If there’s one chief complaint I have for “Cherry Bomb” is that the performances from the entire cast leave much to be desired. Every single cast member can never seem to decide if they want to play this material over the top like a grindhouse film or with dramatic intensity. The most jarring caveat is from star Julin who can also never seem to decide if she wants to play Cherry Bomb as a ditzy psychopath, or a dignified warrior woman. Sometimes Cherry can barely shoot a sniper rifle, and then other times she’s engaging in hand to hand combat with a master assassin and setting off clever booby traps.
John Rodriguez is also a character who is unevenly written. Sometimes he’s an inept partner to Cherry’s revenge quest, and other times he keeps Cherry in check with his wisdom and planning. “Cherry Bomb” possesses a real series of events that unfold in painfully imbalanced degrees and inconsistent tones that it’s tough to figure out what the intent was for the film. Is this an over the top schlockfest, or a crime thriller with empathic characters? All things considered, “Cherry Bomb” is a competent and watchable revenge thriller that doesn’t know what it wants to be, but tells a story that warrants watching. If you’re willing to lower your expectations and go in expecting a heavy amount of gore and gun fighting, then this film is about as trashy as you’d want for a late night treat. You won’t remember much of it after the credits rolled, but it’ll keep you entertained.
Director Kyle Day seems to aim for trash and trash is pretty much what you’ll get. Star Julin plays Cherry, a bubble headed stripper for a personal party of gentlemen who take their party too far and decide to gang rape and assault poor Cherry. After being taken to the hospital, Cherry is accused of leading the men on and decides to take down her tormentors one by one with her brother Brandon at her side. Much of the journey of Cherry isn’t as dark or moody as it has the potential to be. Basically Cherry’s plan relies on buying a lot of guns and shooting people down one by one. The mere fact she’s able to get far in her journey without being mutilated is shocking, but Cherry has a lot of luck and wits on her side.
Along the way, a mystery villain hires an assassin named Bull to track down and kill Cherry, and this becomes a consistent side step for the plot as Cherry evades Bull at every turn while bringing down her tormentors without flinching. I never understood why Cherry had trouble shooting one of the men with a sniper rifle, and why she just suddenly approached him without any regard to her safety. I also never quite grasped how she was able to learn the art of gun fighting so quickly. I also felt the eighties motif was a bit superfluous, but that’s just a nitpick. The film has a lot of novelty to it and works as a fairly mediocre revenge film with aspirations to be a cult classic. I don’t see it getting to that status, but its aims are admirable, if that counts for anything.
Featured in the newly released Blu-Ray is an Audio Commentary with Director and Producer Kyle Day, discussing the inspiration for the film and the shooting conditions. There’s a two minute Outtakes reel, and almost four minutes of Deleted Scenes. There’s a seven minute Alternate ending that’s more an extension of the final ending we see in the film rather than an alternate scenario. Finally there’s a two minute trailer for the film. In the sub-genre of revenge films, “Cherry Bomb” is an average ho hum entry in to the library that can work as a time killer for anyone in the mood for hot girls firing off guns at evil men; the reason for its downfall is mainly due to the inconsistent writing which can never really decide if it wants to aim for schlock or drama, while the casts performances are stilted and forced for most of the proceedings.