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Reviews
The Gamers (2002)
Really Good Low-Budget film!
Low-budget fun that really geeks out with the best of gamer-lore. Sure the effects are "special" (as in "short-bus special") but, really, this is a really fun film!
You can find this at most game shops. You can also find it at most conventions.
Using the word "most" should demonstrate just how popular this film is.
I would rate it higher but I'm rating it on a scale that includes mainstream films. It is better than most of them (despite being so short), though, and is worth the time ... especially if you know even a tiny bit about "Dungeons and Dragons".
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (2008)
Absolutely fantastic!
Better than the original, "the Gamers: Dorkness Rising" manages to pull off a funny comedy with good acting, fine special effects, and comedy that transcends the "gamer" knowledge-base and do so on a low budget. I've seen many low-budget films that have been terrible and almost none that have been as good as their high-budget counterparts. This film blows most mainstream movies away! Parts are a bit weak (the bit with the pirates and ninjas -while funny- goes on a bit long without explanation and takes you out of the movie for a bit) but, overall, this is a very strong film.
I'm very happy to say that I bought this film as soon as I saw it and brought it home.
Any chance we can look forward to another feature Gamers movie from these guys? :)
The Item (1999)
Trent Reznor's penis meets a grade-school Tarantino rip-off
It's pretty clear that this atrocious movie was largely trying to be an over-the-top dark comedy with plenty of Tarantino-like dialogue and characters. It sprinkled in a touch of disturbing imagry (crappy, pretentious goth art and an alien penis-creature with its eye-lids sewn shut ala "Hellraiser 2: Hellbound"), low-budget camera stock (video), ninja transvestites and tried to pull off a Sam Raimi kinda feel.
Boy, did it ever fail.
I like dark comedies and I love off-kilter, disturbing fare but -geez- this was just so unprofessional that you had to wonder why anyone watching it even cared! Clearly, the actors were having fun but none of that translated to me, watching it.
Heck, I could almost respect it for some of the nice camera angles and filming techniques but just about as I was ready to give credit where credit was due, something appallingly stupid would happen. People get shot for no reason (and I'm talking NO REASON, here ... not even within the context of the four thugs who are the centerpieces of the film), the stereotypical drag queens were -well- kinda offensive (rather than funny), the pacing seemed sporadic, the dialogue -while peppered with realistic jargon and cutesy internally-referential life-comments that made you think these characters were real people- was superficial, and the "monster" of the movie was never given any real build-up before it started messing with people's minds. Worst of all, there was no real explanation for any of it other than the director/writer/star decided to throw so much blood around that "Kill Bill, vol. 1" would look pristine and "white" by comparrison.
This is a very bad movie. Extremely bad. "Manos..." and "Invasion from Inner Earth" bad... Not "cult-classic" bad.
It's just ... plain ... bad.
Invasion from Inner Earth (1974)
My God; Mystery Science Theater 3000 ended too soon...
Ok, this goes out to my friend Lou who said, "Hey, let's rent this and see if it's really as bad as it looks".
Lou, it was worse.
Good God, I've rarely seen a piece of crap this poorly written; and what was with that ending? Without saying too much, let me comment that the psychodelic tunnel ride in "2001: A Space Odyssey" made much more sense and could even be called "coherant" by comparisson.
Basically, the story is about a guy who looks like "Shaggy" from Scooby Doo, his two friends "Ed Grimly" and "Whiney-Boy", and their hosts in a winter retreat in Manitoba (read someone's hick town in Wisconsin) as they happen to miss out on a smoke-bomb and red-flashlight invasion that eventually catches up with them anyway.
They run around in the wintery woods, get frostbite, vanish one-by-one from a mysterious disease that disintegrates their bodies. Then, the movie ends. For no aparant reason.
AAAAARRRRGH!