The Wrath of Becky – A Decent Piece of Dumb Fun

If the John Wick franchise has taught us anything, it is do not mess with people’s dogs. In The Wrath of Becky, a now 16-year-old Becky (Wilson) is in a race against time to not only stop a group of neo-Nazis from causing an insurrection, but also stop them from killing her dog. A sequel to the 2020’s Becky, a film where a then 13-year-old Becky witnesses the death of her father and demands revenge, this sequel is in a similar vein. The only difference is that now Becky is older and even more feisty, not willing let herself be pushed around. Even though the writing is not anything to write home about, the film itself offers decent kills as its second half provides more than enough entertainment to make up for its lackluster opening.  

The Wrath of Becky takes place several years after the original and sees a now older Becky fleeing from foster homes with her dog, Diego. Recently, she has been staying with an older lady named Elena (Burse) and working at a local diner. After members from a hate group similar to the Proud Boys follows her home, an attack leaves Becky without her dog and willing to go to any length to get him back. From there, Becky stumbles upon the group’s plan to create a January 6th type insurrection so now, she is not only racing to save her dog but also stop the group’s insurrection. Ultimately, the film’s screenplay was its weak spot as the overall story was fairly uninteresting to watch. Infusing stylistic action with some comedy, most will be left wanting the film to stick to action as it was clearly the stronger of the two. 

Though portions of the story were interesting, such as diving deep into the true horror and terror of hate groups, the set-up to get there was often tedious to watch. Even though the film attempts to make a guardian-like figure for Becky to possibly lose, the lack of character development lessened the impact of their eventual fate. There is no emotional connection to the character and her insertion and her fate both feel unearned. Once the film finds its footing, it, for the most part, delivers a fun watch. The kills are alright and while certainly not bad, they definitely could have been gorier and perhaps more creative. In the end, the story never redeems itself throughout the film and even though it is fun to see neo-Nazi’s get their comeuppance, it, and its characters, lack the kind of nuance that would have made the film much more interesting. 

Another issue was how its characters are written. Becky, as cool of a badass that she may be, was not particularly fleshed out nor was that interesting of a character. Even though Wilson’s performance was great, the film gave little reason to root for Becky beyond her battle against the Nazis and saving her dog despite that being the ultimate goal of the story. Scott as Darryl, the film’s villain and the leader of the hate group targeting Becky, also lacked depth though for what he lacked in depth, he certainly made up with an intimidating presence. His performance was easily one of the biggest highlights of the film, making Darryl a terrifying character. That being said, the story and characters were too on the nose. Yes, Nazis are bad and watched them get punished was satisfying, but the film needed something more to make it stand out. Meanwhile, the inclusion of Darryl’s goons for seemingly nothing except for comedic relief didn’t quite work. Even though he was truly horrifying, the tonal difference between he and the caricaturish nature of his goons never quite worked either.

At the end of the day, though the film is certainly fun and entertaining for the most part, its screenplay drags the overall quality down. Lead by an uninteresting main character and plot, it will feel much longer than its sub-90-minute runtime. The film’s kills were only kind of interesting while its characters suffered from being underwritten, but for those looking for some dumb fun, The Wrath of Becky is a more than worthy watch.

still courtesy of Quiver Distribution

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Jasmine Graham