Cinema surveillance images are loading at the bottom of the page

Pups

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

What happens when a rebellious teenager (Cameron van Hoy) stumbles upon a loaded gun?

Instead of heading to his suburban school, he and his girlfriend (Mischa Barton) venture on an impromptu bank robbery that catches national media attention. As tensions inside the bank heighten, fatherly FBI Agent Bender (Burt Reynolds) negotiates the boy's absurd demands, exemplified by an interview with MTV personality Kurt Loder (himself).

Also starring Darling Narita. Written and directed by Ash.

Cinematic intelligence sources

Pups official movie site

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Romance: boy meets gun, boy wants gun, boy gets gun, boy loses gun, boy gets gunned down by trigger-happy pig from a society that puts the ownership of a gun on a pillar (but not a tall one, because then no-one could get guns).

I am not in favour of guns in the community; 100% of people who die from gunshot wounds were shot with a gun.

Pups agrees with me, so it must be a pretty good film. Not surprisingly, it is! Kids are forever playing with their parents' toys, be they guns, cars or drugs, and the occurrence with which kids go out and rob banks is beyond the pale. Remember that the USA is a country where they don't report on the news how many people were killed because they can't keep up. This film follows one kid from a white, middle-class, broken home and follows him through the course of a normal day.

8:00am - Meet girlfriend
8:15am - Leave for school
8:30am - Rob bank
8:35am - Take hostages against police invasion
9:00am - Start making demands
10:00am - Start receiving goodies
11:00am - Give TV interview
12:00am - Surrender
12:01am - Get shot and die on sidewalk in pool of own blood

Ah, the joys of youth.

Cameron van Hoy is great as the asthmatic, gun-toting, messed-up teen bank robber from the suburbs. He's completely normal with the twist of weirdness that is the hallmark of the USA. Think Jerry Springer, think Ricki Lake. His outbursts are a rage against the injustice that it is to be born in such a society as well as a piteous cry for love. Mischa Barton follows him on his journey of highs and lows, at once more moderate and more scary. It is easy to see Cameron's problems but Mischa's are less transparent, hence the scariness. Does she follow because she's lost or because there's nothing better to do?

Burt Reynolds continues his run of actually having to act in films rather than just run around being heroic (See also Mystery, Alaska). His nicotine-addicted FBI agent is a damned sympathetic one but also retains a sense of reality. Just because he's heroic doesn't mean he's going to win. The nutters in the bank are American, of the kind who really piss Death off. Every single one of them has an opinion and they are damned sure they're going to get it out. They don't care about the gun being waved in their face as long as they get to exercise the First Amendment (the one about freedom of speech or something - who really cares since they don't support it anyway).

Pups is a great way to start a Sunday morning: sex, guns, robbery and kidnapping - all before breakfast. Pups is what really happened to Bobby Brady. Watch and enjoy.

Security censorship classification

MA 15+ (Adult themes, medium level violence, medium level coarse language)

Surveillance time

96 minutes (1:36 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

VHS rental: 11 October 2000