The ‘Trash Wunderkammer’ of Cinema [Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam aka. Turkish Star Wars (1982)]

From http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g190/beedubelhue/blog/DUNYAYI-KURTARAN-ADAM-TURKISH-STAR-WARS.jpg

Dir. Çetin Inanç

Turkey

Film #14 of The ‘Worst’ of Film

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37YYTgRvg2CKnT9Ar4_NiaFS0iJgzxbcD_2eB1KQLgb5ePXjPSGi36FUC1Smpu1of_EiDWXbEx-JI2O085jfDmobr9KKkuOxio-KS_vLQKdUIXecGGUrzXD5E6XkDL8nzuiG4-DFrAck/s1600/starwars_1.jpg

I considered films through a black and white viewpoint when I was younger. They had to have clear narratives and be well made, something which made Turkish Star Wars one of the worst films I had ever saw when I viewed it at sixteen or so in a bender of Google Video viewings. Now my views have changed, where films of immense quality become greater but I can appreciate something trashy and badly made as well, especially when I realised clear narratives can be part of tedious films and far more experimental, or haphazard, filmmaking engages me more. Unpredictability, to take an idea from the podcast Damaged Viewing brought up when reviewing the film – still available to download [here] – is one of greatest virtues a film can have; even if I know how the plot will end, a great film, or something special, will make the journey unpredictable in how it gets there. A film as deranged as Turkish Star Wars is something for me to admire than to hastily dismiss now.

From http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2008/02/turkishclimax_io9.flv.jpg

After centuries of change where atomic wars have decimated most of it and pieces of the continents have drifted off into space, Earth (which suspiciously looks like squashed Death Star) is under attack by an immortal wizard. With the planet protected by a force field created from human brainwaves, the wizard needs human brains to destroy it and attack Earth, forcing two Turkish space pilots onto his own planet where they must face his bizarre hordes of monsters and stop his plans of galactic destruction. Turkish Star Wars is infamous, as a low budget Turksploitation film, for taking footage from Star Wars and using music from everything from that film to Flash Gordon (1980). The montage of attractions theory created by Sergei E. Eisenstein, brought up in my first review for this season blasphemously with Ninja Terminator (1985), is decimated by the slapdash editing of this, where even the use of music and sound clips is as hastily put together as the visuals, and yet has a drastic effect on the viewer when viewed together in this narrative. The difference is that, while Eisenstein wanted to elicit certain emotions from the viewer, this film causes stupefied amazement instead.

From http://www.randomdistribution.com/wp-content/uploads/jump.jpg

Turkish Star Wars, revisiting it, is a glorious mess, the plot synopsis my attempt to comprehend a film which can suddenly lunge forward, even into the middle of a fight, without warning you, where monsters suddenly appear out of nowhere and the theme from Indiana Jones, used behind the main hero, suddenly battles with the villain’s Flash Gordon synth. It is some of the worst filmmaking I have ever seen, but it still manages to be far greater in quality to shot-on-digital-camera-films of now at their worst, and is incredible to see, throwing you like a paper bag in the wind and dropping you off by the end confused and alarmed. It’s as much pre-existing science fiction and fantasy works, including things that weren’t directly included in the film but evoked for me during the re-viewing accidentally, as the creators of the film could cram into a single movie and made into a cabinet of baffling curiosities. With our main hero who bounces around like Taylor Kitsch in John Carter (of Mars) (2012), and his womanising friend whose famous whistle to attract women accidentally conjures up skeletal horsemen to his annoyance, as the good guys, we see them fight everything from TV headed robots, cybermen, toilet paper mummies, and to paraphrase a description my younger self used when he viewed this the first time, the bastard, feral children of Elmo from Sesame Street. It’s a film that, even when it drags occasionally, is always startling and hilarious, imaginative even when it’s stealing from everything else, and effectively a long, continuous fight where anti-war philosophy is matched with a beast having its head karate chopped off.

From http://cache.io9.com/assets/images/8/2008/02/medium_turkishbarfight_io9.flv.jpg

The philosophy and mythology in the film adds the cherry to the top of its cake, from the first few minutes in and the feverishly garbled narration trying to explain the world it is setting up. The subtitles did not help, or made it even more demented, but the film is a stream of consciousness of unconventional ideas and erratic science fiction ideas that adds to the incomprehensible but delightfully creative mass you see (and hear and read) onscreen. That it includes religion, with an Islamic subtext, adds to the sincerity of the film that makes it impossible to laugh at it nastily, as well as a cultural texture not viewable in Western films just as ramshackle. It is comparable to dreams I’ve actually had where all the anime and genre films I’ve viewed have become a constantly shifting, yet strangely logical, stream of images and plot points at rapid fire pacing. My dreams, not to blow my own ego trumpet or insult the creators of this film, are better made than Turkish Star Wars, but it is able to leave you in a joyful stupor just as powerful.  It’s as if you’ve just watched a barmier episode of Power Rangers within your brain that also spliced TIE Fighters in there too without George Lucas looking.

From http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2xt0I7GrJKw/0.jpg

Regardless of whether it’s technically shoddy, this is the kind of junky splutterings that would be a breath of fresh air if they were made more often. The vividness of Turkish Star Wars and its own unpredictability is worth cherishing even if we all admit that would never win any technical awards for quality. And this was enforced before I watched this film again too within this season of reviews. The original choice for this slot was Kevin Smith’s Cop Out (2010) with Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan which I turned off after only a quarter of its length, the sense of wasting my life viewing it all too much to sit through it. For someone whose golden rule is always finish a film, any film, to do this, and vow never to watch Cop Out again unless I’m forced to, says so much about how lifeless it was, while even something as bad as Frozen Scream (1975), which I reviewed, never felt like a waste of time despite my detestment of it. Turkish Star Wars is far more rewarding and inspired in its utter travesty of a genre. It’s a film from this season you need to see once, even if you hate it, and now that my tastes have changed and I can see its virtues, I look back at my younger self who found it unbearable and ponder how much of a naive sourpuss he was. 

From http://images.dead-donkey.com/images/bscap0475mv.jpg

Videotape Swapshop Review: Nightmares Come At Night (1970)

From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/nightmares-come-at-night/w448/nightmares-come-at-night.jpg?1289467868

Dir. Jesús Franco

Liechtenstein

The following is my second review for Videotape Swapshop’s month of Franco and Jean Rollin reviews.

Link - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/11272/nightmares-come-at-night-%E2%80%93-1970-director-jess-franco/

The ‘Mind Numbing’ of Cinema [Frozen Scream (1975)]

From http://www.dvdkitchen.com/uploads/4/3/2/3/4323557/frozen-scream_4391064.jpg

Dir. Frank Roach

USA

Film #13 of The ‘Worst’ of Cinema

From http://strangewitness.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/vlcsnap-2010-11-16-06h45m30s194.png

As with another video nasty that I have written a review for, and will be published at some point, I am baffled by how the entire 1984 Video Recording Act even made sense in hindsight with the films it targeted. There are still many films for me to see from the list – including the entire string of Naziploitation films in their distasteful glory – but within the deep cuts of the DDP Prosecutions List beyond The Evil Dead (1981) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980) there are some baffling additions on it, from unredeemable and inoffensive schlock like Toxic Zombies (1980), and even more surprisingly, a based-on-true-events-drama I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses (1978). That even The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) with Dolly Parton was confiscated by police during their raids of video tape stores in this era, even if it was a minor incident within one of them, shows how no one really had any idea what they were doing with the campaign, enforced even more when you go beyond the justifiably gruesome films to the utterly forgettable and terrible films that were prosecuted or nearly were. It also pops the bubble one has growing up of this mythological list of forbidden treats as well, even if there are legitimately great films and masterpieces on it. At first, it’s dumbfounding, and disappointing as it was for me, but after the third you merely shrug your shoulders and consign something like Frozen Scream to the bin of your mental cortex.

From http://members.multimania.co.uk/hhahscreens3/uploads/GT-FS4.jpg

Two scientists are striving for immortality, only to create zombies that are kept un-living through cold temperatures. When they have the husband of a woman killed for their plans, they will have to deal with her and her former lover, who is a detective, before they find out what is going on. This plot line is dragged out for a mere 75 to 80 minutes as Frozen Scream conveys all the worst of a genre film, tediously put together and populated by robotic acting. The bizarre pronouncements of the scientists, Lil Stanhope (Renee Harmon) and Sven Johnsson (Lee James), are fascinating to hear in their awkwardness, how the actors’ natural accents mixed with horrifically wooden performances. The film doesn’t go anywhere, and despite being solidly made, it is bad in its plotting and in trying to engage with the viewer. None of the mystery is interesting because we the viewers already know who is responsible for the deaths, and the horror of the film, including its ending, is generic. The only merit of the film is the mistakes that raise the heart for a smirk. The reinterpretation of Rock Around The Clock to Jack Around The Clock because of the lack of money for music rights. The abstract jump scare where a man in black robes, and a knife in his hand, is screaming ‘Die!’ at a pumpkin only to nonchalantly say hi to the main female protagonist who passes around the corner on him. And then there is the narration of the detective. It can appear at any time, and even plays over scenes where the actors onscreen are still saying lines of dialogue that can be heard underneath the narrator. It could have been some Godardian flourish if done on purpose, but here is a sound design disaster.

From http://www.b-movies.gr/UserFiles/Image/frozen%20scream/frozen%20scream%206.jpg

Frozen Scream from its first scenes was atrocious, and I passed its length completely numbed. It is a legitimately awful film, though it’s merely touch the glass floor of my truly worst film viewings, for this season, bad to the point that it’s difficult to actually write a lot about it. Bad films for me, the worse, are defined by having little redeemable to them even if it was unintentional, and for its occasional moment of amusement, Frozen Scream is scrapping the bottom of the barrel for filmmaking and as a video nasty.

From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/frozen-scream/w448/frozen-scream.jpg?1290439932

The ‘Trap’ of Cinema [Sunday School Musical (2008)]

From http://www.christianfilmdatabase.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Sunday-School-Musical-Christian-MovieFilm-DVD.jpg

Dir. Rachel Lee Goldenberg

USA

Film #12 of The ‘Worst’ of Cinema

From http://www.elseptimoarte.net/imagenes/peliculas/6142.jpg

I worried, looking out of curiosity for reviews of this film online before planning one of my own, that by covering it I fall in danger of taking on the same cheap targets that I questioned professional critics of doing with the Jack and Jill (2011) review. Is anyone who reviews a film like this, including myself, really going to write anything thoughtful, even actually funny, or will this be like a bad video review where you see the whole film dispersed with obvious and bad jokes? Am I just being a hypocrite for reviewing this, and writing this entire introduction? I have broken a rule set up for this season by reviewing a film made by The Asylum company. I was willing to break the rules here because this movie seemed to be an exception from the material that made me put that rule up in the first place. It’s not about an overgrown, CGI fish monster but a low budget musical designed to take advantage of the High School Musical phenomenon and also be part of the company’s Faith Films subdivision, designed to make Christian themed films. Getting hold of this film was for the promise of a terrible movie, a concept that, as this season has gone on, is pretty questionable now, but in hindsight a genre that is usually extravagantly made turned into such a minuscule budgeted, Christian film was also a fascinating proposition. This kind of melding of genres and concepts in unexpected ways is like viewing abstract Non-Euclidean geometry within a HP Lovecraft story, trying to imagine all of its parts working together without going insane. The film itself is, well, what I have sadly come to expect from The Asylum company. As much as I want to love them, it feels like I keep going back to them like an idiot, as all of us who have reviewed their films, as they secretly praise us for the reviews even if they are negative ones.

From http://www.cantstopthemovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/sunday3.png

When he is transferred to a new school, and away from his adored choir and friends, Zachery (Chris Chatman) finds it difficult to connect to his environment. His grades are failing, the choir at his new school are hopeless in terms of their musical abilities, and the church of his old choir is in danger of closing because of finance issues. However it is possible that, through joining together the choirs, and winning a competition, that every problem can be solved, all the while he slowly connects to the leader of the new choir Savannah (Candine Lakota) who has to overcome losing her mother only a few months earlier. In the film’s favour, the cast for the most part, especially Chatman, have musical talent; it is great that for such an ill advised take on a musical that there are people in front of the camera who can sing and have charisma, and there are moments where the music they are singing too is trying to be good. Unfortunately, for most of the film, it is also music at its most generic and sterilised rather than really good songs. This could be only my personal taste, but when songs have the same tone and sound to each other it is not a good sign. For the most part, it is merely bland and innocuous, but as with the song set around a bench, it can become terrible.

From http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/1474/06194942_.jpg

Sunday School Musical outside the music is completely worthless. Chatman had the potential to be someone special, if he had made anymore films after this 2008 production, but the rest of the film is cheap looking. It is sad that the practices of former exploitative film companies have not been continued for the most part this era; at least Roger Corman and Italian film producers would hire talented directors and film making personal and let them make whatever they want as long as it could be marketed for cinemas. Even Godfrey Ho had a sense of fun. In this era – where blockbusters hog the cinemas, and digital film cameras and computer effects are cheap – laziness has sadly been allowed to come into this sub culture of cinema. Even straight-to-video films from the yesteryear could attempt to be great works, and while there are still great films made today, wading for them in the mass is even more difficult. Sunday School Musical is bland looking, unnecessarily frequent and choppy in it’s editing, and just dull to sit through. I am more likely to sleep through another viewing of this than feel pain. As a cash-grab for High School Musical, which I admit to having not viewed alongside its sequels, it is a half-hearted attempt at a musical that could have been special even if it was a failure. The Cannon Group, back in the 1980s, would have tried something special even on a pittance. The Aslyum group, from Almighty Thor (2011), which I reviewed for this blog, to this, are exceptionally lackadaisical in their attitude. And what makes this even more disconcerting is that this is supposed to be a Christian film. There is very little in this film that really delves into faith or Christian values at all. It has choirs as it main plot and Savannah’s father is a preacher, but this seems arbitrary. It could be argued that these types of films don’t have to directly tackle issues of faith, but this is pointless as there are films already made that Christians enjoy and gain a lot from, and if there wasn’t, they could make their own films rather than rely on someone like The Asylum. A Christian film for me, as it stands now, should tackle the issues of faith in ordinary life, which Sunday School Musical fails to do at all and instead panders to a lame interpretation of R&B and hip-hop music lacking the bite and meaning to it. Alongside 2012 Doomsday (2008), another of these faith based films by the company I’ve seen, there is something exceptionally wrong about The Asylum’s attitude to these films that Corman or an Italian producer, even Ho, is completely innocent of. Not only are they making lazy rip-offs of blockbusters rather than fun ones like the Italians could make, but it can be argued that they are conning Christians, who would want movies for them, without any attempt at making something interesting. As an agnostic, I can see how something like Sunday School Musical, in its lifelessness, would be insulting to the Christian god, like offering a turd to Him as some kind of sacrificial gift and excepting to be lavished with praise.

From http://i.ytimg.com/vi/No40Nfn3Vio/0.jpg

And the worst part? I am dumb enough to review another film from them after my bile for Almighty Thor. Admittedly, I had hope for this to be something interesting from The Asylum, and I still want to see Mega Piranha (2010) and their take on the Halloween films, but I have tricked myself again even if I spent only 50p for a second hand disc. Are all of us who review these films, even mock them, just encouraging this sort of filmmaking paradoxically? For all the criticisms I’ve had with the film, I’ve just encouraged more people to watch this film when it should be ignored and vanish from existence. I could have scrapped this review to do this, but to both stroke my ego and out of need to write about this film, I have to post it. If the phrase ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me’ ever applied to any context, this is the perfect time to use it. On my part, I may go for three and please The Asylum again, or actually have some common sense next time.

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG2DIpQLDETFWKbl8qq23OeISt9R-HUjWLDIuYiI3X4vnXZTc4MB4grOvfsYEnHD6J04tG2Mw8u67xQAaobCxBnwNC6rWVqAJ_rnFkcq78m4uvkjeb51ke0Tw1SHyWctVg7bwe2adH_HE/s1600/images-2.jpeg

A Videotape Swapshop Review: Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN5D8Pkq17NLJ71syeh3dn2cwRaadqLs1SGAQ68LspcbVxtct7rrGiADAoxYQHNves4ZR_RjgQ9Sc3vovk2Y-HezbDBTf4f0bx37sbS3CQBaNc3Heukq0SWfSKuTVYdH8BYVlVUkFyMx8/s1600/Vampyros_Lesbos_017.jpg

Dir. Jesús Franco

Spain-West Germany

The following is one of two reviews of mine for an month’s worth of Jesus Franco and Jean Rollin reviews on Videotape Swapshop this January. Some decadence and sex is a nice palate cleanser from the bad films you’ve all been reading reviews of this week.

Link - http://www.videotapeswapshop.co.uk/11353/vampyros-lesbos-%E2%80%93-1970-director-jess-franco/

The ‘Could-Be-Worse’ of Anime [Roots Search (1986)]

From http://bludragon.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/roots-search-1986-ntsc.jpg?w=478&h=480

Dir. Hisashi Sugai

Japan

Film #10 of The ‘Worst’ of Cinema

[Note = This review will have quite a few moving images. I apologise in advance if this causes problems viewing the page or if it becomes too much for some readers. Some of the images are also quite freakish, like the one below this warning, and has flashing colours for one of them, so this is not a review for the feint hearted.]

From http://cdn03.animenewsnetwork.com/images/cms/buried-treasure/21703/rootssearch5.jpg

In the review of Psychic Wars (1991) for this season, this is the anime I was thinking of that lies unexpectedly on a video shelf and baffles anyone who rents it, or that is bought by anyone who could afford the tape or (as I have discovered) laserdisc  version back in the day. The 1980s has a far greater amount of these random one-off productions, both good and bad, that I have barely skimmed through as an anime fan, the money available in the decade before the Japanese economic crash meaning that numerous experimental, or weird, productions could be made without concern whether they would succeed or not. The nineties still has its vast quantity of OVAs and short form anime productions, but the eighties has the more obscure and unconventional works. It also had Roots Search. I will admit a twisted disappointment that this did not turn out to be so bad I felt physical pain, viewed as one of the worst anime works in existence and notorious for diehard western anime fans in the United States, but while the potential repeat viewings of it may be slim, the resulting 44 minutes of gloopy sci-fi horror is still pretty off. Off is the right word especially when you see the cover the anime had. With a photorealistic depiction of a woman in a cryogenic machine/cocoon, it looks like a H.R. Gigar painting, or his other creation for a Debbie Harry album, but it’s far from the case for the anime; the creators of it were still influenced by Gigar, especially his take on alien sex organs as background architecture, but Roots Search is its own weird animal.

From http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4703lYMo31qdc388o1_500.gif

It may have passed by Alien (1979) though. On a spaceship studying ESP powers, including psychic Monica – who has a great and ridiculously large hat despite an attempt by the character designer to make her look cute that feels forced – the crew finds themselves against an unknown entity after Monica sees terrible visions of another spaceship crew being butchered by an extraterrestrial force. With the only survivor of that ship, that warps into their vicinity and lets loose the alien on their vessel, Monica and the crew have to deal with a being that claims to be a ‘messenger from God’ and plans to exterminate any human it crosses paths with for their sins. Either this stole part of the premise for Event Horizon (1997), where the crew is mentally tortured by their memories of loved ones and past events, eleven years before that film was made, or Paul WS. Anderson has been ingesting obscure, trashy anime without anyone releasing (even if that film is far superior to this). In such a short running time, Roots Search attempts to cram all of this into itself, along with tentacles and an alien which, to my apologies to my female readers, has vagina dentata for a mouth, as the characters that start to film find themselves being picked off one-by-one. As an OVA as well, with no restrictions in content, it can get very gory at times to and ridiculous in its gooeyness. The anime however, like Psychic Wars, sinks in quality as it drags itself along.

From http://www.anime-planet.com/images/anime/screenshots/rootssearch1.jpg

To begin with, while it can look distinct, even eye catching to me at times, the character designs and parts of the animation are terrible. The characters look like they’ve been squashed and distorted like plasticine at moments, where Monica (and another female character part of a character’s memories) can look like attractive women in one shot, but in another look like they’ve got the eyes of a Furby that are far too big for their heads, which is saying something considering how ridiculously large the eyes of female characters in anime can be. The screenshots are vital to explain this – the anime looks messy, not helped by its lack of budget to make it, with only the more sub-Gigar aspects standing out vaguely from the other parts. The strange combination of a brain and T-Rex, like a scrapped design for a Nintendo videogame boss, from one of the nightmare sequences also shows that, while it should be preserved in an anime of just ridiculous character designs, like Monica’s quasi-boyfriend Scott who has makeup surgically attached to his skin, the person(s) who allowed designs like it to slip pass should have been whacked with a designer’s ruler for undermining the ability to take the anime seriously.

From http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4k0j4MBVJ1qdc388o1_500.gif

In such a short length, Roots Search attempts too much and doesn’t really do what it does very well. I will have to ponder still whether there is some merit to the OVA even if it’s unintentional, but only the morbidly curious or the most willing of anime fans, which dive into material like this on purpose, will have to see it. It does have its moments that raise one’s eyebrow, such as when Buzz, the survivor from the other ship, and Monica share a fantasy sequence of them frolicking on grass in front of a pink sky completely naked, and in a misunderstood riff on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), has Buzz holding a floating foetus in his hand. I have spoken of most of the interesting (or inane) aspects of Roots Search, but in its favour actually watching sequences like that one has more of an effect than merely reading a description. The anime does attempt to have a serious concept behind it, with the alien’s motive and Monica have a monologue about humanity’s place in the world, but in 44 minutes it comes off as a scrawled idea than a deep concept. The ending - while better than many anime OVAs that didn’t have an ending and arbitrarily finished, enraging anyone viewing them - is not exactly helped by Roots Search’s attempt to be a metaphysical sci-fi, leaving it a befuddling mess with added riffing on Gigar artscapes and giant veins. The anime altogether definitely lives up to its negative reputation for its failings. I have seen far worse, especially in anime television series, however; Roots Search is merely a peculiar creation not based on anything or leading to any cult following to my knowledge let along sequels. It exists in its own polarity and has had no contribution to anime’s progression, except for dumbfounding American anime fans who had it released in their country, where red clay tentacles molest anyone they come across and a Furby eyed girl with a large hat should have had a better character designer for her let alone a spin-off.

From http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4k0itwrWf1qdc388o1_500.gif

The ‘Mediocre’ of Cinema [Son of the Mask (2005)]

From http://uk.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/26/MPW-13254

Dir. Lawrence Guterman

Germany-USA

Film #9 of The ‘Worst’ of Cinema

From http://www.shotpix.com/images/39174514907499294677.jpg

If there is an example of how, even with all the set design, animation and costumes in one’s access, a film can still collapse to pieces if the story and creative decisions are incredibly poor, Son of the Mask, while far from the worst thing I’ve seen, shows this and was one of the worst reviewed films of the 2000s to prove it. Many reviews of this critically infamous sequel to the Jim Carrey vehicle The Mask (1994) slammed the CGI effects, especially for the titular baby of the film’s narrative, as being gruesome and dismissed the bodily function jokes, but at least these parts have a cartoonish edge to them that is engaging. A convoluted and trite script is something difficult to make good. After acquiring the mask of Loki, the Norse god of deceit and trickery, aspiring animator Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy) ends up being promoted at his workplace and an expectant father after wearing the mask for himself. Unfortunately, Loki himself (Alan Cumming) wants his mask back, and his son, born from the mask, is a being able to manipulate reality and himself in inhuman ways and has no love for his father when his mother (Traylor Howard) has to leave for an extended period for work.

From http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/2005_Son_of_the_Mask/005SOM_Bob_Hoskins_001.jpg

What partly makes the film redeemable is the percentage that becomes a live action animation. It is a grotesque one because of the computer animation used, as Avery’s dog Otis ends up wearing the mask and, in his devilish Wile E. Coyote form, desires to get rid of the baby taking away his owner’s attentions, but its anarchic tone in those skits are refreshing and do their best to pay tribute to the classic cartoons, like the Looney Tunes, that are shown in the film itself and replicated. Whether I could put up with ninety minutes of this kind of CGI cartoon is unforeseeable, but the period when the film becomes this, it’s potentially off-putting nature, mixed with super deformation of reality from a Chuck Jones animation, would have been subversive against other cookie cutter family films and an admirable attempt at something fresh. The first scene in the film, where Loki unleashes his rage in a museum, gives a lot of promise to the film, with its intentionally fake computer effects, even if it wouldn’t be for everyone. The look of the film – the garish colours, oversized plastic items, the crash zooms and swirling camera, and prosthetic effects – are actually good, combining the world of American cartoons with the kitsch of children’s theme parks and toys that would have had the potential to be memorable if the content written within them was actually any good.

From http://www.awn.com/files/imagepicker/1/bielik01-SOTMdog.jpg

Unfortunately, the script is terrible bar the few golden moments of what could have been, and the poor creative ideas are cringe inducing. It says so much, of how ill advised some of the decisions made for the film truly were, when the first time, out of only two, Avery wears the mask his antics descend into a terrible musical number where Kennedy has to attempt to rap and also sing like a stereotypical country singer and Elvis in the same disastrous moment. The horror I encountered viewing Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), of the dated pop culture of the time that still clings to us still in some areas especially in music, rears its ugly head in the poor Adult Contemporary, rap and R&B songs in the film and attempts to be ‘down’ with a youth audience by the creators that comes off as embarrassing. And in comparison to Jack & Jill (2011) and its notoriety with its product placement, there is a straight-to-the-screen shot of a Gameboy Advance and Mario Kart that even detractors of Adam Sandler would find far too gratuitous for him to have in any of his films. For children, their parents who took them to see Son of the Mask at the cinema, and someone like me who would have preferred a more slapdash version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), this attitude in the film’s tone alienates everyone. Outside the segments with the dog and baby replicating a live action Tom and Jerry short, the humour is erratic, sometimes visually inspired with maybe a flaw to it, other times soured by poor writing or never funny in the first place. For every striking piece of visual and production work, there is so much of the film that is underwritten badly. The plot itself, including Avery’s anxiety with become a father, has been seen in many movies, but still could have worked especially in such a hyperactive and cartoonish film, as with a scene where Avery images a nightmarish hospital scenario that is fittingly ghoulish and amusing, but the writing relies entirely on trite plot points and pop culture at that time that hasn’t dated well. That the conflict of the story with Loki could have been resolved, removing a large chunk of the film out of existing and an unrecognisable Bob Hoskins as Odin from existence, if he kindly asked Avery for his mask back.

From http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/2005_Son_of_the_Mask/005SOM_etc_013.jpg

It also seems a shame that the film feels as lacklustre as it is as Alan Cumming clearly realised what his performance should be like for the material. Some viewers may see him lowering himself in his performance as Loki, but going through numerous costumes and props, Cummings tries his hardest to fit the tone of a live action animation even when he is handed terrible lines of dialogue and a spiked haircut that has been thankfully left in the early 2000s. Son of the Mask is general is a film that tries its hardest like Cumming but is handicapped by a script far more unpleasant in its clichés and poor writing than the CGI characters smacking each other about.  The violent tones of the pratfalls at least have a chaos to them that is cathartic, which cannot be said for the mistakes in the script. It’s a film where the production staff, costume and sets designers do everything asked by them, and do their hardest, only for the script their work was based on to let them down.

From http://i1.fc-img.com/fc03img/Comcast_CIM_Prod_Fancast_Image/14/137/1318020203763_rovi-SonoftheMask-Still2_2x1.JPG_Overlay_640_320.jpg