Oct 16 2021

Bigfoot Hunters (2019) Movie Review ‘Mockumentary 101’

Bigfoot Hunters – Mockumentary 101

Director: Zach Lamplugh

Starring: Brian Emond, Jeffrey Stephenson, Mo Arora, Justin Beaudrot, William Childress, Will Copeland, Chris Dortch II

Plot: A clickbait journalist is sent to the Appalachian foothills to cover a Bigfoot Convention where he discovers there’s more to this listicle than meets the eye.

Runtime: 1 Hour 23 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Bigfoot Hunters starts as we meet downtrodden clickbait journalist Brian (Emond) who has spent his career reporting stories that are clickbait, rather than digging into real stories, which gave him the original passion for journalism.

Brian must reluctantly take the latest assignment of meeting a bigfoot expert as they look to show the Bigfoot Convention, where he meets Jeffrey (Stephenson) who has been studying Bigfoot for decades, but learns there is more than meets the eye.

Thoughts on Bigfoot Hunters

Thoughts – Bigfoot Hunters brings us into a Mockumentary style film that will play into the similar ideas that ‘What we do in the Shadows’ did to the vampire world of horror, only this time using the legend of bigfoot. This does look to play into the different types of people in the world, the quirky loner searching for bigfoot, the disgruntled journalist who wants more from his career along with a twist in the story. The comedy can feel awkward in places, with everything feeling balanced between trying to be serious and trying to play into the idea that everything is meant to be comedic. The location is just random woodland, which helps with the budget, but offers nothing to what is going on in the bigger picture. The performances in the film are interesting with Brian Emond being the most interesting character to watch, who clearly doesn’t want to follow the story, which you could see many journalists going through at times. If you want to see a completely deadpan mockumentary, this will give you the basics for it, with a few twists along the way.

Bigfoot Hunters is in cinemas 22 October and on digital 25 October from Fractured Visions

Final Thoughts – Bigfoot Hunters will fit all the typical mockumentary creations, getting the odd laugh in the bigfoot world.

Oct 16 2021

ABC Film Challenge – Horror – P – Patient Zero (2018) Movie Rob’s Pick

Head Over to Movie Rob’s for more reviews here.

“Just because I killed my family doesn’t mean I didn’t love them.” – The Professor

Number of Times Seen – 1 (15 Oct 2021)

Brief Synopsis – A group of survivors during a Zombie Apocalypse try to find the person who infected everyone.

My Take on it – Anyone who knows me, knows that I am NOT a fan of horror movies at all.

It is one of the few genres that I try to avoid as much as possible.

October is always a month when a lot of movie bloggers dedicate their reviews and watches to taking in horror films due to Halloween being just around the corner.

This makes things more difficult for me given the fact that it makes it harder to contribute to other people’s endeavors.

But… as a steady contributor to the ABC Challenge, I decided to go against my instinct and find a film to watch.

This is actually a movie that Darren suggested to me a few years back, yet, based on what I wrote earlier, I avoided.

The truth is that the one kind of horror film that I can tolerate the most are Zombie films and this one does fit into that niche.

That being said, this was a story that has a good idea, but it just isn’t presented well enough.

The fact that they deal with so many normal zombie film tropes and fail to try and give themselves a unique voice really hurts things here.

The cast is unexceptional and none of them stand out at all.

The story moves along at a strange pace and never really finds its way because it all comes across in a very messy style.

The one thing in this film that I really liked was that they find a way to communicate with the “infected” and if that would have been developed more, they might have had a better chance with this story.

What’s quite fascinating is the fact that this film gives a whole new perspective of the genre in a (post) COVID word because most viewers will be able to identify more with many of the things these characters have to deal with.

Regardless, this was pretty much a waste of time tho…

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2013 Blacklist; a list of the “most liked” unmade scripts of the year. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (3/10)

Oct 16 2021

ABC Film Challenge – Horror – P – Pledge (2018) Movie Thoughts

Director: Daniel Robbins

Writer: Zack Weiner (Screenplay)

Starring: Zachery Byrd, Phillip Andre Botello, Zack Weiner, Aaron Dalla Villa, Cameron Cowperthwaite

Plot: A group of college freshmen pledge an exclusive fraternity but soon realize there’s more at stake than they could have ever imagined.

Tagline – Few get in. None get out.

Runtime: 1 Hour 17 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Pledge starts when three freshman Justin (Byrd), Ethan (Botello) and David (Weiner) are trying to find a fraternity to become part of, which will see them rejected by all of them. The three end up getting invited to a special exclusive place run by Max (Villa), which seems like a great place for parties.

When the guys return believing they are part of a small hazing process, they find themselves dealing with Max, Ricky (Cowperthwaite) and Bret’s (Pimentel) twisted hazing process, one that will push them to the limits.

Thoughts on Pledge

Thoughts – Pledge brings us the extreme of the hazing culture that could well run through America, we get the generic charcters, the geeky outsiders trying to find a place with the ‘cool’ kids on the compass. This offers very little to anything we have seen from hazing which has gone too far in the past before. Turning it a battle for survival over anything else, with a bigger picture that isn’t remotely hinted at early on. The performances in the film are fine, nobody does much to standout in the film. The film goes for shock value with the extremes it wants to put the kids through, but it seems to hold back from going as far as it could. This does seem to want to go in direction that gets caught up in trying to be edgy and not hitting the heights.

Final Thoughts – Pledge is a horror that wants to be edgy and falls flat on its face with what it is trying to do.

Oct 16 2021

Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) Movie Review ‘Comedy Saves The Film’

Venom: Let There Be Carnage – Comedy Saves The Film

Director: Andy Serkis

Writer: Kelly Marcel (Screenplay) Todd McFarlane, David Michelinie (Characters)

Starring: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham

Plot: Eddie Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution.

Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Venom: Let There Be Carnage starts as Eddie Brock (Hardy) and Venom are still trying to figure out a way to live their lives together, with the interviews with Cletus Kasady (Harrelson) being a chance to put Eddie back in the spotlight, at a price though.

When Cletus bites Eddie, he gets some of Venom’s blood into his system, unleashing a new symbiote Carnage on the world, as this new pair looks to cause carnage, with Eddie and Venom needing to put their differences aside to stop their loved one getting killed.

Thoughts on Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Characters & Performances – Eddie is the still down on his luck reporter that is living with Venom in his head, constantly wanting food, he is getting tired of Venom getting in his way, but gets his stardom back after cracking the code of serial killer Cletus Kasady. Eddie must learn to live with Venom, or face a new threat in his life. Tom Hardy does well with the comedy side of this film, he will get more laughs than anyone else. Cleuts Kasady is the serial killer locked up, waiting for his life to be taken, when he learns Eddie has revealed the location of the bodies, he is put on death row, until he bites Eddie, getting infected with a new symbiote, one that will let him cause carnage, as he looks to rescue his lost love, as the Carnage side of him will kill anyone who gets in his way. Woody Harrelson does give us a twisted serial killer performance, it is everything we saw in Natural Born Killers though. Anne is the former fiancée to Eddie, she has moved on with her life, but is always there is Eddie needs him, which he does once again. Frances Barrison has the ability to unleashes a crippling scream, a weapon that has seen her locked up, until Cletus breaks her out, only her screaming will cause problems around the symbiotes. Michelle Williams and Naomie Harris are both wonderful actresses, they both look like they are having a lot of fun in this movie.

Story – The story here follows Eddie and Venom as they look to get on with their lives, but the differences between them stops that, with the pair needing to learn work together to take down the next threat in the city Carnage. This is a story that will make the end credits scene in the last film come off strange, because that implies Cletus is already carnage, which he isn’t until he is about to be executed. The twisted killers wanting to go on the run, is something fresh for a villainous side of characters in a comic book movie, which is nice to see. With the Eddie and Venom needing to learn how to get along being the side that gets the laughs. The story will tick all the boxes for what you would expect from the action side of the story, with very little coming off on the original side here.

Themes – Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the latest action comic book movie, with the action sequences looking as chaotic as you would imagine, not being the easiest thing to watch. When we look at the comedy though, this is where things shine, with the highlight being Venom ending up at day of the dead festival. When it comes to the special effects on show here, this is a flawless performance from that team, who make every single moment look like a natural occurrence.

Final Thoughts – Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a chaotic action movie, that turns to the comedy to make it enjoyable.