Champagne and Bullets review revisits a cult-bad action oddity
The Verge’s Terrence O’Brien says John De Hart’s self-made action film earns a place beside The Room, Troll 2 and Fateful Findings.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
3 min read
A new Champagne and Bullets review from The Verge puts John De Hart’s cult action film in the company of The Room, Troll 2 and Fateful Findings. The assessment matters for bad-movie fans because Terrence O’Brien argues the film’s awkward performances, strange plot turns and do-it-yourself ambition make it a standout example of outsider cinema.
O’Brien, The Verge’s weekend editor, wrote that Champagne and Bullets was also released under the titles GetEven and Road to Revenge. He describes the film as a case where one creator’s ambition exceeds the production’s resources, technical polish and self-awareness.
The film was largely made by De Hart, according to O’Brien. De Hart wrote and directed it, stars as Rick Bode and appears in an early musical sequence called Shimmy Slide.
What is Champagne and Bullets about?
According to O’Brien, Champagne and Bullets follows Rick Bode and his partner Huck Finney, two police officers who lose their badges near the start of the movie. The plot also brings back Bode’s former girlfriend Cindy, who is running from a satanic coven said in the film to have sacrificed a human baby.
O’Brien says Finney’s story takes a sharp turn after his divorce and his discovery that his wife has been unfaithful. The character fires a handgun through his bills, drinks bleach in an effort to avoid prison and appears to begin a cult, according to the review.
The Verge’s piece frames those choices as part of the movie’s appeal for viewers who seek out films that are memorable for their failures as much as their intentions. O’Brien compares the relationships and dialogue in Champagne and Bullets to the unnatural character dynamics that helped make The Room a cult object.
Why does the review compare it to outsider cinema?
Outsider cinema usually refers to films made outside conventional studio systems, often with unusually personal creative control and little concern for standard screen grammar. In O’Brien’s view, Champagne and Bullets fits that label because De Hart’s hand is visible across the writing, direction, acting and music.
The review also notes that De Hart’s Shimmy Slide performance has an unusual backstory. O’Brien cites a Reddit account of the film’s director commentary saying De Hart had thrown out his back and was taking painkillers during the scene, which the review says contributes to the sequence’s stiff, uncomfortable feel.
Although Champagne and Bullets is presented as an action film, O’Brien says it does not deliver many fight scenes. He writes that the action that does appear is staged in a way that feels closer to a theme-park stunt performance than a convincing movie fight.
The Verge’s bottom line is that Champagne and Bullets stands with the best-known cult-bad films because its oddness is not limited to one scene or one performance. O’Brien argues the movie’s plotting, acting, music and action all contribute to the same off-kilter effect.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.