Rating: 
Summary: Clark's best yet
Review: I have seen Bully twice now. I saw it two days ago on Cinemax when it debuted. I just finished watching it again a few minutes ago and will watch it again soon. All i have to say is it is tough to watch but worth it if yu can sit through it. It's powerful and unforgettable. Nick Stahl is a standout as the high school bully. Who would have ever guessed this was real life.
Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: The DVD has cast interviews on it but no director's commentary. That's good since Mr. Clark's commentary track on "Another Day In Paradise" was one of the very worst I have ever heard.
Rating:
Summary: Why I don't live in Florida
Review: I could never make myself buy the DVD of Larry Clark's "Kids". While I thought it was a powerful story filmed in an interesting (if virtually pornographic) style, I couldn't shake the feeling that the actors were somehow being exploited. Also, it was disturbing to watch so many directionless teens make a mess of their lives.But "Bully" is a different matter. Though based on Jim Shutze's "novel", it is the retelling of the real murder of a Florida youth who was brutally stabbed and bludgeoned by his own "friends." As with "Kids", Clark is intent upon making sure the teens his actors portray embody the loopy logic and emotional terrain (deadpan or wistful one minute, hysterical the next)of contemporary kids--in this case suburbanites being raised by clueless parents who seem to be willfully naive about what their kids can and will do. Half of the murderers had no special grudge against the victim, the "bully" of the film's title, a fact that seems especially chilling. Although you can't accuse Clark of hiding the grisly nature of what transpired, he seems as fascinated by the "planning" of the murder as by the act itself. One painful aspect of watching this film is that Clark makes us accutely aware that there were ample opportunities for the events to have unfolded otherwise. What if, for instance, even one of the youths involved had chickened out, or had reported the plot to the police? What if the professional hitman the teens consulted (Leo Fitzpatrick from "Kids") acted on his hunch that these kids didn't know what they were doing and successfully talked them out of it? Throughout the film Clark manages to keep us in the moment by leaving the underlying issue of justice unexplored. Did Bobby (played to perfection by Nich Stahl), who had dominated and abused his best friend Marty (Brad Renfro) since childhood, deserve to die? Clearly the jury saw no extenuating circumstances in this crime; but do we? Couldn't the arguments that are made in murders committed after years of spousal abuse have been made on Marty's behalf? (The homoerotic and psychosexual tensions that ricochet throughout this film seem to support, for me anyway, the argument that Marty WAS an abused spouse and deserving of some legal consideration.) The DVD has no director's commentary, but does have extensive "Cast & Crew" interviews (if nothing else, it's comforting to see the actors speaking like thoughtful, articulate young people with real consciences and a genuine connection to life.) Be sure to catch what they have to say about how they landed their roles.
Rating: 
Summary: never underestimate the power of stupid children.
Review: I watched this movie last night and did not know until today that it was based on a true story. I have a hard time believing that upper class Florida suburb kids qualify as actual gang members, although I won't dispute that they probably were involved in some, if not all, of the activities shown in the film. The film did not portray the kids as gangbanging thugs but as children with too much money and too little supervision. The teenagers in the film are portrayed as virtually brainless and illogical, like caricatures of adolescence. I saw the 'R-rated' version rather than the NC-17 original, but the R-rated had more than enough gratuitous nudity and brutal rape and abuse scenes. I really felt like it was just a remade version of 'KIDS' set in Florida instead of New York with more nudity and a murder added in. I'd rent it or find a way to view it before buying it.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, but what's the point?
Review: It's hard to know whether Larry Clark wants you to hate these kids or to pity them. Perhaps he's just telling as it happened, and leaving it up to us to decide. But if honesty was the intention here, I can't help thinking "Bully" would have worked much better as a documentary where the motivations and backgrounds of the protagonists could have been more thoroughly explored. As a dramatization, there are just too many characters and too little time for the really interesting thing - the psychology behind such morally vacuous teen mob behaviour - to be adequately examined. The gap is filled with a few falteringly written expository scenes: Marty sobbing to Lisa on the beach; Heather giggling about her hideous home life. These try to show the emotional torture and moral emptiness which might lead to such criminal lunacy, but succeed only in sounding contrived. Generally, the young cast make the most of what they're given: Nick Stahl is great as the bully-boy Bobby (though the character is underdeveloped) and Brad Renfro as Marty is typically, chillingly, superb. It might not be pleasant, but with its relentless cycle of nudity, profanity and violent stupidity, "Bully" is at least wildly compelling. I'm just not sure I'm any wiser for having seen it. And if that wasn't the aim in bringing such an horrific-but-true story to the big screen, then what was? I'd hate to think it was just titillation.
Rating:
Summary: Florida, the schoolyard playground
Review: Bully is a story that envolves the frailties of man, and revenge. Some could just look at the outer surface of Bully, and see a violent flick plastered with teen drug use and rampant sex. But, looking underneath you will see a story about teens, that on their own, even coming from good homes, stray and commit the ultimite act of violence. On their own, these character's don't stand a chance, but when they bind together, they forge a chilling bond of rage. "Want to kill a guy?" They agree it can be done. How openly and freely they commit the crime made me laugh nervously. "How far are they going to take this" I wondered. The reason I wondered so, was because the teen's don't have the self confidance of a rat in a cheese factory, how could they do such a thing. Ofcourse I had to remind myself that this was just a movie, and to calm down. Watching Bully was like mental entrapment. The characters are realistic, and seem like someone you could know. The Bully himself is one of the most despisable pieces of trash you are likely to see on film. I rank him near "Magua" on Last of the Mohican's. Bully is a story about teen's who stray, do a terrible thing that you almost want them to do, then pay the price. Its one of recent years most captivating, and real films. ~s.a.o.s.~
Rating:
Summary: The truth hurts...
Review: i didnt know about larry clarke..only after i discover this brilliant, honest movie.personally i like every teen movie.i xpect this movie is another 'transpoitting'.every single scenes of this movie reminds me of my early teens life.an enjoying movie to watch for teens and also young adult.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent movie...
Review: I didn't expect to like this movie, I saw Kids and didn't think it was that great. But this movie is different and in my opinion much more sophisticated in it's execution. I didn't know until after I'd seen the feature that it is based on a true story. The acting on each charachter's parts was superb. Nich Stahl, who played Bobby (the murder victim) was able to instill repulsion as well as sympathy for his charachter. This actually is the case for all the players (except Marty who was so heinous...). What I don't like about this movie is that the actors are for the most part ridiculously beautiful and/or sexy. The real people are not. I don't know that they (the real life perps) would be able to generate as much sympathy as their thespian counterparts. I recommend. Not for the bible thumping or easily offended crowd.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing
Review: It's easy to mistake Bully, about a group of teens who murder one of their friends, for exploitative [garbage], and it's certainly hard medicine to take, but it feels accomplished and more controlled than director Larry Clark's previous feature, Kids. There's real intensity at its heart, so thick in places that it's frightening; as it speeds recklessly to its conclusion, it feels so total and unavoidable that it unfolds with nightmarish predictability. Much of it is so terrifyingly hallucinatory that you hold your breath. For the sickeningly depraved teens who conspire to kill the young man who has become a bully to them all, murder becomes their ultimate trip; they're so fixed on the thrill of the act that they can't even plan out the details of the crime. They're frenzied and panicked--they want to be caught, and hilariously confess what they've done to anyone who will listen. The parental figures in the film remain painfully in the dark, and ironically they always seem to be right down the hall. As the film comes full circle, it gets surprisingly expansive; the last few scenes are masterfully tight and practically Shakespearean.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful film, though inaccurate
Review: I just saw this film, real powerful stuff, though I must say it is inaccurate - there was no eighth teenager who played a role the murder, and I believe Larry Clark should have hired an actor who had "Middle-Eastern" features to play Bobby Kent as he was the son of prominent Iranian immigrants. Also it was biased in favor of the killers because most likely the film storyline was based on the court transcripts and the accounts from the killers. In some way we really don't know exactly what caused Marty Puccio and Lisa Connelly to kill Bobby Kent. But in some way the actions of Bobby Kent in the movie would've driven anyone to extremes. More so taking into account Kent's Middle-Eastern background Kent is probably the teenage Osama Bin Laden though he deals his terrorism in smaller doses.
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