The Last Temptation of Becky
Becky was a 2020 home invasion thriller, wherein a teenage girl faced off against a gang of neo-Nazis who had just escaped from prison, with very bloody results. Becky returned in 2023’s The Wrath of Becky, which saw her pick off a different group of neo-Nazis after they unwisely messed with her. Now comes The Last Temptation of Becky, where she goes to war with a whole regiment of men trying to start the Fourth Reich.
While the first one largely played things straight, the initial sequel leaned more toward dark humor, generating laughs from how Becky dispatched her deserving victims. The third leg of the trilogy is closer to a full-fledged comedy, with her attitude being used for laughs just as much as the set-ups and violent payoffs are. None of these are great movies, yet they are fun for what they are. It is an angry girl with nothing to live for lashing out by mercilessly mowing down dumb, immoral killers. It certainly isn’t high art, but they’re reasonably entertaining grindhouse movies.
Becky, now eighteen years old, is a CIA agent on extremely thin ice. She has a tendency to go rogue, brutally murdering the men she has been tasked with gathering information on, ruining every mission. When she is sent to Poland undercover to gain intel on the plans of a man looking to fully restart the Nazi party, all hell breaks loose in predictable, yet amusing, ways.
The Last Temptation of Becky (83 minutes, minus the end credits) maintains the gleefully misanthropic spirit of its predecessors. Becky is perpetually pissed off, sarcastic and keeps the world at arm’s length by treating everyone she encounters like an idiot. Granted, in her world, most people are idiots. Lulu Wilson slides back into the character of Becky Hooper like she is putting on a comfortable sweater.
There is not a lot of depth here. She plays her as the outcast in a high school comedy who even the cool kids stay away from because they know her revenge will be vicious if they mess with her. Becky is essentially a cartoon version of a wounded girl, with no real basis in reality. Still, it is enjoyable to see her turn her rage onto hateful caricatures. Wilson embodies those feelings in a performance that almost, though not quite, makes her seem human. She is definitely secure enough in the role at this point to make silly lines such as ”It’s time for plan C” really funny.
Stunt casting has been a strange part of this series’ appeal. The original co-starred comedian Kevin James as the lead Nazi. He was unexpectedly effective. In Wrath, it was comedic actor Seann William Scott as the head of a group of white supremacists. He was okay. For Temptation, the filmmakers were able to get Neil Patrick Harris to portray the main villain. Considering how varied Harris’ skillset is, the result is a letdown. He has two decent scenes: one when he initially meets a disguised Becky at dinner and then their climactic confrontation. Otherwise, he merely growls and threatens in a way that anyone could have done. It is a wasted opportunity.
The Becky franchise is ultra-violence for viewers who like heavy doses of snark with their gore. The twist of it centering on an unrepentant Nazi-killing machine who happens to be a teenage girl continues to hold charm because Lulu Wilson is fun in the role. The premise is so basic, yet it works as long as you can turn your brain off and chuckle at the blood-soaked carnage. The Last Temptation of Becky is juvenile and derivative. I recommend it to action fans who don’t need to take things seriously.
3 out of 5
Cast:
Lulu Wilson as Becky
Neil Patrick Harris as General Wilhelm Reuss
Kate Siegel as Agent Kate Montana
Brandon Flynn as Jordan Rigby
James Urbaniak as Dr. Friedrich Metzger
Catherine Walker as Helga Reuss
Aoife Hughes as Luisa Reuss
Noah Leggott as Otto Reuss
Directed by Jenn Wexler
Screenplay by Jenn Wexler and Matt Angel
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