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Camunt
Reviews
Dai-Nihonjin (2007)
Serious Satire
It's weird that this movie is portrayed as a comedy because this is actually a serious film for the most part. It's a mockumentary, but it's played as completely serious, not like Spinal Tap. The movie takes its premise very seriously. It's actually a pretty sad film, despite its comedic portrayal in the trailer. It's a very quiet film, almost introspective at times. It's an observance of Japanese culture and how they don't really like giant monsters anymore...but in this world, the giant monsters still exist. And Daisuke is unappreciated as such. Very cool film, but I didn't find it quite as uproariously hilarious as it's portrayed. That's what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I got. Not that that was a bad thing! I just didn't get what I was expecting at all.
All in all a good film. The ending is pretty ridiculous and it moves slowly at times, but it was a rather deep film, and when it tried to be funny, it definitely hit its mark.
Pot Zombies (2005)
To Go Against the Mold for a Bit Here...
I really, really enjoyed Pot Zombies. Hear me out here.
I found this film today while browsing the free movies section in the On Demand menu of my TV, and the title alone drew my attention--Pot Zombies. I read the plot summary, quote: "A Group of Sexy Co-Eds stumbles upon some radioactive weed that turns them into flesh eating zombies." I first noted how odd it was that A Group of Sexy Co-Eds had to be treated as a proper noun, and then thought about all of the other shenanigans that may ensue. While there was a considerably small amount of co-eds (which I don't really look for in a film to begin with), there was an incredible amount of cheese, terrible production quality and a hilarious ride.
I think that this film is legitimately more entertaining than Birdemic. The audio editing isn't as consistently awful, but instead of the awful bird.gif, we have awful Vegas Movie Studio preset effects. And it is amazing. There is so much that is so terrible about this film, and it is that much better as a result. From the opening sequence where heavy metal plays while rednecks zombify and eat each other to animated blunts talking to you at random, this film was a riot. I had never heard of Troma in the past, but I was laughing practically nonstop throughout the entire 55 minutes of the film. According to other reviews, this isn't a good indicator of Troma's quality, but my interest has been piqued, perhaps for the wrong reasons! I would definitely enjoy getting my hands on this DVD so I could watch it with friends so we can all laugh at its terribleness.
Don't get me wrong, this film is terrible. The quality is abysmal, the editing is terrible, the special effects...I don't even have words. The English language will not allow me the words necessary to describe how bad the special effects are. At one point, there's a police siren involved, and I won't say any more about that. There is also literally no plot. There's a premise, but that's it. There's just scenes that last 3-10 minutes or so and then they move on to different characters in a different setting. At a couple points, the film feels like it's dragging when it won't even make use of the terrible effects that grew on me. But other than that (and some naked lesbian action and naked man in the second half), it's bloody brilliant. If this film had any more camp, it would have to give out merit badges. I think people take this film way too seriously. Just kick back and enjoy the awfulness. There are even bloopers during the end credits--that's how I can tell the creators had a lot of fun with this film. I highly recommend it for anyone if you just want to have a laugh at a film so bad, it's grand!
I give the film a 7/10 because that's how much I enjoyed watching it. Shouldn't a movie be enjoyable, after all? Bad special effects don't make a movie bad. In this film's case, it works entirely to its advantage. Cheers. :)