Iron Man 3 Review: Is the 3rd time the charm?

Attack of the Giant Vegetable Monsters Review

The thing about the horror films of today is that it preys upon certain basic ideas we have about humanity. When you watch a horror film, particularly a scary horror film (because there are some that are not), you have to remember that what you are seeing is a reflection of us, the kinds of fears that we live with today on a daily basis. However, classic horror films tend to be about something else. They tend to be a reflection of a fear that we used to have once upon a time. A time long since passed even though there are many who lived in that time. Making movies today of those types of genre requires an understanding of that concept and the ability to carry it out. A parody can sometimes go either way. The idea can be to reflect a current fear and do it in classic horror film style to evoke the nostalgia for that era, or it can be an attempt to do the opposite and use current horror film style with a classic fear to make fun of it. Either can be pretty effective if done well.

In the case of Attack of the Giant Vegetable Monsters, I am not entirely sure which they were going for. I am not even entirely sure what it is that the fear is trying to evoke. But in classic parody format they clearly understand the film genre they are making fun of. They understand the monster movie and they understand the kind of film genre that exists out there, and often times in a parody that can be more important than anything else. Because of that, I really liked the film in question. I thought it was one of the more entertaining movies that I have seen on the site and it had some great elements.

The animation was very simple but that goes with the setting and the era they are trying to invoke. Plus the little twist at the end, which I can say I was not really expecting definitely had me liking it even more. I say check it out below or find more on Film Annex.

The Arctic Circle Review

Desire is a fundamental part of any filmmakers’ journey. Many would say that if you do not have a burning desire to be creative and make interesting film entertainment content then you probably do not have what it takes to compete with filmmakers today and should probably do something else. As with most business, the cream rises to the top and it is usually the ones who fight for it that end up getting what they want and achieving their goals. As a writer and a filmmaker myself, I understand that desire. Most people who know me would call me ambitious. But there is a downside to the desire to be a filmmaker and it may not be what you assume. Newer filmmakers today have a tendency to spell things out for the audience or hold things back. It really does not matter what types of genre you look at, they generally do one or the other. Spelling things out is bad because it makes the audience think that the film makers did not think they were smart enough to understand what was going on without every detail told to them.

Holding too much back can also be bad because it will make the audience think there should have been more to the story and the filmmaker just is not very good at telling a story. Neither could be entirely accurate, however in the world of film entertainment perception is reality. What people think you are doing is what people will assume you are doing and that can be bad if what you are doing makes the audience feel one of those two things. The Arctic Circle in a lot of ways suffers from both of these things at various points in the film, partly because it does one and then the other.

At the beginning of this film there is a clear attempt to explain the story as it goes along despite it being a film without dialogue. As a result when the film stops doing that later in the short it becomes somewhat disconcerting and you are left wondering why it did not continue. Still, one of the benefits of doing a film that is entirely silent, animated or not, is that most of the action and story happens visually. Even though it switches gears halfway through it still manages to tell a very simple and honest story about the reality of the world.

It is still worth watching. Check it out below or at Film Annex.

Biotech 8 Review

Comedy is all about trying to figure out how far you can go in my opinion. When people go to see a stand-up comic, what the audience is often looking for is someone with a great sense of timing and a feel for the crowd. They may not say it specifically, but when a comic knows how to handle the people they are talking to then modifying what they are doing to fit. A few extra words or a change in the type of words being said can mean the difference between a laugh from the crowd and dead silence.

In a lot of ways, making movies today is the same way. How you say or do something in a film is a key component of film entertainment. The wrong word or phrase from an actor, whether it is scripted or not, can completely change the way a scene is thought of from the audience perspective. This is something that you have to be aware of when making something artistic, no matter what type of film genre you are working in. An upbeat moment in a horror movie only works if you do it in the right way.

Biotech 8 has in a lot of ways failed in this respect. There is a political undertone which over powers the comedy aspect a little too much. It begins as a traditional send up of a commercial. It makes fun of the corporate structure and the way people perceive some workers, but the genetically modified aspect goes a little too far. There could be other ways to deal with that subject without going the genetically modified way.

But more than that it turns into something akin to a horror movie at around the halfway mark and then tries to dig itself out of that at the end but never manages to get there. The tone is somewhat inconsistent. The politics of the film do not mesh with the attempt at comedy, which is not to say that it is not funny. It does have some moments that someone like me who is big on politics would find funny but they don`t really translate beyond that in my opinion.

It falls flat. It is trying too hard to be a comedy to really deal with the politics of the situation of either genetically modified foods or corporate views. And it is too political and takes too much of a dark turn to be really funny.

I think the filmmaker should focus on one or the other and there is a good chance that they will succeed at one or the other, or both.

Check out more at Film Annex.