Dragon Fighter (2003)
REVIEW BY: Bobby Lepire
Company: UFO International
Runtime: 90 mins
Format: DVD
Plot: A secret government facility in Alaska clones a dragon, which then gets loose and wreaks havoc within the secret facility. Newly appointed security chief, David Carver, and the other personnel must fight to try to outsmart this ancient beast and stop it before it can escape out into the world.
Review: Before anything else, let’s break Dragon Fighter down to its core elements - Dean Cain (yes, Superman from ‘Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’!) fights a cloned dragon. Superman? Cloning? Dragons? Sold! Done! Movie must be awesome! And fortunately, it mostly is.
Before I oversell it, let’s get the flaws and issues out of the way. During the opening title sequence we get a prologue set in medieval England, in which some knights fight a dragon. This is the worst part of the film, and I promise it gets way better afterwards. None of the main scientists, researchers, security personnel, or Superman himself are related to any of the knights/dead villagers and kind of makes this portion a bit pointless. While there are some nice shots of the surprisingly decent-looking dragon, this robs later scenes of the movie of some weight, as a build-up to the full reveal later after it's cloned would have been more impactful. We honestly don’t need to see the dragon in action right off the bat, as we're able to believe that the scientists were able to find some dragon DNA without seeing any of this. Also, the movie’s worst special effects are here during this portion. During a cave in sequence, the falling CGI rocks look so bad it hurts a tad bit. A decade ago when the movie first came out it might not have been so noticeably bad, but for contemporary viewers, it’s an eyesore.
While there’s some great banter throughout, the expository dialogue is very matter-of-fact, feeling like a forced explanation as opposed to real world speech. This makes some of the dialogue exchanges bland and quite frankly, pretty boring,, no matter how good the cast is. Finally, there’s one scene where the editing is too frenzied and spliced up, making things disorienting for no real reason. Trying to escape the not-yet fully grown dragon, our cast is hiding in an elevator and the dragon manages to damage the electric circuit the elevator was connected to, causing the lights in there to flash on and off like a poorly done horror trailer. Nine out of ten times, this way of editing only serves to undercut the very thing the filmmakers wanted to achieve by using it- tension. By being able to cut to any random section of the blacked out area when the lights go down, it creates a ‘boo scare’, which is always the lazy route to go and is rarely effective. Luckily, it’s just the elevator sequence that does this, and it doesn’t last too long.
Now onto the good stuff: Dean Cain plays helicopter pilot/newly hired security chief Captain David Carver, and he brings quite a bit of easy-going charm to the role. He’s easily relatable and likeable from the get-go. When things get crazy, which is fairly early on, he just gets angry at the dragon and the gruffness is also quite believable. The script is a big help here as Capt. Carver is always the smartest person in the room; His intellect is showcased early on in a great bit of Holmesian deductive reasoning, by examining “what’s not on his manifest”. Within one minute of the audience meeting him, he knows about the cloning and that it’s a new specimen being brought to the facility. The scientists are led to believe it’s a dinosaur of some sort, but Carver swiftly figures out it’s a dragon. Having a genuinely intelligent lead makes for a fun hero to root for.
Kristine Byers plays Dr. Meredith Winter, a ‘cloner’, as Carver calls her. Byers is somewhat believable, and plays it straight, even though she has the most ridiculous, goofy dialogue of the entire movie. She is the requisite love interest, but it actually kind of works here. She and Cain have a good rapport and chemistry. As a hobby, she’s an amateur pilot (because, well, of course she is!). Robert Zachar plays the mad scientist that cons everyone else into cloning the dragon, Dr. Ian Drackovitch (yes, ‘Dracko’-vitch - Dragon is in his name! Hilariously awesome!) Zachar is good and clearly having fun, which is nice, but the character never comes off as all that menacing. Considering the amount of screen time and his importance to the plot, Drackovitch’s characterization amounts to nothing more than ‘evil scientist’. A twist involving him and the dragons falls 100% flat, due to no build-up or exploration afterwards. Still, Zachar is fun here, and that definitely livens up the movie at times.
The rest of the cast is solid, with no stand-outs other then Dean Cain, but no one is particularly bad either. Aside from Carver and Winter, all the characters are broad stereotypes, but this works fairly well in this movie, because this is a movie where people fight a cloned dragon, I don’t want or need a lengthy backstory for each person. To help with that though, when we are introduced to each character, a military dossier file pops up and gives us all the pertinent information that we would need to know on them. While cheesy, it adds to the fun of the film and does make each character a bit more distinctive.
Director/co-writer Phillip J. Roth employs a lot of style and starts the action early, keeping it coming at a brisk pace. The most effective tool he uses is a split screen method. Implemented throughout, he shows us the master wide shot, then splits it into smaller compartments to show close-ups of the people’s reactions, as well as the action that is still going on. I have seen so many movies, big budget or otherwise, completely misuse split screen, turning it into a laughable gimmick (*cough* X-Men: First Class *cough*), but that does not happen here. It effectively shows us everything we need to see and know about the action taking place, without cutting away. Therefore the audience is fully immersed into the intense situations and action. Thankfully, it never becomes old hat or boring.
Along those same lines, it’s time to talk about the things on everyone’s mind about this movie - How does the dragon look? Is there a lot of the dragon? Is the action fun? The dragon, in terms of design, looks like a typical classic European dragon. Nothing special or inventive about the design here, but on the other hand the actual CGI itself of the dragon is pretty good. Mind you, this movie is a decade old now, but for the most part the dragon effects surprisingly still hold up pretty well. This is especially an excellent thing, as we get lots of long looks at the dragon during different age cycles, seeing it rapidly grow and mature.
The action scenes as well are well-executed, though a bit typical of made-for-TV movies that were made around the same time and in the same vein (the awesome split screen usage excluded). My personal favorite of the action set pieces in the facility is a cat-and-mouse hunting game, that comes right after the dragon escapes its holding cell. The dragon goes into a long corridor, where Capt. Carver and the animal wrangler follow him. Going from one end to the other, they don’t see it, but on their way back the dragon drops from the ceiling and kills the animal wrangler. It’s a nice introduction to the dragon’s tactics, and the best thing about the action is the movie’s willingness to kill characters off - Seriously, the dragon racks up quite a body count, which does give the whole shebang more of an edge that it might not have otherwise. The best action scene though is clearly the big finale: The now fully-grown dragon is chasing our survivors through the sky n a helicopter and the aerial battle eventually involves fighter jets, and the whole sequence is just an absolute blast to watch.
If you can get through the terrible prologue and can overlook some one-note characters and occasional bland dialogue, then you’ll find a fun, stylish, action/fasntasy/sci-fi film in which Superman fights a dragon! This is a fun B-Movie, with a solid cast, and would be ripe for some solid MST3K-style commentary.
7/10 rooms in the Psych Ward
Company: UFO International
Runtime: 90 mins
Format: DVD
Plot: A secret government facility in Alaska clones a dragon, which then gets loose and wreaks havoc within the secret facility. Newly appointed security chief, David Carver, and the other personnel must fight to try to outsmart this ancient beast and stop it before it can escape out into the world.
Review: Before anything else, let’s break Dragon Fighter down to its core elements - Dean Cain (yes, Superman from ‘Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’!) fights a cloned dragon. Superman? Cloning? Dragons? Sold! Done! Movie must be awesome! And fortunately, it mostly is.
Before I oversell it, let’s get the flaws and issues out of the way. During the opening title sequence we get a prologue set in medieval England, in which some knights fight a dragon. This is the worst part of the film, and I promise it gets way better afterwards. None of the main scientists, researchers, security personnel, or Superman himself are related to any of the knights/dead villagers and kind of makes this portion a bit pointless. While there are some nice shots of the surprisingly decent-looking dragon, this robs later scenes of the movie of some weight, as a build-up to the full reveal later after it's cloned would have been more impactful. We honestly don’t need to see the dragon in action right off the bat, as we're able to believe that the scientists were able to find some dragon DNA without seeing any of this. Also, the movie’s worst special effects are here during this portion. During a cave in sequence, the falling CGI rocks look so bad it hurts a tad bit. A decade ago when the movie first came out it might not have been so noticeably bad, but for contemporary viewers, it’s an eyesore.
While there’s some great banter throughout, the expository dialogue is very matter-of-fact, feeling like a forced explanation as opposed to real world speech. This makes some of the dialogue exchanges bland and quite frankly, pretty boring,, no matter how good the cast is. Finally, there’s one scene where the editing is too frenzied and spliced up, making things disorienting for no real reason. Trying to escape the not-yet fully grown dragon, our cast is hiding in an elevator and the dragon manages to damage the electric circuit the elevator was connected to, causing the lights in there to flash on and off like a poorly done horror trailer. Nine out of ten times, this way of editing only serves to undercut the very thing the filmmakers wanted to achieve by using it- tension. By being able to cut to any random section of the blacked out area when the lights go down, it creates a ‘boo scare’, which is always the lazy route to go and is rarely effective. Luckily, it’s just the elevator sequence that does this, and it doesn’t last too long.
Now onto the good stuff: Dean Cain plays helicopter pilot/newly hired security chief Captain David Carver, and he brings quite a bit of easy-going charm to the role. He’s easily relatable and likeable from the get-go. When things get crazy, which is fairly early on, he just gets angry at the dragon and the gruffness is also quite believable. The script is a big help here as Capt. Carver is always the smartest person in the room; His intellect is showcased early on in a great bit of Holmesian deductive reasoning, by examining “what’s not on his manifest”. Within one minute of the audience meeting him, he knows about the cloning and that it’s a new specimen being brought to the facility. The scientists are led to believe it’s a dinosaur of some sort, but Carver swiftly figures out it’s a dragon. Having a genuinely intelligent lead makes for a fun hero to root for.
Kristine Byers plays Dr. Meredith Winter, a ‘cloner’, as Carver calls her. Byers is somewhat believable, and plays it straight, even though she has the most ridiculous, goofy dialogue of the entire movie. She is the requisite love interest, but it actually kind of works here. She and Cain have a good rapport and chemistry. As a hobby, she’s an amateur pilot (because, well, of course she is!). Robert Zachar plays the mad scientist that cons everyone else into cloning the dragon, Dr. Ian Drackovitch (yes, ‘Dracko’-vitch - Dragon is in his name! Hilariously awesome!) Zachar is good and clearly having fun, which is nice, but the character never comes off as all that menacing. Considering the amount of screen time and his importance to the plot, Drackovitch’s characterization amounts to nothing more than ‘evil scientist’. A twist involving him and the dragons falls 100% flat, due to no build-up or exploration afterwards. Still, Zachar is fun here, and that definitely livens up the movie at times.
The rest of the cast is solid, with no stand-outs other then Dean Cain, but no one is particularly bad either. Aside from Carver and Winter, all the characters are broad stereotypes, but this works fairly well in this movie, because this is a movie where people fight a cloned dragon, I don’t want or need a lengthy backstory for each person. To help with that though, when we are introduced to each character, a military dossier file pops up and gives us all the pertinent information that we would need to know on them. While cheesy, it adds to the fun of the film and does make each character a bit more distinctive.
Director/co-writer Phillip J. Roth employs a lot of style and starts the action early, keeping it coming at a brisk pace. The most effective tool he uses is a split screen method. Implemented throughout, he shows us the master wide shot, then splits it into smaller compartments to show close-ups of the people’s reactions, as well as the action that is still going on. I have seen so many movies, big budget or otherwise, completely misuse split screen, turning it into a laughable gimmick (*cough* X-Men: First Class *cough*), but that does not happen here. It effectively shows us everything we need to see and know about the action taking place, without cutting away. Therefore the audience is fully immersed into the intense situations and action. Thankfully, it never becomes old hat or boring.
Along those same lines, it’s time to talk about the things on everyone’s mind about this movie - How does the dragon look? Is there a lot of the dragon? Is the action fun? The dragon, in terms of design, looks like a typical classic European dragon. Nothing special or inventive about the design here, but on the other hand the actual CGI itself of the dragon is pretty good. Mind you, this movie is a decade old now, but for the most part the dragon effects surprisingly still hold up pretty well. This is especially an excellent thing, as we get lots of long looks at the dragon during different age cycles, seeing it rapidly grow and mature.
The action scenes as well are well-executed, though a bit typical of made-for-TV movies that were made around the same time and in the same vein (the awesome split screen usage excluded). My personal favorite of the action set pieces in the facility is a cat-and-mouse hunting game, that comes right after the dragon escapes its holding cell. The dragon goes into a long corridor, where Capt. Carver and the animal wrangler follow him. Going from one end to the other, they don’t see it, but on their way back the dragon drops from the ceiling and kills the animal wrangler. It’s a nice introduction to the dragon’s tactics, and the best thing about the action is the movie’s willingness to kill characters off - Seriously, the dragon racks up quite a body count, which does give the whole shebang more of an edge that it might not have otherwise. The best action scene though is clearly the big finale: The now fully-grown dragon is chasing our survivors through the sky n a helicopter and the aerial battle eventually involves fighter jets, and the whole sequence is just an absolute blast to watch.
If you can get through the terrible prologue and can overlook some one-note characters and occasional bland dialogue, then you’ll find a fun, stylish, action/fasntasy/sci-fi film in which Superman fights a dragon! This is a fun B-Movie, with a solid cast, and would be ripe for some solid MST3K-style commentary.
7/10 rooms in the Psych Ward
It Came From Another World! (2007)
REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long
I already discussed at length in my review of The Monster of Phantom Lake just what kind of approach is taken with these movies and what kind of angle Christopher R. Mihm hopes to achieve, so if this is your first foray into that world then I suggest going and reading the first little bit of that review before reading this one, just to get a better understanding of what exactly these movies are trying to accomplish. This time, with It Came From Another World! we move away from the mutant lake monster genre of the first movie and right toward a more Global plight – alien invasion!
Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures
Runtime: 93 mins
Format: DVD
Plot: When Professor Jackson's colleague and best friend, Dr. Frasier, doesn't return from a scientific expedition in the deep woods, the Professor is sent to find and retrieve him. While searching, the Professor and Canoe Cops Sven and Gustav stumble upon an enigmatic meteorite that may hold the answer to Dr. Frasier's disappearance — and something far more cataclysmic than they could ever imagine!
Review: I recently watched The Monster of Phantom Lake, the very first movie in the Mihmiverse – a series of micro-budget tongue-in-cheek movies made as parody homages to the classic 1950s era campy Drive-In B-Movies, where the creator Christopher R. Mihm makes a new one of every year. Even though each movie acts as kind of its own separate stand alone movie, there arerecurring characters that pop in and out of them occasionally, with small dialog references to previous movies once in a while, so it's because of that fact that I've decided to watch all of them in the order that they were released, although (from my understanding) that's not a Must and you are able to view them in any order you can manage to get your hands on them in. So the next movie up for me to watch and review in the Mihmiverse is It Came From Another World!
Runtime: 93 mins
Format: DVD
Plot: When Professor Jackson's colleague and best friend, Dr. Frasier, doesn't return from a scientific expedition in the deep woods, the Professor is sent to find and retrieve him. While searching, the Professor and Canoe Cops Sven and Gustav stumble upon an enigmatic meteorite that may hold the answer to Dr. Frasier's disappearance — and something far more cataclysmic than they could ever imagine!
Review: I recently watched The Monster of Phantom Lake, the very first movie in the Mihmiverse – a series of micro-budget tongue-in-cheek movies made as parody homages to the classic 1950s era campy Drive-In B-Movies, where the creator Christopher R. Mihm makes a new one of every year. Even though each movie acts as kind of its own separate stand alone movie, there arerecurring characters that pop in and out of them occasionally, with small dialog references to previous movies once in a while, so it's because of that fact that I've decided to watch all of them in the order that they were released, although (from my understanding) that's not a Must and you are able to view them in any order you can manage to get your hands on them in. So the next movie up for me to watch and review in the Mihmiverse is It Came From Another World!
I already discussed at length in my review of The Monster of Phantom Lake just what kind of approach is taken with these movies and what kind of angle Christopher R. Mihm hopes to achieve, so if this is your first foray into that world then I suggest going and reading the first little bit of that review before reading this one, just to get a better understanding of what exactly these movies are trying to accomplish. This time, with It Came From Another World! we move away from the mutant lake monster genre of the first movie and right toward a more Global plight – alien invasion!
Rock And Roll-loving, pipe-smoking, Professor Jackson from The Monster of Phantom Lake returns here, searching for his friend and colleague, Dr. Frank Frasier, who has gone missing while investigating a crashed meteorite in the forest (the same forest as The Monster of Phantom Lake, I believe! Which being back in such a familiar location actually kind of had me longing for a sequel to that movie at some point down the road). Unfortunately his lovestruck student who he ended up in a romantic relationship with by the end of the previous movie is nowhere to be found here, and in her place we have another woman who Professor Jackson is actually set to marry, although it's implied that she's also a student of his so not sure why they didn't just go with the other character from the previous movie that we're already familiar with, since this one is essentially just a far less interesting carbon copy. Even if they couldn't get the actress back, they could have had a different person playing that character - after all, they have the same actors playing multiple characters from movie to movie, so having two actors playing the same character isn't that much of a stretch.
In addition to Professor Jackson, we also have the two hilarious and always-awesome cops return from the previous movie - ya know, the ones that prefer to paddle in a canoe to get around instead of using a squad car? With the excellent Abbott and Costello style chemistry with one another? That totally stole the show in the first movie despite only being in two scenes? Yeah, those fine fellas! Although no explanation is given as to how they survived their apparent deaths in the previous movie, especially since that one ended with the implication that one of them had mutated into a new algae monster, but hey – no complaints here! I love them so much, I'm just glad they're back! In this outing they team up with Professor Jackson to scour the remote woods for the missing Dr. Frasier and together they all end up finding the crashed meteorite as well as a strange-acting Dr. Frasier with some memory loss and, once back in the city and trying to readjust to normal life, occasional blackouts. It's not long after that, that they discover the truth – Dr. Fraiser has been taken over by an extraterrestrial entity that came to Earth in that meteorite and plans to first overtake Dr. Fraiser's body, and then the world! This of course means more screen time for the Canoe Cops then they had in the first movie, which is always a great thing in my books! The more of these two, the better! There's also a hilarious cameo by the surviving nerdy loner teen of the first movie, during one of the scenes of Dr. Fraiser's alien entity-induced blackouts.
While the first movie was already a pretty damn good parody of the campy 1950s Drive-In B-Movies, this one does so even more successfully, right from the in-your-face eye-catchy title all the way to some of the hilarious scenes that could have easily been lifted from any straight-faced movie of that era but done to comedic perfection here, such as when Dr. Frasier is writing in his journal when he witnesses the meteorite crash and insists on writing about it excitably before actually getting up to go investigate, or Professor Jackson's basement laboratory that I'm sure would have looked high-tech for the time but was purposely made to look cheap and bad here, complete with all the dials, nodes, cardboard, tinfoil, and antennas you would expect. Oh, and of course the deep-voiced, Joker-smiling, eye-bulging evil alter ego of Dr. Frasier when the alien entity is in command of his body – you seriously can't get any campier then that, even if you tried! Well, except for maybe the final climatic fight between Professor Jackson, with the help of the Canoe Cops, and Alien Warlord Dr. Fraiser, complete with some awesomely-placed famous Star Trek dialog at the end.
I also felt this movie improved on the first in the area of its runtime. Sure, it's still a tad bit too long for its own good (only a couple minutes shorter then the first and still longer then the average Drive-In B-Movie of the era), but unlike The Monster of Phantom Lake where the algae monster didn't even show up until an hour into it, with very little before that having anything to even do with it, this movie uses each and every scene to intelligently keep moving the main plot forward so there wasn't really any place for unneeded filler scenes that would just drag the movie down, and thus even though the movie is only a couple minutes shorter then the first, it feels like it goes by at a much quicker pace.
Where this movie didn't improve though, is with the character of Doctor Jackson himself and his very grating purposely-bad William Shatner impersonation. I get it was meant to be part of the joke, especially with his jerking head movements factored in, but it only came across as annoying and I was pretty much done with it before the first scene of him was over. Now, it was present in the first movie as well, but it wasn't done nearly to the level that it is here, making what was bearable and even kind of funny when done in moderation there, just annoying and headache-induing when cranked to the max this go-around. Also missing was his hilarious awkward chemistry with his female companion. As mentioned above, the presence of the main female character from Monster of Phantom Lake was greatly missed here, and having her replacement character just be bland and boring only added to the effect of her absence.
As mentioned in my review of the first movie, these self-produced DVD discs are stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content, which is quite surprising seeing as how these are not only micro-budget, largely fan-funded titles, but the overall price for each DVD is so cheap that it blows my mind we get so much with them! This go-around we have the usual introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis (which I personally could do without, but I know there are lots of people out there that love that sort of thing), two Blooper Reels (one of which is just about 15 minutes long and the other, while shorter, deals strictly with just all the issues they had with the props for the bulging eyeballs), two Deleted Scenes, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, and of course the full length Audio Commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and lead actor Josh Craig. You certainly get a good amount of bang for your buck with this, although it would have also been nice to have the actor who played Dr. Fraiser on the commentary as well, only because he did such a phenomenal job in this movie with playing duel characters, it would have been great to have some of his input as well. That's of course in noway a detractor to the set though, just a personal wish is all.
As mentioned in my review of the first movie, these self-produced DVD discs are stacked right up with tons of excellent bonus content, which is quite surprising seeing as how these are not only micro-budget, largely fan-funded titles, but the overall price for each DVD is so cheap that it blows my mind we get so much with them! This go-around we have the usual introduction to the film by Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis (which I personally could do without, but I know there are lots of people out there that love that sort of thing), two Blooper Reels (one of which is just about 15 minutes long and the other, while shorter, deals strictly with just all the issues they had with the props for the bulging eyeballs), two Deleted Scenes, a Photo Gallery of tons of Behind-the-Scenes photos, and of course the full length Audio Commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and lead actor Josh Craig. You certainly get a good amount of bang for your buck with this, although it would have also been nice to have the actor who played Dr. Fraiser on the commentary as well, only because he did such a phenomenal job in this movie with playing duel characters, it would have been great to have some of his input as well. That's of course in noway a detractor to the set though, just a personal wish is all.
There are a few personal quirks in this entry that annoyed me greatly, but the amount that it does right vastly outnumbers those, and it even manages to improve over the first movie in a couple key areas, making this the...logical...next step of evolution for the Mihmiverse movies. If they continue this trend, then the next movie, Cave Women of Mars, should totally blow me away and get a perfect score. Add to that even slightly more bonus features then The Monster of Phantom Lake had, and it's a pretty safe assumption to make that It Came From Another World! was a nice step up for me from the already-good package that was the first movie.
Seeing as how 99% of the advertising for this guy and his movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, then be sure to get the word out there on these movies and hopefully we can snag in a few other fans that may not even realize these exist. You can order these on DVD (and even BluRay for the latest couple!) over at his official site which is filled with all sorts of other goodies as well (including a monthly newsletter in addition to a very laid back, yet informative, podcast). Hell, there's even an excellent deal on right now – Buy Three Movies, Get One Free, which seeing as how there's currently eight of these titles, if you do that twice then that is the perfect way to catch up with all of them and in the end save some dough – that's how I did it!
8/10 rooms in the Psych Ward
The Monster of Phantom Lake (2006)
REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long
Another trend I'm glad this one decided to buck instead of follow, is the extremely annoying one that micro-budget filmmakers feel the need to almost always follow – since their movie is made on a miniscule budget they try to make up for that by having buckets upon buckets of very cheap and brightly-colored blood and gore. Now, I love gore as much as the next horror hound, but a lot of these micro-budget projects go so far with it that it just makes the movie uncomfortable to watch. That was my one hesitation about checking this out, because that seemed to be the only experience I ever have with watching these kinds of micro-budget projects, but I'm happy to report that Christopher R. Mihm does not go that cheap route and, again, much like you would expect from an authentic 50s B-movie, the movie is quite tame and goreless.
Company: Saint Euphoria Pictures
Runtime: 97 mins
Format: DVD
Plot: Proud scientist Professor Jackson, his graduate student, and five swell teenagers out on a camping trip discover the terrifying effects of "Atomic Waste" in the form of a "shell-shocked" World War II soldier that has been horribly mutated into a lake-algae monster.
Review: I've seen many of my B-Movie reviewing peers talk about a micro-budget filmmaker in recent years named Christopher R. Mihm and his series of micro-budget B-movie films (one a year) dubbed the Mihmiverse movies, and I've seen all of them talk pretty damn highly of the guy and his work, so after awhile it became obvious that I was missing out by not having seen any, so I ordered all of them online and chose The Monster of Phantom Lake to review first, mainly because it's also Christopher R. Mihm's very first entry in his 'Mihmiverse' series of films.
Runtime: 97 mins
Format: DVD
Plot: Proud scientist Professor Jackson, his graduate student, and five swell teenagers out on a camping trip discover the terrifying effects of "Atomic Waste" in the form of a "shell-shocked" World War II soldier that has been horribly mutated into a lake-algae monster.
Review: I've seen many of my B-Movie reviewing peers talk about a micro-budget filmmaker in recent years named Christopher R. Mihm and his series of micro-budget B-movie films (one a year) dubbed the Mihmiverse movies, and I've seen all of them talk pretty damn highly of the guy and his work, so after awhile it became obvious that I was missing out by not having seen any, so I ordered all of them online and chose The Monster of Phantom Lake to review first, mainly because it's also Christopher R. Mihm's very first entry in his 'Mihmiverse' series of films.
Now, a movie like The Monster of Phantom Lake (or really, any movie in the Mihmiverse film line) isn't made to be aimed at the average Joe Schmoe movie watcher off the street. Movies like these are made to appeal to a very niche audience – it has a micro budget (less then $3000, I heard), filmed in black and white, and has no special effects to speak of, with just a super low-budget (intentionally!) crappy monster suit. In other words, The Monster of Phantom Lake is the perfect homage throw back for those who grew up with, or at the very least have love for, classic 1950s-era Drive-In B-Movie monster flicks. Hell, the way the characters dress, the way they talk and act, and even the background musical score – it all goes a long way to making this feel like an authentic campy 1950s B-Movie. The only 'detractor' to this illusion is the filming style itself, which is very modern and slick and looking almost like it was shot in HD – however, while that may take you out of the otherwise-authentic 1950s feel, I still personally loved it because, well, I love being able to get a good look at everything on the screen that I'm watching! I don't need fake 'added-in-post' film grain, screen scratches, and blips to be sold on this kind of gimmick. That was fine for the Grindhouse flicks, but it got annoying really quickly when every other low budget filmmaker tried to get in on that and just copied their style, so it's refreshing that this opted to not follow that trend.
Another trend I'm glad this one decided to buck instead of follow, is the extremely annoying one that micro-budget filmmakers feel the need to almost always follow – since their movie is made on a miniscule budget they try to make up for that by having buckets upon buckets of very cheap and brightly-colored blood and gore. Now, I love gore as much as the next horror hound, but a lot of these micro-budget projects go so far with it that it just makes the movie uncomfortable to watch. That was my one hesitation about checking this out, because that seemed to be the only experience I ever have with watching these kinds of micro-budget projects, but I'm happy to report that Christopher R. Mihm does not go that cheap route and, again, much like you would expect from an authentic 50s B-movie, the movie is quite tame and goreless.
As for the story, which you have probably gathered for yourself by now, it's quite a very basic, simple, and straight forward one. Atomic waste (and we know its as such because it says right on the side of the barrels!) gets illegally dumped in a small town's resident lake, which leads to the creation of a mutant algae monster that stalks the nearby forested area, which of course is also currently occupied by some camping teens as well as a working scientist and one of his university undergrad students.
This scientist is the Rock And Roll-loving Professor Jackson. His awkward chemistry and hilariously oblivious innuendos with his lovestruck female student that's accompanied him on this outing made for quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, and together they were the perfect character pairing. There was also a running gag of a couple small town cops using a canoe to get around as opposed to the usual squad car method, and while they may not have been main characters (they actually were only in two scenes, I believe), they still managed to steal the show every time they were on the screen. They also had great chemistry together, with one being the crude idiot and the other being the older, wiser, more polite persona...but not so polite that he would shy away from telling the other one when he was being an idiot. As for the group of camping teens, they consisted of the nice, normal, girl next door character, her friend the party-pooper loner nerd that was pretty much forced to go on this camping trip, a bitchier, slightly mean, girl, and two horndog guys who are the boyfriends of two of those women. Nothing to really write home about with these teens, but each of them had their own specific personality trait that they embodied pretty well, and they were all likable to some degree and fun to watch (one of them even had me a bit surprised and sad to see them go), but make no mistake – they were essentially all just here to create a body count for the movie...as camping party-loving teens normally are in movies like this.
As mentioned above, there's no blood or guts to be found in this movie, which while that made me quite relieved the one downside to that is that all the death scenes happen off-screen, which kind of make for some dull encounters with the monster. Hopefully in the future movies that I have yet to watch he somehow finds a balance between not showing gore but also still showing some on-screen death scenes as well.
As mentioned above, there's no blood or guts to be found in this movie, which while that made me quite relieved the one downside to that is that all the death scenes happen off-screen, which kind of make for some dull encounters with the monster. Hopefully in the future movies that I have yet to watch he somehow finds a balance between not showing gore but also still showing some on-screen death scenes as well.
My big issue though is that the runtime does go for a bit too long. Movies of this ilk back in the day used to run about an hour, slightly more in some cases, but this one is just shy of one hour and forty minutes, which is about half an hour too long for such a project. It causes large sections of the movie to drag quite a bit, and it probably could have benefited from a shorter runtime and tighter pace to be fully 100% effective. Hell, the paper mache/man-in-costume monster itself doesn't even show up to start stalking and terrorizing our characters until around the hour mark, with hardly even a mention of it being in the movie at all before that. Also, I know the bad over-acting was done deliberately and that's part of the joke of the movie, and while it didn't bother me the majority of the time, there were scenes and moments that seemed to hammer the joke home just a bit too much and it came across as unnecessary and annoying at points, like a joke that's initially funny as its being told...until the person telling it just keeps going on and on and on with it. It's also possible that it's just that some actors were a lot better at pulling that kind of tongue-in-cheek acting off while others were not, making their moments that much harder to sit through. Again, this could also have been an issue fixed by a tighter pace as it would have made said scenes shorter and thus not quite so grating.
I normally don't talk about DVD special features in my reviews, but I feel this needs to be a rare exception simply because for such a low-budget company (I believe they rely on donations and kickstarter campaigns to fund their movies), they offer quite a decent amount of bonus content for their fans – way more then the average big budget Hollywood theatrical movie does these days, that's for damn sure. We have an introduction to the movie by famous Horror Host Dr. Ivan Cryptosis which continues with the 1950s gimmick of the movie itself, one deleted scene that has Professor Jackson's student bonding with the nerdy loner teen over an embarrassing story that happened to her as a kid, two genuinely hilarious and fun 15-minute long blooper reels of the cast and crew screwing up and just goofing around on set that had me in stiches, and an in-depth informative audio commentary by Christopher R. Mihm and Josh Craig, the actor who portrayed Professor Jackson. Judging by what I've gleamed from looking at the back of each movie, this is the one movie in the catalog with the least amount of features, so be prepared for even more with some of those other titles.
At the end of the day, I do believe the movie could have benefited from a shorter runtime and tighter narrative, for if you're not accustomed to this style of movie then you may find yourself getting bored before anything significant really happens in it, in addition to getting worn out on some of the more annoying bits of over-acting. Despite those things though, The Monster of Phantom Lake was a pretty damn good throwback to the 1950s-era of low budget cheesy Drive-In flicks, and a great start to what seems to have become a long-lasting career of making other similar-themed movies for director/writer/producer/editor/everything else-er Christopher R. Mihm. Add to that the excellent array of features on the DVD, and you really can't go wrong with this if you're a fan of the era and genre that he's going for.
Seeing as how 99% of the advertising for this guy and his movies come from simple word of mouth from the fans, then be sure to get the word out there on these movies and hopefully we can snag in a few other fans that may not even realize these exist. You can order these on DVD (and even BluRay for the latest couple!) over at his official site which is filled with all sorts of other goodies as well (including a monthly newsletter in addition to a very laid back, yet informative, podcast). Hell, there's even an excellent deal on right now – Buy Three Movies, Get One Free, which seeing as how there's currently eight of these titles, if you do that twice then that is the perfect way to catch up with all of them and in the end save some dough – that's how I did it!
7/10 rooms in the Psych Ward
Europa Report (2013)
REVIEW BY: Jeffrey Long
Company: Outpost Studios
Runtime: 90 mins
Format: Itunes
Plot: An international crew of astronauts undertake a privately-funded groundbreaking mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon, Europa.
Review: Europa Report was one of those movies I had heard of and knew about the existence of, but other then it's title and very basic premise, I stayed away from any other word on it because it felt to me like one of those movies that the least you know about it going in, the better it will be.
As for it's plot, anybody familiar with the classic sci-fi novel 2010: Odyssey Two (sequel to the even more classic 2001: A Space Odyssey), will already be pretty familiar with it. In that novel (not the movie adaptation of it, since that left this part out) there's one chapter that talks about Chinese astronauts landing on one of the moons of Jupiter, the ice-covered moon Europa, to search for fresh flowing water to convert into fuel or some such (memory is shaky on that, at best) and of course things go very very wrong, they run afoul of some major issues, and get attacked by a pretty creepy unexpected assailant that had been dormant in the ice. Now I wouldn't go so far as to say that this movie is a full-on adaptation of that chapter of the book, but I will say that at the very least it was heavily inspired by it as there are quite a large number of similarities. Suffice to say, if you enjoyed that said chapter in 2010: Odyssey Two, then you'll more then likely enjoy Europa Report. Another, much quicker way to describe this movie could also be to simply say that it's the 2012 found footage space horror movie Apollo 18, but actually done right.
Company: Outpost Studios
Runtime: 90 mins
Format: Itunes
Plot: An international crew of astronauts undertake a privately-funded groundbreaking mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon, Europa.
Review: Europa Report was one of those movies I had heard of and knew about the existence of, but other then it's title and very basic premise, I stayed away from any other word on it because it felt to me like one of those movies that the least you know about it going in, the better it will be.
As for it's plot, anybody familiar with the classic sci-fi novel 2010: Odyssey Two (sequel to the even more classic 2001: A Space Odyssey), will already be pretty familiar with it. In that novel (not the movie adaptation of it, since that left this part out) there's one chapter that talks about Chinese astronauts landing on one of the moons of Jupiter, the ice-covered moon Europa, to search for fresh flowing water to convert into fuel or some such (memory is shaky on that, at best) and of course things go very very wrong, they run afoul of some major issues, and get attacked by a pretty creepy unexpected assailant that had been dormant in the ice. Now I wouldn't go so far as to say that this movie is a full-on adaptation of that chapter of the book, but I will say that at the very least it was heavily inspired by it as there are quite a large number of similarities. Suffice to say, if you enjoyed that said chapter in 2010: Odyssey Two, then you'll more then likely enjoy Europa Report. Another, much quicker way to describe this movie could also be to simply say that it's the 2012 found footage space horror movie Apollo 18, but actually done right.
Just like Apollo 18, Europa Report is also shot in the 'Found Footage' style of filmmaking that we here at Watching Full Movie Online Free tend to love when done right (something that Apollo 18 most certainly was not). This is a movie, especially due to its low budget, that actually benefited quite well from this style; From the tightly claustrophobic but bright confines of the spaceship interiors to the vastly beautiful but shadowed icy Europa landscape, the 'from the camera' perspective really helps aid in making you feel like you're there, exploring with these characters, every step of the way. It also helps that the camera perspective angle, similar to another recent found footage movie The Bay, comes from multiple different sources and isn't just from one hand-held shaky home video camera. With this being the first attempt to send humans into deep space, there's stationary cameras positioned all over the interior as well as exterior of the ship itself, in addition to helmet cams in the spacesuits - after all, they would want everything on such a momentous mission to be recorded and meticulously documented, so it actually makes sense for this movie to be from that kind of P.O.V. Also, again much like in The Bay, the movie itself plays more like a fictional documentary on this mysterious and unexplainable event, with the footage that makes up the 'found footage' part of the narrative being shown throughout this documentary as part of that, mixed in alongside other documentary tropes such as Talking Head interviews, dramatic background music, news footage, and some overlaid narrations. The only thing I don't really like about this approach, is that it very often takes you out of the moment in the actual found footage, after it worked so hard to draw you in, to cut to more of the documentary stuff like the Talking Head interviews and news footage, thus loosing much of the impact that the tension-filled and atmospheric found footage parts would have otherwise had.
Now, I'm no scientist or space travel expert by any means, but continuing on with the realistic way that the found footage approach was incorporated, it also seemed to me like a hell of a lot of thought and extra effort went into this movie to make it as scientifically accurate as possible when it came to the technology, the space flight, and how certain things worked in space and on Europa - all those kinds of finer details seemed quite meticulous and realistic, which if that was indeed the case, then hats off to the makers for going that extra mile. Usually when a movie focuses so much on being scientifically accurate it kind of forgets that it needs to be enjoyable as well, but this one I felt was the perfect mix of the two, which only added to the realism.
Starring in this little sci-fi/thriller, we have Embeth Davidtz, who played the medieval hottie love interest from Army of Darkness, as the lead scientist on Earth in charge of this privately-funded program and is the source of the main Talking Head interview that the movie keeps cutting to, in addition to Dan Fogler playing another respected head scientist, which is certainly coming a long way from his hilariously role of the immature Hutch on Fanboys. Moving onto the main crew of the deep space mission, we have Michael Nyqvist, who is most famous for playing Mikael Blomkvist in the original Swedish version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Sharlto Copley from the excellent low budget District 9, and Karolina Wydra who played a recurring guest star on the TV shows House and True Blood. There are a few others on the space crew, but that covers all the people that the average viewer would probably recognize and know.
As for those members of the space crew, drifting through the empty void of space for a couple years while they traveled, stuck in such a small and confined ship, it was great (and again, realistic) seeing their mental states slowly deteriorate even before they reach their destination of Europa. Actually, by the point we're first introduced to them at the start of the movie, they're all already at various points down the slope of depression and having tensions growing between them, due to their tight confines and total isolation from society, nay from Earth, for so long. We do end up going back and forth several times during the movie, so we get bits and pieces at a time as to how the events leading up to this point, but it was still a different and quite effective way to start the movie off and introduce us to our main cast.
Some could also complain (and they wouldn't really be wrong) that the movie has a very slow build and thus, could be perceived as boring. I can totally see that, however I didn't personally find that it affected me in that way at all. To me, it uses that slow build masterfully in order to let us grow accustomed to these characters and build an underlying tension that you almost don't even realize is being built until you get to a point where it starts coming to the forefront more. Make no mistake, this movie is very much a sci-fi-set character study first, watching the effects that being trapped on a small ship out in space for years, so far away from home and only with the same few people around, has on a person, and then the movie is everything else second, so don't go into it expecting some non-stop flashy blood and gore horror flick because this could not be the further from that. In addition to watching how these characters interact and deal with the day to day life in such a situation, the growing and continuous sense of awe and discovery throughout the movie, especially once they finally land on Europa, also helped to pass the time for me, as it just gives you so much to feel excited for, almost as if you really were watching a real documentary on such a discovery.
Now I don't want to really spoil a whole lot here since, as I said at the top, this is the kind of movie that the less you know about it going in, the better, but there is one last topic I want to touch on ever so briefly. The one bit of info I tried looking for on this movie beforehand but couldn't find a solid answer to was: Are there any sort of alien creatures in this movie? Well, without spoiling too much, I'll just say that they do indeed find something. But don't expect that to be a driving force of the movie, because it really isn't; Technical problems with the ship, compounded by growing mental issues of some of the crew, mixed in with the usual dangers of long distance space travel and exploring a new planet for the first time take up the bulk of the things that this deep space crew end up facing during this mission. The one mysterious thing that isdiscovered on Europa seems more like an after-thought to please those touchy viewers that need something like that or 'this movie sucks' to them, however that's not to say that it's non-effective, because it very much is. The last little portion of the movie when it starts dealing with this thing, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just as enthralled as I was during any other part of the movie, if not even slightly more-so, but it plays such a minor role overall that it's almost not even worth mentioning.
Yes, the movie is a bit slow for the majority of its runtime, but slow doesn't automatically equal boring, as there were plenty of things happening that fully kept my interest. Add to that some good performances, a pretty realistic approach and attention to detail, a nice sense of awe and wonder, and some truly terrifying nail-biting tension at some parts, and we have another winning Found Footage flick right here. It's only slightly brought down by some aspects of the documentary approach that have a tendency to take you out of the moment at times when I would really have rather just stayed encompassed by the moment. Still, when that's the only real complaint I have with a movie, then it's a pretty safe bet to say it's one damn fine movie. For those who were hoping for Apollo 18 to be much more then it ended up being, Europa Report is excellent at filling that void, just as long as you are prepared for the slower pace and you aren’t expecting some gory edge-of-your-seat non-stop action/horror thrill ride.
9/10 rooms in the Psych Ward
Jack The Giant Killer (2013)
REVIEW BY: Bobby LePire
Company: The Asylum
Runtime: 90 mins
Format: BluRay
Plot: After climbing a giant beanstalk, Jack discovers a land in the clouds populated by evil beasts. When the beasts make their way down to Earth, he must figure out how to get back down and save everyone from the oncoming threat.
Review: Generally speaking, I am always stoked to see any film made by those maestros of mockbusting, The Asylum; this time around being no different. As they have done multiple times in the past, they have dipped into the fairy tale well, and Jack the Giant Killer (or simply just The Giant Killer in some parts of the world) is the result - their spin on the Jack And The Beanstalk tale - which was just in time to mockbust the big budget 'Jack The Giant Slayer'.
Whereas their theatrically released counterpoint was a medieval fantasy adventure, Asylum's movie is set in the United Kingdom, during an anachronistic pseudo-1950s, which adds a timelessness feel to the whole outing. Along those same lines would be the impressive locales and set design throughout, especially in the Cloud Realm; which is the land that the beanstalk leads to. The rather well rendered CGI'd flying castle, with its Victorian era steampunk outer aesthetic and hodgepodge of factory/sail boat inner aesthetic, contributes to that as well. The best here though is the stunning interior of the main villainess' palace. Combining ancient Greco-Roman statues and columns with 16th century European furnishings, with an early 20th century electric bent, and lots of long roaming tracking shots in there really do show it off. However, even the most amazing sets and production design wouldn't mean Jack (pun indented) if the story and characters weren't compelling or interesting. Luckily, The Asylum gives plenty of room for both an engaging fantasy-action plot and some solid characterizations. As discussed above, updating this from the original's medieval setting to a more modern one does help give it a unique look, but there are other fun twists on the old story that make this one of the Asylum's best movies, in my opinion.
The most interesting twist is that Jack's father, Newald, who has been trapped in the Cloud Realm since just before Jack was born, is the one that killed all of the original humanoid giants. Because of this, Jack has to contend with the beasts that those Giants had been keeping in check - giant dino-rhino-elephant-dog creatures that have six eyes, scales, thick hide, and a triceratops-esque skull (yes, as in no skin on it). I really enjoy the design here, looking simultaneously familiar and original. It helps that the CGI is above average, but I'll be getting to that momentarily. The next story element that got me really excited while watching is how time works in the Cloud Realm - One day there equals a year on Earth. This isn't just an allowance to cast Jack's dad younger (he's 29, which is only a few years older then Jack himself at this point), but becomes a pivotal plot point for the main Evil Queen Serena's arc. The implementation here works very well, as it's not just some throw away line, or forgotten subplot.
Another little interesting tidbit for this one is that there are three stalks featured: Two we see, the first being the one that whisks Jack away, with the second bringing his love interest/robot exoskeleton-building mate (yeah, that's as awesome as it sounds) to the fantasy land as well. The third, only mentioned, is the original stalk that brought Newald to the Cloud Realm. Having so many beanstalks adds depth to the world and its various rules, for instance each nightfall, on Earth, the stalks dissolve into harmless dust which adds some tension later on in addition to just giving things that little extra informative detail. The most intriguing rule though is that the only person who can travel a beanstalk is the one who planted it, and the vines of the beanstalk will attack anyone else that comes near it. This becomes grounds for some solid and intense action scenes throughout, filled with some of that previously-mentioned excellent CGI.
I know I just spent a long time talking about the world building here, and that's not only because there are lots of cool ideas at play, but because in a fantasy setting (and sci-fi for that matter, both of which this movie could fall under) it's important to have a fully believable world that seems to exist outside the confines of the movie you are watching. The Asylum, even in their worst movies, tend to make a pretty good go of this, which in my opinion is one of the reasons they are so popular. While I haven't seen every movie made by them, I have yet to see one that had as much care and thought put into their movie worlds as done here.
Now, as I stated above, the CGI here is, for the most part, very good. Lots of interesting designs, well-rendered, and some nice added small details here and there (such as the blinking of the individual six eyes on the giant beasts or the gears turning on the amazing flying castle - I really love this flying castle, guys!) The beanstalks look appropriately massive, and the practical vine effects don't look too rubbery or fake, with the stalks being integrated into the physical background environments fairly well, and in addition the giant creatures, minus a few scenes, seem to have some real weight to them and move rather realistically. Unfortunately, near the end during the big fight (maybe due to either budget or time constraints) the even-larger dino-dog creature leader starts to look a bit dodgy, even by Asylum standards, which sticks out all the more because of the better-than-average effects up until that point.
The acting from lead Jamie Atkins (no relation to writer/director/Asylum alum Mark Atkins), as Jack, is passable, and he does get better as the movie goes along; In the beginning he's too eager, like a puppy, and it comes across as a bit too hammy, but by the time we each the ending climatic battle though, he really delivers, especially in a somewhat heart-wrenching scene where he has to play both scared and brave at the same time. All in all, definitely not bad, especially when considering that this is the first movie I have seen him in. Playing alongside him is Vicki Glover as Lisa and she brings a lot of spunk and girl-next-door appeal to the role, which helps make you easily understand why Jack likes her. Jane March as Serena, the evil queen of the Cloud Realm, brings both an icy menace and a surprising amount of heart, especially in the second half where some excellent writing for the character turns her into a multifaceted one and ends her arc on a sweet note. Also I have to point out here that this isn't her first time playing an Evil Queen role for Asylum, having done it in Grimm's Snow White as well. On the flip-side from her, Tanya Windsor as Jack's mom may be serviceable, but she's also pretty forgettable. It doesn't help though that her character has very little to do other then just standing around.
For my money, though, it is Harry Dyer as Newald and Ben Cross as government liaison Hinton that steal the show. Dyer brings a Dr. Who-ish quality to Jack's dad, that makes him not only instantly likeable, but very sympathetic, and in just a few looks and some excellent delivery you feel bad for and forgive him for his various misdeeds, all at once. Cross' Hinton is the most serious of the bunch, and Cross imbues him with a nice sense of dutifulness and relatablity, so you can always understand his motivations.
This brings me to the few issues I have with the movie: Julian Boote just isn't that good as Nigel Mason, Jack's adoptive father. His line readings are stiff, and he looks uncomfortable the entire time, almost as if he didn't really want to be filming this movie. And as much as I enjoyed Vicki Glover as Jack's girlfriend, the character herself is written fairly one-dimensional. In addition, while a lot of the levity works and even adds to the unique feel of this movie, there is a subplot about a landlord trying to sell his property that just falls flat and I could have done without. Lastly is the score - overall it's pretty good and super effective, but in some sequences, especially during several dialog-heavy scenes, it is just too overbearing and drowns out the speech, making it hard to pick out what the characters are saying. While the story is simple enough to follow, that uneven sound mix can still be rather distracting and frustrating.
Moving back away from the few negatives though, longtime Asylum-collaborator Mark Atkins has made quite a few films for this company, but nothing would suggest the level of confidence he demonstrates with Jack the Giant Killer. With lots of long beautiful tracking shots and a nice focus on atmosphere, this is a very assured film with a clear vision from it's director. The fights are staged well and he keeps them moving at a nice pace, all the while keeping a good distance so we can see everything that is going on. Atkins keeps the twists and turns coming, but never spells too much out for the audience. Instead trusting them to be familiar enough with the old fairy tale, and classic movie tropes, to fill in the gaps.
Finally, I need to discuss the aforementioned robot exoskeleton. Looking a good deal like the load lifter from 'Aliens', but clunkier, and seemingly made from a tractor and sheer ingenuity, this thing kicks ass! Lisa and Jack are seen fiddling with it at the very beginning. and of course it comes back into play for the ending. And oh boy, when it does, it was definitely worth the wait - In order to save the day from the largest of the creatures, Jack puts it on and charges right to battle! It is a very heroic scene, and Jamie Atkins sells it perfectly. Seeing a red robot fight a fantastical creature is the exact reason I love these kinds of movies!
While not quite perfect, nor even the Asylum's best film (Age Of Dinosaurs is amazing, even when compared to big Hollywood blockbusters), the few flaws that it has doesn't strongly detract from all the things that Jack The Giant Killer does right. With an abundance of confidence and an intricately realized fictional world, this is worth the trip. Add to that two of my favorite Asylum performances so far, and you have a truly special film.
9/10 rooms in the Psych Ward
Company: The Asylum
Runtime: 90 mins
Format: BluRay
Plot: After climbing a giant beanstalk, Jack discovers a land in the clouds populated by evil beasts. When the beasts make their way down to Earth, he must figure out how to get back down and save everyone from the oncoming threat.
Review: Generally speaking, I am always stoked to see any film made by those maestros of mockbusting, The Asylum; this time around being no different. As they have done multiple times in the past, they have dipped into the fairy tale well, and Jack the Giant Killer (or simply just The Giant Killer in some parts of the world) is the result - their spin on the Jack And The Beanstalk tale - which was just in time to mockbust the big budget 'Jack The Giant Slayer'.
Whereas their theatrically released counterpoint was a medieval fantasy adventure, Asylum's movie is set in the United Kingdom, during an anachronistic pseudo-1950s, which adds a timelessness feel to the whole outing. Along those same lines would be the impressive locales and set design throughout, especially in the Cloud Realm; which is the land that the beanstalk leads to. The rather well rendered CGI'd flying castle, with its Victorian era steampunk outer aesthetic and hodgepodge of factory/sail boat inner aesthetic, contributes to that as well. The best here though is the stunning interior of the main villainess' palace. Combining ancient Greco-Roman statues and columns with 16th century European furnishings, with an early 20th century electric bent, and lots of long roaming tracking shots in there really do show it off. However, even the most amazing sets and production design wouldn't mean Jack (pun indented) if the story and characters weren't compelling or interesting. Luckily, The Asylum gives plenty of room for both an engaging fantasy-action plot and some solid characterizations. As discussed above, updating this from the original's medieval setting to a more modern one does help give it a unique look, but there are other fun twists on the old story that make this one of the Asylum's best movies, in my opinion.
The most interesting twist is that Jack's father, Newald, who has been trapped in the Cloud Realm since just before Jack was born, is the one that killed all of the original humanoid giants. Because of this, Jack has to contend with the beasts that those Giants had been keeping in check - giant dino-rhino-elephant-dog creatures that have six eyes, scales, thick hide, and a triceratops-esque skull (yes, as in no skin on it). I really enjoy the design here, looking simultaneously familiar and original. It helps that the CGI is above average, but I'll be getting to that momentarily. The next story element that got me really excited while watching is how time works in the Cloud Realm - One day there equals a year on Earth. This isn't just an allowance to cast Jack's dad younger (he's 29, which is only a few years older then Jack himself at this point), but becomes a pivotal plot point for the main Evil Queen Serena's arc. The implementation here works very well, as it's not just some throw away line, or forgotten subplot.
Another little interesting tidbit for this one is that there are three stalks featured: Two we see, the first being the one that whisks Jack away, with the second bringing his love interest/robot exoskeleton-building mate (yeah, that's as awesome as it sounds) to the fantasy land as well. The third, only mentioned, is the original stalk that brought Newald to the Cloud Realm. Having so many beanstalks adds depth to the world and its various rules, for instance each nightfall, on Earth, the stalks dissolve into harmless dust which adds some tension later on in addition to just giving things that little extra informative detail. The most intriguing rule though is that the only person who can travel a beanstalk is the one who planted it, and the vines of the beanstalk will attack anyone else that comes near it. This becomes grounds for some solid and intense action scenes throughout, filled with some of that previously-mentioned excellent CGI.
I know I just spent a long time talking about the world building here, and that's not only because there are lots of cool ideas at play, but because in a fantasy setting (and sci-fi for that matter, both of which this movie could fall under) it's important to have a fully believable world that seems to exist outside the confines of the movie you are watching. The Asylum, even in their worst movies, tend to make a pretty good go of this, which in my opinion is one of the reasons they are so popular. While I haven't seen every movie made by them, I have yet to see one that had as much care and thought put into their movie worlds as done here.
Now, as I stated above, the CGI here is, for the most part, very good. Lots of interesting designs, well-rendered, and some nice added small details here and there (such as the blinking of the individual six eyes on the giant beasts or the gears turning on the amazing flying castle - I really love this flying castle, guys!) The beanstalks look appropriately massive, and the practical vine effects don't look too rubbery or fake, with the stalks being integrated into the physical background environments fairly well, and in addition the giant creatures, minus a few scenes, seem to have some real weight to them and move rather realistically. Unfortunately, near the end during the big fight (maybe due to either budget or time constraints) the even-larger dino-dog creature leader starts to look a bit dodgy, even by Asylum standards, which sticks out all the more because of the better-than-average effects up until that point.
The acting from lead Jamie Atkins (no relation to writer/director/Asylum alum Mark Atkins), as Jack, is passable, and he does get better as the movie goes along; In the beginning he's too eager, like a puppy, and it comes across as a bit too hammy, but by the time we each the ending climatic battle though, he really delivers, especially in a somewhat heart-wrenching scene where he has to play both scared and brave at the same time. All in all, definitely not bad, especially when considering that this is the first movie I have seen him in. Playing alongside him is Vicki Glover as Lisa and she brings a lot of spunk and girl-next-door appeal to the role, which helps make you easily understand why Jack likes her. Jane March as Serena, the evil queen of the Cloud Realm, brings both an icy menace and a surprising amount of heart, especially in the second half where some excellent writing for the character turns her into a multifaceted one and ends her arc on a sweet note. Also I have to point out here that this isn't her first time playing an Evil Queen role for Asylum, having done it in Grimm's Snow White as well. On the flip-side from her, Tanya Windsor as Jack's mom may be serviceable, but she's also pretty forgettable. It doesn't help though that her character has very little to do other then just standing around.
For my money, though, it is Harry Dyer as Newald and Ben Cross as government liaison Hinton that steal the show. Dyer brings a Dr. Who-ish quality to Jack's dad, that makes him not only instantly likeable, but very sympathetic, and in just a few looks and some excellent delivery you feel bad for and forgive him for his various misdeeds, all at once. Cross' Hinton is the most serious of the bunch, and Cross imbues him with a nice sense of dutifulness and relatablity, so you can always understand his motivations.
This brings me to the few issues I have with the movie: Julian Boote just isn't that good as Nigel Mason, Jack's adoptive father. His line readings are stiff, and he looks uncomfortable the entire time, almost as if he didn't really want to be filming this movie. And as much as I enjoyed Vicki Glover as Jack's girlfriend, the character herself is written fairly one-dimensional. In addition, while a lot of the levity works and even adds to the unique feel of this movie, there is a subplot about a landlord trying to sell his property that just falls flat and I could have done without. Lastly is the score - overall it's pretty good and super effective, but in some sequences, especially during several dialog-heavy scenes, it is just too overbearing and drowns out the speech, making it hard to pick out what the characters are saying. While the story is simple enough to follow, that uneven sound mix can still be rather distracting and frustrating.
Moving back away from the few negatives though, longtime Asylum-collaborator Mark Atkins has made quite a few films for this company, but nothing would suggest the level of confidence he demonstrates with Jack the Giant Killer. With lots of long beautiful tracking shots and a nice focus on atmosphere, this is a very assured film with a clear vision from it's director. The fights are staged well and he keeps them moving at a nice pace, all the while keeping a good distance so we can see everything that is going on. Atkins keeps the twists and turns coming, but never spells too much out for the audience. Instead trusting them to be familiar enough with the old fairy tale, and classic movie tropes, to fill in the gaps.
Finally, I need to discuss the aforementioned robot exoskeleton. Looking a good deal like the load lifter from 'Aliens', but clunkier, and seemingly made from a tractor and sheer ingenuity, this thing kicks ass! Lisa and Jack are seen fiddling with it at the very beginning. and of course it comes back into play for the ending. And oh boy, when it does, it was definitely worth the wait - In order to save the day from the largest of the creatures, Jack puts it on and charges right to battle! It is a very heroic scene, and Jamie Atkins sells it perfectly. Seeing a red robot fight a fantastical creature is the exact reason I love these kinds of movies!
While not quite perfect, nor even the Asylum's best film (Age Of Dinosaurs is amazing, even when compared to big Hollywood blockbusters), the few flaws that it has doesn't strongly detract from all the things that Jack The Giant Killer does right. With an abundance of confidence and an intricately realized fictional world, this is worth the trip. Add to that two of my favorite Asylum performances so far, and you have a truly special film.
9/10 rooms in the Psych Ward