dr_foxy Reviews

Fish Guys (2003 Video)

Funnier than Office Space

[8/10 · 11 July 2004]

I saw fish guys at Fanzilla Con 2004 and was more than impressed. Trey Stokes shows here that he's a lot more than just a guy who can riff off of star wars for laughs, he can find them just about anywhere.

I wasn't the only person in the audience laughing as we met the fish guys and saw how these two eccentrics were as good at their job as they were at killing time and having fun. It's certainly one of the best short films i've seen and one of the most consistently funny. the references to office space can be taken or left, i hadn't seen the film myself when i saw fish guys, which put me in the position of the protagonist, so the film works both ways.

having now seen office space i have to say that it's funnier than the film that the fish guys like to quote. certainly one to watch if you get the chance and it further cements that trey stokes is someone to watch.

i'm sure we'll see the name on the front of a theatrical release someday and when we do i'll be there to see it.

Faust (2000)

It's less than the sum of it's parts

[7/10 · 28 October 2003]

But some of those parts are worth the trip. Technically, taken as a story and a piece of cinema, a film with acting this shoddy and a story so confused and over adapted, is barely a 4, however, the tag team of Yuzna and Mad George as always fill the screen with imagery that it times is sexual, disturbing, funny and horrific all at the same time.

Spoilers may follow.

I consider the recent Beyond Reanimator a serious return to form for Yuzna after Faust, and that film is up there with Society and Return of the Living Dead III (don't knock it till you've seen it). Faust barely squares up to either Dentist or even the relatively restrained Progeny, but even so, I'd argue it's worth 90 minutes of your time.

A very bizarre combination of genre that feels like like they went one too far. I'm not familiar with the comics, but surreal action horror comic book is not a mix we'll see revisted after this.

A lot of the blame lies with Mark Frost, who seems to have a blank expression, a scary one, and a constipated one that is meant to be his tortured look. He hasn't done much since. A lot lies with the script that as many comic book adaptations tries to much. The only unusual part of the story is (spoiler) the rather resolute ending. The rest is, the hero gets created by the bad guy, and is manipulated by him before fighting back when he finds love.

Isabel Brook, Jeffrey Combs and Andrew Divoff all turn in very strong supporting roles. The rest of the cast is mostly spanish, as is the want of all these Fantastic Factory films... and with that comes some pretty painful looping. Isabel even decides to put on a spanish accent of sorts. I guess it beats Mark's patchy american accent.

The film really falls apart when it wants to be the Mask with bloodshed. The gore is excellent, and the expected Yuzna/Mad George surrealism very much in place, but once Faust starts goofing off and yuk yuking for the camera it becomes pretty painful to watch inbetween all the decapitations.

A better actor could have pulled it off. Shame these are low budget films.

All in all you have a film that, at parts really soars, and at others embarasses itself.

That said, it's surreal in a good way. But thanks to the lacklustre script and acting of our hero, you're left with a film that fails to generate the emotions that Yuzna's best works manage. A better actor and this could have become the second most unlikely film to make me cry (after Night of the Living Dead III) instead it falls way short.

The direction is decent, the superhero costume poor. It wasn't a terrible start for Fantastic Factory, but i do suspect that people who don't enjoy Yuzna's particular brand of bizarre physical contortions and cracking skulls, will find it absolute dreck.

If you're looking for a fun horror film, check out Beyond Reanimator. If you're looking for a serious well acted horror film, check out Dagon.

If you're after the film where a lipsticked demon guy cuts off peoples heads and makes jokes about it, while an albino Andrew Divoff practices his own unique brand of breast enlargement... watch Faust.

It's cheesy... but you know you want to.

Overall, a seven. Disappoint from Yuzna, but not like anything else you'll see. (yes i know the spawn and crow references, but neither of their film adaptations contain an ounce of bizarre anarchy this does). More than Spawn and The Guyver, less than the Crow and most of Yuzna's other work.

Voodoo Academy (2000 Video)

truly the worst film i've yet to see

[1/10 · 19 October 2003]

i know you've read that before, on countless other films no doubt if you're reading the comments here, but voodoo academy still stands as the absolute worst film i've been able to track down. no doubt the really bad ones aren't even available to buy or watch on tv, but even so i feel it's fair to qualify that i'm not just some dumb renter who picked badly.

i've seen two thirds of the bottom 100 ranked films here on the imdb, and i'm ticking of the remaining ones with every chance. most of those stand head and shoulders above this... excersize in absolute monotony.

i like to rate truly bad films (as in ones with no humour even in how bad they are) by how many people you need to watch it with to make it all the way through. if you can watch it by yourself, it isn't that bad. if you can watch it with one single friend... it's bad but could be a lot worse.

it took 5 of us to make it all the way through voodoo academy. and not even the usually fun moments of watching bad films (spotting the boom mic for example, 3 times in this one if i'm not mistaken) could take away the dry taste in my mouth. yes i'd watched it, but i'd also forced 4 of my friends to watch it with me to achieve that end.

i hope and pray we saw the directors cut... to think that there could be a version with 20 more minutes of big eyebrowed lugs with baby oil glands rubbing their torsos just scares the hell out of me. so much of the film centers around this.

i do applaud david decoteau for managing to lens this film in two days on a short budget, just as i applaud him for convincing people to pay him to make what is no doubt a celluloid version of some of his fetishes. but it isn't a good film. the original shop of horrors was shot in the same length of time for a comparitive amount of money (considering inflation) and was an utter gem. it's not an excuse for how bad this baby is.

spoilers ahead...

it's not even worth picking apart the plot holes or cliched know it all hero characters... the pacing of the film... is insane... nothing... is interesting for the length of time decoteau dedicates to the pectoral self massaging. no matter what your alignment or sex... rubbing just cannot sustain that kind of screen time.

the acting is cheese... but not overly amatuer... i've seen a lot worse in better films... but somehow it's the semi competent delivery of some of the worst lines you'll ever hear in a film, that really grates.

rent this if, like me, you have a fascination with the worst of the worst, and only if you're going to watch it with a group of people who are prepared to work to get through it. this is no ha ha ha the set wobbled affair. it's an endurance test you probably want to skip.

i'm sure there is worse... but i wouldn't be surprised if it has decoteau's name on it.