Becky Stars Kevin James As A Serial Killer

I’m so used to Joel McHale in Community that every time I see him turn around and reveal his face in another movie, I keep thinking he’s about to snark about how he’s a lawyer and he’s above all you clowns. But it turned out McHale wasn’t the most jarring thing about this trailer for the upcoming thriller Becky, not by a long shot. Because after him, a bald thug with a giant swastika tattoo turned around….and it was Kevin James.

James has been the symbol for crass, unsophisticated, blue-collar entertainment for so long that you would think no one in Hollywood would be more typecast than him. Yet here he’s managed to land a gig that flies completely in the face of everything he’s known for…a scary, racist, violent leader of an escaped gang of criminals. And from the trailer, he seemed to play it well.

What makes this even more nuts is that the Becky of Becky is a 13-year-old girl. She’s the daughter of McHale’s character, and the gang breaks into their vacation home because there’s something they’re after which McHale might know about. They need a key to get it, Becky has it, and she’s not the type to just hand it to them….Becky fights back. If you read the plot description “escaped criminal gets his ass handed to him by a resourceful kid,” would you expect THIS kind of movie?

For all the grousing critics make these days about how every movie is the same, the mere existence of Becky defies that belief. It’s a thriller about a Nazi Kevin James battling a female Kevin McAllister and it somehow pulls that off. Becky will be out June 5 on demand, as well as in any theaters that are open that day.