RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Michael_Elliott Gutterballs (2008)** 1/2 (out of 4) A woman is brutally gang raped by four men. The next night those men, the woman and his other friends meet up at the same bowling alley and one by one people begin to get brutally murdered.GUTTERBALLS is a film I had never heard of before joining a few Facebook groups and it seems this title was popping up all over the place. Writer-director Ryan Nicholson wanted to make a throwback to the 80's slasher film and he certainly accomplished that and a whole lot more. I'm really not sure who to recommend this thing to because it's going to either offend most or it's just going to drive them crazy by annoying them. If you "get" the picture then I think you'll have a good time but viewer discretion is certainly advised before attempting to watch this thing.This is the type of film you really watch as a dare because, like I said, it's pretty brutal from start to finish. It's certainly not graphic like the recent trend of torture porn because the film is so over-the-top that you can't take it too serious. This includes all the characters who are downright stupid and annoying but I'm pretty sure this was done on purpose. The film is notorious for the death scenes and there's no doubt that there's some original and memorable scenes. If you've seen enough horror movies then you know it's hard to see something original but we get at least five original deaths here. Some are so downright crazy that you really have to see them to believe it. Needless to say, even Lucio Fulci would tip his hat.While this film will always be remembered and talked about for its gore, I think the strongest thing is the technical aspects. There's no doubt that director Nicholson does an extremely good job at telling the story and there's no question that he can handle a film. I'm not sure what the budget was but I'm sure it was low but the film still has a professional look to it. The most amazing thing is that the film really does look like it was filmed during the early 80's. A lot of filmmakers try to capture that "look" but most fail That's not the case here. There are some flaws with the picture including some of the performances, the annoying characters and I think the film runs too long but there's still no question that GUTTERBALLS is quite an original film in many ways and that makes it worth watching if you can stomach it.

tdrish Congratulations, Gutterballs. You are the only horror movie that has ever succeeded in offending me. Are you happy? You should be! I've seen many horror movies, good, bad, sick, twisted, over the top...but GUTTERBALLS takes the doughnut! How was this golden event achieved? Well, for starters, let's get down to business with the problems this film has. Does a rape scene in a movie need to exceed eight seconds, much less 8 MINUTES? I think we get the point, I can see how you want to tie this in with a story, I just can't understand why anyone would be entertained by watching this unnecessary BS for an extended period of time. I Spit On Your Grave didn't even do that. Let's explore some other major problems with GUTTERBALLS...do you have to drop the F bomb every 30 seconds? I once read that Tigerland ( 2000) was in the Guiness Book Of World Records for the most swear words in a movie, but I could honestly tell you that this movie doesn't hold a candle to that, because this is the kind of movie that makes you want to take a shower after you're done watching it. Now, next bash: the killings. Can you tell me why, after 30 or 40 years of making trash films like this, that we are not putting a little more effort into making it look a little more realistic. Even the blood on the movie poster looks fake, for crying out loud, is that the same movie poster for Maniac back in the 80's? Okay, on to our next problem: the story. Okay, let's be fair, it's a slasher movie, does there need to be one? As if all the things I mentioned doesn't make this a shotty thing to watch, Gutterballs has the most silly arse costume they make the killer walk around in. ( And I mean walk, lot of walking, lazy, lazy walking) It doesn't even come close to being remotely scary. The mask almost looks like a logo for a worldwide known company, was there even a discussion about any of this before they shot this movie on a cheap set? On the bright side ( not very bright), we have some strong acting performances by a few of the actors and actresses. And you'll know who they are, trust me, this movie doesn't try to hide the bad actors from the good. A couple of the kills were worth noting. I want it to be clear that the 5 stars I've given this was because of the acting performances, otherwise it would have been 4. Enjoy the fake blood, folks!

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain After a rape, a bowling alley is plagued by a series of grotesque murders. As terrible as the rape revenge slasher films it tries to live up to. It's disgusting and repulsive but worst of all, it lacks a brain. The rape and violence is there for pure titillation. The acting is the most offensive thing about the film. Gamble is not only fricking awful, he also insists on shouting every line, making the film difficult to get through. Some of the deaths are rather entertaining, mostly due to some decent make-up and gore effects. Still not worth the time or effort.Plus, there was never really enough bowling. I kind of get the feeling this film was made up as it went along.

garden-17 "Gutterballs" is marketed as an homage to slasher-films from the 1980s. Does it do that genre justice? Well...yes and no.The Plot: Two groups of friends/bowling-teams get into a violent argument at a bowling alley; one group consists of "good people" (and, by "good", I mean horny, oblivious, and annoying), the other group are our villains (and, by "villains", I mean...horny, oblivious, and annoying people). After the argument, Lisa (one of the "good people") is gang-raped by the members of the other bowling team, and sodomized with a bowling pin. The plans of revenge are then set in motion, when--the following night--members of both teams meet to settle a bet, and are systematically executed in increasingly gory and creative ways.The Special Effects: They range from brutally effective to downright crude. I have to give the director, Ryan Nicholson, credit for even considering tackling some of these gory scenes with such an obviously limited budget (although, the first bathroom death-scene was just downright lazy). Some of the scenes were absolutely laughable, while others where unbelievably gruesome. Also, the vast majority of the gore happens towards the end of the movie.The Sound Design: "Gutterballs" actually has a pretty good '80s soundtrack. The Foley artist(s) was at the top of his/her/their game, too (especially in the main villain's death-scene). I would not be surprised if the sound design used up a huge chunk of the budget; it was worth every penny.The Set Design: The bowling alleys featured in "Gutterballs" do not look like they're from the 1980s. Enough said.The Acting: The acting is atrocious, and an unmitigated affront to great dialogue and screen-writing. No actors or actresses seem to follow a script (if one was even written), and improvise, to no avail; many are grating, and are more obnoxious than they are evil (the pink-shirted fellow--who laughs kind of like The Joker--is a perfect example), and many more expect their breasts, genitalia, curse-words, special effects, and/or costumes to do the acting for them. Not to mention, I do not recall seeing any extras. I never thought I would say this, but extras could have saved this film (and, no, the talking "ball-waxing" machine doesn't count).The Editing: The editing is so-so, but there are numerous scenes that didn't have to make it to the final cut. There is--quite simply--too much dialogue in this movie; too much inane, idiotic, banal, useless, unfunny dialogue.The Sexual Content/Nudity: If you were to look up the phrase, "gratuitous sex" in the dictionary, the copyright-infringing poster for this movie would appear right beside it. If you looked up the word "gutterballs" in a thesaurus, the synonyms would be "graphic nudity", "gratuitous sex", "crappy acting", and "nowhere near as awesome as 'Maniac'". Also, there is a lot of graphic nudity, both male and female. What kind of moron wears a mini-skirt (with no panties) to a bowling alley, anyway? She knows she'll have to bend over at some point! Not that I'm complaining...The Ending: The ending--ironically enough--didn't seem to want to end. It just dragged on...and on...and on. I won't go into too much more detail; let's just say, there were too many cooks in the kitchen.Overall: This film is brutal in every way: Brutal violence, brutal gore, brutally-bad acting, brutally-cheap producers, brutally-absent editor(s), and brutally-inept continuity supervisor(s). While the gore is pretty good, the rape scene is nowhere near as unsettling as the other reviewers have said on this site, due primarily to exceptionally poor acting (and a lack of above average editing). In fact, virtually every flaw in "Gutterballs" can be traced to bad acting, and bad improvisation. However, I--as a gore-hound--was not as disappointed as I probably should have been. That is why I give it a 6 out of 10! Note: I have only seen the unrated-version of this film.