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Anna (2017)
How Can I Put This....?
My experience with watching this movie was a pretty bizarre one. It is played out like a straight up doll themed horror yet there are some scenes which have comedic elements when it comes to dialogue. It leaves me questioning whether this is a horror-comedy or not.
This is what I was thinking about the two main characters (who are friends, not brothers as the back of the DVD tells me): Imagine two people, who at times acted like they came straight out of a cartoon, taking a wrong turn and ending up in a horror film and occasionally bumble around trying to figure out what to do or how to talk their way out of crazy situations (i.e. The bar scene and the Satanic ritual scene). These two also follow the brainy friend/goofy friend schtick. Understandably, they act this way purposely as part of the plot involves stealing the doll, Anna (or Susan or Suzanna according to the paranormal museum owner) and using her to make a series of vlogs to record any paranormal behaviour she may exhibit during the week they plan to keep her for.
Now I have that off my chest, let's move onto the positives and negatives I have:
NEGATIVES: Dialogue audio at times is extremely poor and noticeable. Though there are a few scenes where it fixes itself only to go back to distortion and static feedback (there is one scene in particular where it's clear and crisp with one person talking but with another it's bad). Like what you hear during a low connection Skype call.
In the first half of the movie, there is an excessive amount of stock sound effects used to the point where it becomes increasingly annoying to hear. The biggest culprit being the same creaky door sound playing at least ten times on a loop. It does halt as the movie goes on and it then gets replaced by dubbed in heavy breathing, pants and grunts during the more suspenseful scenes.
The majority of the dialogue at times is cringe-inducing, especially during the more comedic moments.
POSITIVES: Aside from cringy delivery and poorly performed screams, the acting is so-so. The only credit I can give for a halfway decent performance is Justin Duncan who plays Jacob. There was a scene where our two leads are arguing in the middle of the street after running away from home and this was where I thought that Duncan's performance in that scene alone proved to me that if he was playing a more serious role in another movie, he would've done pretty well. The only time he really faltered were the supposedly unintentionally comedic moments in the movie. The two leads, to me, sounded like they were better off doing voice acting for an internet cartoon series since their character's personalities seemed more suited in that category.
Overall, I can say that this is all baby steps for this independent movie. Horror-comedy or not, I'm still keeping hold of my copy.
Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast (2011)
A Very Low Quality Shark Movie
This must've been the 3rd or 4th time I have seen this movie. I put this on at random to kill a bit of time. I thought 'hey, it's only 1hr 19mins, it's short and sweet'.
Yes, it is a short run time and things did zip by pretty quick. But I couldn't help but pick out and notice all the little bits of detail that makes this movie's quality low. As a fan of bad movies, I like discovering errors I didn't pick up from the first few times watching.
Here, all I noticed was the audio. The static feedback in some of the actor's dialogue is noticeable. Then there was the sound they used for the shark which sounded like a distorted man's scream. I wasn't sure if they used that for the shark or the victim it caught but it got annoying when they kept reusing it numerous times. AND I KID YOU NOT!! At one point in the movie, they used elephant noises for the shark..... ELEPHANT NOISES!!! Did they not think when seeing the final cut that using that audio was not a good idea to use for shark roars? Unless one idiot thought "elephant noises sound pretty evil, let's use that!"
Raiders of the Lost Shark (2015)
My Favourite Bad Shark Movie
I can honestly say that after watching this and Jurassic Shark, both have become my favourite bad shark movies from Brett Kelly. Raiders I would say is my favourite out of the bunch mostly because it was trying to add some silly charm to it to make it somewhat memorable - well, to me personally as I have watched it many times. Whenever I next organise another movie night with friends, I'm definitely putting these two on the list as they are short and sweet and to the point.
One story about this movie: Whilst watching, I posted a clip of recordings I took of Carly saying "Damn it, Janet!" (which by the way became a favourite joke of mine as I would always mock it). One of the first likes on that post was actually from Jessica Huether who plays May. I was very surprised by this and messaged her (confirming that it was indeed her). She was very aware that the movie had pretty bad reception and that it was her first proper movie. She was very nice and we had a good conversation about horror as both of us were fans. I asked if she was willing to work with Brett Kelly again and she said that he is one of her favourite directors to work with and says that he lets the actors do things their way instead of him telling them how to play their character the way he wanted them to.
Ever since our conversation, my opinion of this movie that I was laughing at many times completely changed. I did not look at this movie as a cheap way to make quick cash, I looked at it as a project which had a director who worked extremely well with his cast and sat back and let them act freely and I felt like most of them were having a great time filming it regardless of how poor their acting skills were. If it wasn't for Jessica Huether's words, I would've kept on bashing this movie to pieces for it's terrible overall quality. But I will still keep my low score because of that.
The King of Comedy (1982)
An insight of the "dark side" of fame
I first came across this movie when I was casually watching a Reaction & Review video of it on YouTube. It was a channel that I trusted because of the incredibly honest and serious reviews given to the movies it covers. I believed the praise given to this movie and grew curious to give it a watch. Luckily, I found a full version on YouTube.
This movie gave me an insight of the "dark side" of fame, how it affects celebrities and how their fans attempt to interact with them. It felt like an hour and forty minute long survival guide for people who want to be in showbiz (which may or may not frighten them to the point where they decide to change career paths) and a guide demonstrating how not to be an obsessed super fan and how not to get famous the illegitimate way.
It is also one of those movies where it mixes in between reality and fantasy and makes a "guessing game" out of it - if you know what I mean. Black Swan for example, sort of does the same "guessing game" technique but in this movie, it is not in the slightest bit tragic. It's similar to daydreaming about a scenario and imagining all of the things you wished had happened in real life - and becoming a Number One comedian, featuring as a guest on a popular talk show and being best friends with said talk show's popular host is one of the many examples (there are even a couple of scenes where Rupert is acting out conversations in his mind and out loud).
As a lot would point out after the first viewing, I felt a little lost halfway through up to the end, which I thought was a positive.
This movie had me thinking about all of my favourite celebrities and imagining them going through the exact same position (except getting kidnapped). Although I have never planned to do this, it has put me off the thought of hassling one of my favourite celebrities for good.
On the same day I first watched this movie, it remained stuck in my mind for hours until I forced myself to re-watch it a second time that day, and I felt glad doing so. Speaking of which, since I am writing a review of this movie, I feel like re-watching it again!!
Rayman: The Animated Series (1999)
Bringing back childhood memories
As a child, Rayman was the "must-play" game. My brother and I would play the first game on the original Playstation and Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc on the original XBox. Hoodlum Havoc will always be my favourite game to date.
I have only recently found out about the animated series and became curious to watch it. I managed to find all four episodes on YouTube.
According to Wikipedia, the show was originally going to have up to twenty episodes but it got cancelled due to poor writing and lack of funds. When I watched Episode One: LacMac Napping, I could imagine why it was the case.
Rayman was the only character I knew (I was hoping that Globox or Murfy would make an appearance but this wasn't the case, I believe they were originally going to be in the show until the cancellation) and I was unsure about the others. I believe that the characters who were unfamiliar to me were not fleshed out enough.
The animation is what you would expect from a cutscene in any Rayman game. Some scenes are dimly lit similar to some gameplay levels Rayman traverses through.
Billy West provides the voice for Rayman. West has provided voices for many famous characters such as Fry, Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth from Futurama. He also voiced Murfy in Rayman 3. I was hoping for the best but unfortunately, I think West was having problems with which accent to give Rayman. At first, it sounded similar to Sonic The Hedgehog. Then it became a slur of American, hints of New York-Italian and Bostonian.
This Rayman was the cheeky, witty, sarcastic and boisterous type. Although I prefer the mature, determined and serious Rayman from Hoodlum Havoc.
This show was obviously catered to young children (from the "Rayman era") who would less likely care about the "poor" writing, animation or Rayman's cluster of accents. Nowadays, children are mostly familiar with the Raving Rabbids series. This is also a good watch for most Rayman fans. But sadly for me, this was not up to my expectations.