60
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Chaotic, trifling, oddly likable film.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
It's by far the funniest and warmest movie Araki has ever made, with much less juvenile angst and much more command of his craft.
70
Kaboom's one-liners are snappy, knowing, and unexpected.
60
While Araki has finally perfected a shoegazey visual aesthetic that's simultaneously sensual and too cool for school, it's hard not to feel that his reprise of yesterday's greatest snits borders on being stuck in a rut.
70
Kaboom does have an excellent punchline, although even at 86 minutes it feels too long-mainly because Araki can't help letting his camera linger over his performers. Hard to blame him-he's assembled the best-looking cast in town and it's largely his gaga appreciation that makes the movie so much fun.
60
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
The good-natured cast helps distract from a barely sketched plot and outrageously cheap production values.
83
Kaboom is pure fantasy in every sense of the word: It's a riff on sexy, sassy teen movies and conspiracy thrillers that at times seems to exist only so Araki can get his beautiful young cast to strip off their clothes and pair off in every conceivable combination, just as he used to do in his earlier, more scandalous films.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Araki constructs the hot-blooded Kaboom as a high-wire act without a safety net. Go with it.
60
Boxoffice Magazine by Richard Mowe
Araki's got a certain garish flare to his delivery that those more patient with the content will find appealing and Thomas Dekker offers an engaging performance.
50
Call it "The Doom Generation II." Gregg Araki's Kaboom returns to the trippy ways of his 1995 erotic head trip.