bobby lives completely in his own world without a care for anyone other than himself but this greed and selfishness gets him nowhere. I would have much preferred to at least see the rise and fall of Bobby rather than simply the slow fall. The movie is just depressing as Bobby's life sucks more and more as the story progresses. The yuppie is no better as he is also a prick throughout and when he kills a young woman for no particular reason, you lose any sympathy for him as well. The same goes the cops, the gangsters, and even the bartender. The only somewhat cool people are Bobby's friends but they are totally underdeveloped with all of the emphasis being on Bobby.

What makes this film worth watching is the performance by Passion as I was intrigued as to how long he could carry on the spazziness of the character. This is the only film credit from Passion and he plays the role of an increasingly frustrated tough-guy wannabe to a tee. I just wish that he was able to give more humanity to the character as I would have made for a much more interesting story had I cared more about him. I think this has more to do with the script and the choices that director Michele Pacitto made with the story and characters than with Passion's performance. If you are a fan of movies like Combat Shock and Requiem for a Dream, you may get something out of this study of those who have given up on society. (Josh Pasnak, 2/7/10)

Directed By: Michele Pacitto.
Written By: Michele Pacitto.

Starring: Mike Passion, Lonnie Jackson, Ron Wicks, Bobby Drew.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: The transfer is non-anamorphic and looks like it is probably not much better than the VHS would have been.

Extras: First up we get a super-annoying commentary from director Mike Pacitto and fellow filmmaker Pete Schuermann. Much of the track consists of the two of them laughing at what is going on in the film which is a little lame and I seem to like the movie a little more than they do. Maybe they were nervous but this is a bit of a challenge to sit through. It doesn't help that the audio track is out of sync with what is happening on screen. To be honest, I am listening to this right now and it is becoming more and more aggravating. We also get some audition footage featuring actors who were accepted and rejected as well as some of the actors trying other roles. Finally, we get a couple of extended scenes where we get to see pooh in a toilet and some trailers.