Bad Milo!

Released by: Magnolia Pictures
Released on: January 21st, 2014.
Director: Jacob Vaughn
Cast: Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, Kumail Nanjiani
Year: 2013
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The Movie:

Directed by Jacob Vaughn, 2013's Bad Milo! is sort of a mix between the older horror films of David Cronenberg and the trashy, prosthetic-heavy horror comedy of Frank Henenlotter - which, in short, means that it's a pretty fun watch.

The story revolves around Duncan (Ken Marino), an office worker in the employ of an egotistical big shot named Phil (Patrick Warburton) who starts to experience some severe gastro-intestinal issues when the stress from his day job starts to get to him. Adding to this is the fact that his lovely wife, Sarah (Gillian Jacobs), is starting to make noises about starting a family, a big decision that poor Duncan isn't quite yet ready to take on. All of this comes to a head when Duncan and Sarah meet his mother, Beatrice (Mary Kay Place) and her younger, randy boyfriend that soon results in Duncan going for fertility testing, you know, just to make sure all of his little soldiers are swimming the way they ought to be.

Shortly after, Duncan basically just passes out in the bathroom and what was originally thought to be gastro-intestinal pain reveals itself to be a demon that has birthed itself out of his colon. It's not a particularly friendly creature and, as a good monster should, it soon goes on a bit of a rampage before heading back to whence he came. A shrink visit later and Duncan is ready to take responsibility for what he has unleashed on the world. He names the little guy Milo and tries calm him but as he goes through this adjustment period he has to confront his own issues, most of which seem to stem from an unhealthy work environment and the dysfunction in his family's past.

Considerably more character driven and quite a bit deeper than you'd expect a movie about a big rubber ass monster to be, Bad Milo! manages to hit that right blend of comedy and horror but also, rather surprisingly, has a tender side to it. When we start to realize what's driven Duncan's body/psyche to do what it's down and how Milo came to exist in the first place, you can't help but feel for the guy. The world has had its way with him, be it his obnoxious and arrogant boss (Warburton is perfect and steals every scene that he's in), the pressures from his wife or the issues with his mother and her new, younger husband (a very funny supporting effort from Kumail Nanjiani) the guy just can't catch a break. It's safe to say that most of us have, at one point in our lives, had at least one string of bad luck so that makes Duncan easy enough to relate to that, once again, we can empathize with him and with that set up, it does add further depth to the carnage and chaos that the movie also successfully offers up in grand style.

The creature effects for Milo are a lot of fun. He's a rubbery little monster man who is sort of a mix between a Gremlin, a Ghoulie and Belial and the effects work in the movie give him enough personality to work. When Duncan decides to bond with him, it's actually fairly touching as all of it serves as a fairly obvious metaphor for his coming to terms with the way that his life is going and what his wife wants out of their marriage. Ken Marino handles all of this quite well, playing things completely straight and never breaking character. At the same time, there's a fair bit of splatter and some good old fashioned gynecological humor to enjoy as well. This one delivers pretty much exactly what you'd expect but then offers up quite a bit more, making Bad Milo! a whole lot of run.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Bad Milo looks really good on Blu-ray. The AVC encoded 1.85.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer was taken from a purely digital source and so the image is crisp and clean and as colorful as the sometimes quirky looking sets and backgrounds allow for. Understandably there's no print damage at all. Color reproduction looks perfect and texture in the backdrops and the sets/locations used in the movie look excellent as well. Black levels are generally good but a few scenes do suffer from some quick and minor crush - thankfully these are infrequent and the image is otherwise top notch.

Also impressive is the English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix, with subtitles in Spanish and closed captions in English only. All in all, this is a rock solid mix with great directional effects and well balanced levels throughout. Channel separation is always strong, from the sound effects to the way that the score is spread out, while dialogue is always crisp and clear in the mix. Bass response is powerful enough to get your attention without burying anything and there are, as you'd expect, no problems at all with any hiss or distortion.

Extras kick off with a commentary made up of input from actors Ken Marino and Gillian Jacobs, director/co-writer Jacob Vaughan and co-writer Benjamin Hayes. It's a busy talk but well structured so as to never get overwhelming. The co-writers have more to say than the actors do but if you want to know what inspired the powers that be to make a movie like this, here's the track that will set you straight. On top of that we get some interesting discussion about the effects, the different characters in the movie, what it was like on set and more. Both amusing and interesting it stands to reason that if you enjoyed the feature this is worth checking out.

From there we delve into the excised material starting with almost eight minutes worth of Extended Outtakes (watch the credits for the movie to get a good idea of what to see here, it's an extended take on that) followed by a seven minute Extended Dinner Scene clips in which Duncan's mom talks about his medical history. There's also a single Deleted Scene here entitled Veterinarian which runs just over a minute long and shows what happens when Duncan comes to visit Sarah while she's working.

Moving on to the featurettes, we get a minute and a half piece called Behind Milo: The Puppeteers! that is, as you could guess, a very brief interview with those who brought the puppets used in the film to life. Behind Milo: Raw Take is just over a minute long and it is basically multiple takes from the same shot from a few different angles showing off what works and what doesn't work when trying to make puppets look like living, breathing creatures on screen. The ten minute long Interview With Ken Marino allows the film's leading man to talk about what it's like working with a weird puppet on a feature and to explain how and why he feels the way he does about the experiences he had while making this picture.

Rounding out the extras are an AXS TV 'A Look At Bad Milo!' promo spot (which is basically a three minute trailer), the movie's original theatrical trailer, trailers for a few other Magnolia releases, animated menus and chapter stops. All of the extras on this disc are presented in high definition.

The Final Word:

Bad Milo is enjoyable both as a gooey, gory horror comedy and as a surprisingly clever and, yes, even sweet movie about a man and his ass demon. If that sounds like an odd combination, it should but don't let that dissuade you. The performances are strong and the effects are great and on top of that the disc not only looks and sounds very good but also features a great selection of extra feature as well.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!