Revisiting "Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie"
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
- Ten years later, we review "Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie" in long form. What's it about? How did they turn video game reviews into a feature film? And why all the puppets?! Digressions include The Daily Show, practical vs. digital effects, and Larry David.
- Hry
Hello everyone! Thanks for checking out our review of the AVGN movie. Due to the subject matter apparently being a magnet for off-colour talking points and memes, I’ll be removing any comments which include strange personal attacks, body-shaming, or otherwise offensive content. The internet is a big place and there are other websites for parroting niche memes to your heart’s content. This video is a discussion of James Rolfe's work as a filmmaker, and not a series of speculations on his private life.
As well, just a heads-up for those with limited patience for digressions, there’s a long discussion from 26:28 to 37:07 about practical effects, in which we don’t directly talk about the AVGN movie for a while. Feel free to skip that part if it's not interesting to you. Personally, I feel that it’s an important part of understanding how the AVGN movie takes nostalgia at face value, gesturing to the general vibe of 70’s/80’s movies without engaging with their images on any meaningful level. It’s also a very dense topic, so we didn’t want to be flippant by just saying “CGI is good haha”.
Also, our defence of the Star Wars prequels probably needs its own video, because those are incredibly divisive films, so we’ll most likely unpack that at some point in the future.
Thanks for watching!
Well said
Your defence on the Star Wars prequels invalidates everything you said, say or ever will say about anything. But I'll watch the video you make outta of it.
Thanks for your comment. Whether or not this is a great movie I still enjoy what James does. You guys are awesome and respectful. Thank you again!
Man, as someone who knows literally nothing about actually directing a film…shooting it in LA when you live in Pennsylvania?
Pure naivete of James wanting to acomplish the dream of shooting a movie in Hollywood. It's sad because if James had not taken the AVGN movie as this "All or nothing" endeavor, and had made a smaller movie in his hometown, maybe he would have caught the attention of somebody in the "big leagues". I mean Fede Alvarez, the man who is going to directed the newest Alien movie, got picked up from Uruguay just because he made a cool 5 min sci-fi short with only $300 dollars.
@@RockoEstalonshooting a crowdfunded indie movie in Hollywood is terrible idea. I heard they wasted half of the budget on taxes.
@@IDHLEB Yeah, even major productions avoid shooting in LA unless strictly necessary.
James is an old Hollywood romanticization guy, so going to LA and making a movie was a life-goal/bucket list thing for him.
As something of an old Hollywood romanticization guy myself, I kinda get it; but I'm also a pragmatist, and I know that old Hollywood is dead. Modern LA (California in general, really) is a horrifically bad place to shoot a movie unless you've got big big money, and everyone in the modern film industry understand that.
I always wondered why the AVGN movie came and went, acknowledged as “bad” but not infamous like the Critic’s movies. Now I get why. It’s bad, but not in a fascinating or fun way. Just mediocre, embarrassing and forgettable.
It’s sad, it seems like he was blinded by the opportunity and his ambitions. Like the movie itself wasn’t his passion, so much as the prospect of making a big movie in Hollywood like his heroes. He wrote a movie *around* the Nerd character instead of *about* him, Which is why the script is so confused, and why he didn’t save tens of thousands of dollars shooting in PA or utilizing the iconic set he already had.
I’ve heard that at screenings, before the movie he’d share BTS photos and stories for an absurdly excessive amount of time. For a movie the audience hadn’t even seen yet, and had no context for. That kinda tells me that the memories of making it are what he was most proud of sharing. The movie itself he probably wasn’t as proud of, but had to show it to fulfill fan expectations.
I remember I was at a convention that was doing a screening of it. I thought it would be fun to stop in and watch since I was a fan of AVGN and had never actually seen the film. I just remember a dark room with no one laughing and watching a few minuets of an exposition dump with the Nerd barely even saying anything, and I completely lost interest and left.
He should’ve made an ambitious internet video. Then use the budget to make a horror movie. Horror can be ambitious and cheap.
And him being a classic horror fan anyway... i never understood that either.
Woah, Rocky didn't end in a draw, Apollo won in a "split-decision". In boxing, a split-decision means that the 3 judges didn't vote unanimously, so 2 determined Apollo won, and 1 had it for Rocky. So Apollo won 2-1, instead of 3-0.
I know that's a BIG misunderstanding with Rocky, so just clearing that up.
Also happy to go over 'What happened at the end of Trading Places' :)
These are exactly the deep-dive truths I made this channel to find, so thank you! This actually explains a lot.
@@ComputerLabHighjinks Thanks! The Bad News Bears just flat out lost, heh.
Stars original > every other star wars
Leave it to the tech nerds to say prequels are better than the original trilogy
TBH, I think the story the prequels tell is more interesting. It just could have been told better.
@@chrisfratz It's more ambitious but the characters are either not developed or developed the wrong way. Like all the Jedi are dry, emotionless assholes which sure is lore accurate but does not make for really compelling characters and then you have Anakin who's suppoused to be a good kid gone bad but he's supportive of a Fascist regime "as long as it works" since before he was tempted by the dark side.
The main issue is that the prequel trilogy tries to be both a political intrigue trilogy culminating in the downfall of it's greatest hero and an action adventure trilogy at the same time, a case of wanted to sell the cake and eat it too. Like, somebody should have told Jorge that you either have your funny CGI rubbit stepping on poop or your council or brooding sterile monk discussing why is better if they don't enter into an intergalactic conflict, but not both at the same time.
Can you imagine Lawrence of Arabia being the same movie if it had a comic relief character that steps on poop and misspronounces words? or for that matter, the original Trilogy being a fun adventure story if it had countless scenes of people sitting in a circle discussing why maybe they should let the goverment handle the war.
@@chrisfratz it’s not that interesting, it’s too complicated and was boring as a kid I had no idea wtf was going on except good vs evil sith vs Jedi
@@mclovinpo It's hard to say. All starts with a "trade blockade" that it's never expanded upon and then there's a war because some planets want to separte from the Republic without giving us the "why".
Even when they made the Clone Wars animated series there was no explanation, they just wanted to be independent.
Yeah I yelled at the phone. I don’t think they meant story wise though so that saves them a bit.
Liked this review up until the discussion about the prequels vs the original.
The cantina scene works because it's supposed to be this shady bar, with these weird characters lurking in the shadows, much like a dangerous run-down bar in real life or any classic movie.
Lucas doesn't understand his movies, clearly. Putting the CGI dancing creature in there with perfect lightning, was just proof of that. He doesn't understand why the others on the film crew made him do these creatures in the dark, so when he got full control, he went into there and ruined the ambient mood.
However, I respect you guys telling your own opinion and why you like the prequels. Even if I don't agree, I like a different perspective.
Good review otherwise!
Also, keep stuff like this in for your upcoming reviews, like I said, even if I don't agree, I like seeing authentic opinion and discussions. Good video in all
Also: Its already WELL KNOWN that the quality StarWars had (overall) was due to the fact, that other people took over: Cut, Editing, Scoring, etc - GL had full contoll over the prequels and its not their looks, but - midichlorians, whiney anakin, just throwing sht on the screen, lightsabers, etc. Most stuff people see now in those movies are filled out by shows. But back then, it was all there was and it was not good.
I think Lucas (and Spielberg to a certain extent) just grew up and became uncomfortable with some of the more violent aspects of their "family friendly" works.
As a result, Lucas shoves "Jedi Rocks" into RotJ because he thinks Jabba's Palace is too scary a location.
18:45 Management was in charge of displays in every retail store I ever worked at, except Target, which had an overnight team. I worked at KB Toys and FYE as an employee and a manager and I can tell you that the reason for this is that there's almost always a "rep" from the game companies that provide the displays and they have a lot of say as to where stuff is displayed. Logically, they're going to be communicating with management (sometimes district management) not going to deal with a schlub employee unless there's no one else there. Even when I worked at a movie theater, the only thing a regular employee usually does is take down and destroy displays.
And that's the case specifically at Game Stop as well. Or at least it was in 2010 when I was a manager there.
Did y'all ever get to keep the displays?
I feel like the practical effects in the AVGN movie are more inspired by B movies than they are from stuff like Star Wars.
It's more Troma than it is LucasFilm, James has made it very clear over the years that he has gotten very inspired by those types of B movies in the creation of AVGN as a whole.
Yes, he is a fan of those high end practical effects but he also enjoys the comedy that comes from a charming cheap old school Godzilla or Toxic Avenger type practical effect as well, that's where a lot of the comedy in AVGN comes from.
I mean there is a literal Kaiju in the movie, old school Japanese Kaiju flicks were not realistic even back in their day, that wasn't the point there and it isn't the point here.
The scene of the lady falling in Las Vegas is literally a reference to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, it's a joke. I don't know how you guys didn't catch that these effects were done ironically, it's so blatantly obvious.
While you're not wrong about his intent, part of our criticism is that the film's tone is inconsistent. The effects range from nearly-invisible CGI wizardry to lo-fi toy cars, but the film doesn't properly convey how we're meant to interpret these images. "It's supposed to look bad" can be an explanation, sure, but one that begs an obvious follow-up question: "To what end?". What's it all mean?
In the case of the TMNT3 review, which I've watched after receiving a few comments, I can safely say that the effect in the TMMT3 movie, while funny, is accomplished significantly better. The background plate in TMNT's shot fully matches the perspective, which was our main issue with the comparable shot in AVGN. Again, the keying and roto work in the AVGN Movie was solid, it just looked like a badly-chosen stock clip of a fountain, whereas the shot in TMNT is a texture of water that feels appropriately far away with a birds-eye-view perspective to match the shot of the character. It may be a reference, but based on our specific issues with the shot, it doesn't excuse much, other than the character's odd disappearance at the end.
@@ComputerLabHighjinks Well of course the effect is better in the TMNT movie because they were trying to actually sell it, in AVGN they were making a nod to it and made it look purposely worse to make that more obvious.
To what end does it look bad on purpose? Comedy, that's the whole point, bad practical effects look silly.
There are effects they wanted to make look silly and there are others they took seriously due to complications during filming needing things to be done in post or a lack of budget to get more real sets, so there are effects they did for the sake of comedy and effects they did out of necessity.
Like I said, a lot of the comedy in AVGN comes from bad effects, it's fun to see James in front of bad green screen effects in the show so it makes sense that they'd want to do that with practical effects in the movie.
It's always been a part of Cinemassacre's DNA so it would have been disappointing if bad effects *weren't* in the movie, if anything that's the one thing the movie got right.
@@tubguinace You're right that a lot of the less-impressive effects were a result of budgetary or practical constraints, but that exactly my point. There isn't much delineation between which shots are meant to be the punchline of a joke, and which shots we need to just suffer through as a patient audience. It's not like the average scene contains a bunch of fully-realistic shots with one clearly-fake shot for comedic relief, which other directors have done. The good and bad effects shots are shuffled around seemingly at random, with no tone control or intent on behalf of the author. There are ways of building a scene's serious tone and then winking to the audience for a big laugh, paying off that tension, but that sort of thing isn't happening here.
"Comedy" also isn't much of an excuse, since the delivery of a joke requires setup and payoff, the building of tension and the release. "This shot looks silly" is about as much of a joke as a fart sound; by which I mean, it isn't a joke unto itself, but it can certainly be used as part of one. My issue with the miniature shots, for example, is that Rolfe doesn't use any cinematic tools to convey that these shots are meant to be read differently than the rest of the film. He could have, for example, mixed the music differently in those shots, played a loud RC car driving noise to sell the lack of realism, changed the colour grade or simulate different film stocks, all sorts of things. A few carefully-chosen sound effects could have changed the meaning of those shots, but that just isn't in the film as released. "Comedy" is about as much of an excuse as "it's bad on purpose", which is to say that comedy is a distinct medium with established conventions and ways of conveying a joke.
Definitely nods to Kaiju movies, if the giant man-in-suit destroying city didn't make it obvious
@@tubguinace The issue remains. Those movies were not actively trying to be bad. To make something bad on purpouse work you have to be meta with your humour and James's didn't went there.
is the movie good? Take a wild guess
it’s ASSSSSS
I know the one scene where the "bad lady" falls and dissapears is a reference to his old TMNT3 movie review. I recall a few other refetences are sprinkled in.
I was not aware of this, so thanks for pointing that out! It would certainly explain why the shot is so well-executed from a technical perspective, despite its other issues. I'll take a look at that TMNT3 review.
Went into the comments to see if this was mentioned! Theres lots if little things in the movie that are actually inside jokes
Glad you pointed that out. A lot of people miss that this is a callback to his TMNT3 review, and think that it's simply a stupid technical mistake. However, this is a good example of Rolfe's confused approach to making the AVGN movie. It seems like he wanted this movie to appeal to people outside the AVGN fandom (hence the all-new supporting cast and new Nerd backstory), but then he also includes Easter eggs that can only appeal to the most hardcore AVGN fans (his TMNT3 review is obscure even by AVGN standards). Working at these cross-purposes ended up giving us a movie that pleases neither audience.
@@ComputerLabHighjinks Yeah, in TMNT 3, there is a similar shot where a character falls into water, but he just kind of disappears when he "hits" the water.
I remember doing a double feature of this movie and The Interview when they dropped and I just had the roughest time getting through this one. Love James Rolfe and I find it gets difficult to bring up this movie without people conflating the critiques for an attack on his character but theres a lot of factors about the production that could have been handled differently. You guys touched on it, but filming in LA was a major one. Personally never understood why the story itself couldnt have been told on a smaller scale too, without all the bloat and self indulgence.
Fantastic video and discussion!
They mentioned Clerks in the analysis, and I’m confused as to why James didn’t just do something smaller like that instead of what we got. It would have been easier financially, and would have fallen in line with his style of editing, reviews, and film preferences (unless that last one is *exclusively* his love for 70’s and 80’s schlock he watched as a kid).
@@rustylasagna I was an avid AVGN fan when the movie was getting made and through all the small Vlogs he made basically it comes up to James taking the AVGN movie like it was the "be all end all" of his career, like his one shot at glory, his chance to shoot in Hollywood and do the movies he grew up watching (which is why is the 80's, Wayne's World, Kaiju movies and some 50's style horror thrown in a blender), he even mentioned he expected the movie to "open doors" to him.
My personal interpretation also is that James is an insane daydreamer and the failure of this movie killed his drive. It's hardly ever mentioned on his official accounts and he has never celebtraded it's anniversary. Maybe he will this years since it marks it's 10 year anniversary.
I love how no one reconizes your awesomeness. Love your work man
The 7 minute discussion on Star Wars felt sort of unnecessary. I feel like use of practical effects is the one of the movies smallest problems, and I'm not sure how much wiser it would have been to use CGI for the shots. Cause like, there is CGI in the movie and it still looks bad? If the puppet ET(or EeeTee or whatever) had been replaced by the CGI one made for the video game animations, I don't think it would have improved things. I understand that you were just using James's use of practical effects as a jumping off point for a different discussion, but I think it could have been culled down a bit.
It's the worst part of the review, they're discussing the effects so much without realizing all the bad special effects were done on purpose, they complained about the lady falling in Las Vegas and just disappearing when that's a callback to the AVGN's TMNT3 review where he complained about that same effect used in that movie.
They complained about how the miniatures weren't realistic when the whole joke is that they don't look realistic, the inspirations for the effects weren't high budget 80s movies, they were low budget B movies and old Kaiju flicks, the movie makes it so obvious and these guys completely missed that.
If anything the effects were the best part of this movie, it's the one thing James nailed.
@@tubguinace I didn't catch the reference to the TMNT review, I honestly just thought that fall was poorly done lol. Maybe there should of just been a bit more of a joke tagged to that scene. Again that's more of a writing problem which is easily the movie's weakest aspect.
Before, judging from the trailer all the way back, I thought the movie was gonna be more like The Wizard (1989), another road trip movie that's all about video games and gamers while also centering on characters going through a grounded and emotional journey within themselves. And I was predicting what i thought the plot was about and i thought it was about AVGN and his nerd friends hearing a contest or some kind if event that had him being invited to review E.T. (And I mean the actual E.T. game.) And so the three travel while doing research on the game and it's dark backstory in the desert. And the game was so bad, that the government won't allow the public to even talk about the game, let alone expose it to the Internet because it's that controversial. (At least in their own conspiracy theory.) And thus, they're trying to kill AVGN because he knows too much. All the weird monsters and zombies would've been all in-between the journey. Much like The SpongeBob Movie, A Goofy Movie, or The Muppet Movie, the main leads on the road trip travel to new places and meet weird and strange characters and often times has to go through to continue their trip. And at the end, AVGN would make it to the event, whether if he dies from the government or not to finally expose the game to the world his 10 year anniversary, only to learn tha game isn't as bad as what everyone says it is and kinda respects it for what it is.
But clearly no, that's not what it was. 😅
Liking the prequels more than the OT when you didn't grow up with the prequels is nuts to me. Even putting aside that the effects didn't look good at the time of release they're worse films. The point about James and his cargo cultic use of practical effects is spot on though.
There is truth to it but I can only think of a handful of examples that really embraced those effects. The Star Wars sequels are the only major releases and those were still mostly CG, it was only some of the characters. And that doesn’t change that most CG isn’t great
Great analysis! (Dude kinda lost me at "I prefer the prequels" though. And it's VERY ironic that he talks about all the buildings and environments in the prequels since they were still mostly practical.)
Found you guys on my suggested feed and I just keep watching! Love your content, keep it up.
Been putting these on in the background while working on art, really love these a TON. Hope there's even more in the future :D
32:48 As someone who got deep into prequel vs original trilogy discourse back when the prequel trilogy was releasing, I don't recall that many people claiming that the CGI wasn't handmade. There were a lot of complaints that the CGI was "sterile," but I think that term meant different things to different people. I think a lot of naysayers just didn't like the art direction of the prequels, that the opulence of locations like Naboo and Coruscant was a whiplash from locations like Tatooine and the Ewok village and they decided that the CGI must have been to blame, that the technology wasn't capable of rendering the environments convincingly.
The basic problem is that you could tell it was fake even back in the day. Not that the OT didn't had shoddy effects here and there but you could tell they existed, now with the prequels (mainly the first two, ROTS looks mostly fine) is like pasting pictures of you into a Playstation cutscene.
@@RockoEstalonThe prequels were incredibly ambitious technologically, if misguided in execution. Lucas was absolutely correct that digital was taking over, but because he was an incredibly early adopter, the tech was not where it needed to be, so a lot of the effects, particularly the rotoscopes look really bad (plus having the film basically being stuck at 1080p). When he used practical sets and miniatures, they still looked fantastic, but when he decided to CGI every clone instead of having even one guy wear the suit for closeups, that really showed the limits of the tech and how he took his adaptation of it too far.
@@TheCynicalAutist That's is true and for all their faults,I think the Prequels are the template for modern blockbusters. Just look at the MCU an tell me they're not alwayts ripping off the prequels:
Anakin and Obi Wan roasting the villains or saying a joke after they defeat them, and Kevin Feige has said he's a Star Wars fan.
The one thing I have to say to is that when they had to be serious, the prequels were serious and there was no "Well that happened" moment. The MCU had to wait until Infinity Way + Endgame to allow a moment of genuine seriouness.
As to the Digital tech I also agree, Lucas was a pioneer again and the industry mocked him for all the green/blue screens only for then to be overused until today; The Clones being CGI baffles me to this day, totally unnecesary.
10:50 That is the problem with a lot of his reviews currently. For example, in some earlier reviews, he will reach the ending or be caught off guard and respond with "WHAT THE FUCK?", then add on some funny comments to follow up. As an audience we can relate, because it is like we are playing with him and catches us off guard as well. Nowadays he just gives away his own jokes constantly. Instead of having any build up or surprise, he will say things like "Okay, this is officially a shitty game and now we just need a shitty ending!.. Yes! It's shit!".
I’ve never before seen or read a negative review for a movie that was still so complimentary of the filmmaker 😂
I think you are overlooking a lot of things in your takes on practical effects, one being that they have come a long way since the 70s-80s, you just never see it on screen because it always gets painted out. There is an obvious advancement when you compare something like the Star Wars puppets and the Navi animatronic at Disney World. You are correct in that it’s really only implemented to evoke nostalgia, even though that’s pretty uncommon. There are a lot of techniques I want to see done with modern technology like Go-Motion because I think they can yield very realistic results if done properly.
I don’t understand you take on the cantina scene at all, the dark lighting contributes to the seedy feeling that’s pretty clearly intended. I think Lucas was dissatisfied with the effects, not the feel, but regardless I think it works in the sequence’s favor.
I actually remember buying this movie on Steam back when they sold video content. I still have it too, because when they discontinued selling video content they made sure to allow people to still watch the stuff they bought. So because of that I still have access to my copy of the AVGN movie. I should really sit down and watch it at some point.
Now that's a throwback! I totally forgot they sold movies on Steam. Apparently they even had Orange is the New Black on there at one point? Which is absolutely wild since Netflix is so restrictive on where their content gets sold.
Wait I did the same and I haven’t been able to find the movie in my Steam since
@@inzabuhd8673 underneath the home button of the library on the left there's a little drop down menu, check the box that says videos.
I forgot they sold video content! I should actually have several video game documentaries on there if I can find them lol.
Thanks for reminding me!
@@inzabuhd8673 on Steam there's a drop down on the left side of the library screen underneath the home button where your list of games is, if you open that drop down and click the videos button then it should show up.
Did you know that the Star Wars prequels actually had more practical effects shots than the original trilogy? And that Mike Matei edited some of the older AVGN episodes?
The miniatures and set designs were and still are amazing, it's just a shame that some of the keying made it look really bad, although that's sadly incredibly common when looking at films from the early 2000s.
I really wish James Rolfe directed a second feature film...
Was about to out myself as a real sicko and say the shot at 38:41 was a TMNT 3 reference but it seems multiple people beat me to that.
The special effects discussion really made me think in a different perspective, neat review
This movie has been almost entirely forgotten by the AVGN community and internet in general. Almost no one talks about this film and it was a major flop; James genuinely poured his soul into it, but it was awful. Not even James talks about the movie because it was a complete failure
Kinda sad tbh. It was his dream.
Great review! One thing that I'd like to point out is that in addition to big blockbusters like Star Wars and Ghostbusters, James is also a massive fan of Ed Wood and Plan 9 from Outer Space. He's talked a lot about how he loves that you can "see the strings that they hung the spaceships on" etc. I think that explains a lot of the obviously terrible elements he left in this movie, he probably saw the lazy keying and miniature shots as a modern day version of those spaceships on strings. Ironically, I think he already achieved that feeling with the original AVGN episodes, but I doubt anyone viewed the movie that way.
Also! Seems like there's a really weird hate community for Cinemassacre online, so it's so great to see that someone approaches it from a reasonable (but fair) perspective.
lost me when you praised the prequels' CG work. It's so bland and boring and lifeless, totally sterile and unreal.
Seeing things clearly with more detail isn't a net positive.
There are good examples of CGI, especially when it comes to enhancing backgrounds and removing unwanted elements in a shot, but how it was used in the prequels is definitely not an example of how it can be used to good effect. In my opinion they look absolutely atrocious.
To be fair, the prequels' use of CGI wasn't in itself the issue, but more having all of the different shots working together. When characters talk on real locations where only the windows are replaced with effects (most of which were actually miniatures, at least for the buildings), they look convincing, but during certain battles where CGI clone troopers are supposed to look as real as the keyed out actors, it looks jarring and pulls you out. It's very much a case of using the right technology in the right places.
I really enjoyed this video. The problem with this movie is the writing, and how AVGN is portrayed. Should have had Mike play the buddy role and Kyle Justin/Bootsy be more prominent as well. Classic AVGN is closer to what this movie should have been, because it wasn't trying to be something that its not. The Kickassia movies are good examples of how it could have been. Low budget kino is good tho. I hope James continue making films because he is talented and passionate about films.
Totally. Mike Matei is almost more famous than AVGN thanks to Inspector Gadget.
In one of the old AVGN making offs, James says he considers his facial acting his best acting asset, which i find interesting. In terms of writing, even tho part of the charm was the super vulgar swearing, i find the best AVGN episodes to be kind of laid back and chilled out (which seems closer to how james is IRL? Super chill, very clever but not really fast with jokes, etc).
I always interpreted the effects work to late showa era godzilla movies and less ILM. Watching godzilla vs megalon is effects wise is very different from star wars id you ask me.
Edit: type this out seconds later bring up why pixle art in the modern era is bad, brilliant
Thanks for reviewing this!
I've been a AVGN fan since the GameTrailers days (right after the Angry Nintendo Nerd days) and I've always been hesitant to check out the movie. I like hearing him talk about games and movies but I kind of suffered though the skits. Some are fine but many went on too long for me.
With that expectation and having seen the Nostalgia Critic... films back in the day (at least one with James), I thought the movie would be on the same level so I didn't follow the development at all.
Now knowing how much effort went into it, regardless of the end quality, I feel kind of bad for writing it off. I think I'll have to check it out now.
I don't think I've ever heard anybody claim that c g doesn't take effort or work? Everyone knows it takes dozens of people hundreds of hours to complete. The main argument against it is that it lacks physicality or emotional resonance with the real actors. And that I totally do agree with. It "feels" fake.
It can look bad, too. It's not like Sharknado ever won awards for computer graphics.
I will say that the only bit of the movie I remember really enjoying are his bad practical effects, especially the ones where it's obviously toy cars. I felt those were easily the most adorable and charming parts of the whole movie.
I´ve always felt that at some point during the making of this movie, James just lost the interest, he probably didn´t want to continue with the project, but he had to do it in order to justify all the money he received from donations, otherwise people would say he stole it. That must have been very stressful for him. The movie didn´t even have a good plot to begin with, so the budget eventually became a problem, it was to much money to handle.
I´m a great AVGN fan and I rewatch the episodes from time to time and I always find them funny and entertaining, however, I´ve only watched the movie once, when it came out. I just think there´s nothing really memorable about it.
Let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of James's work, as I think we've all been up 'til now. Regardless of the Screenwave and 'Cinemassacre Truth' drama, I wish nothing but the best for the guy and his family. Regarding the movie, it was a mixed bag, but I liked it alright. I saw it during a New York City premiere where he held an in-person Q&A, and it was honestly a lot of fun, though I could notice it was wearing him down a bit. I met Kyle Justin (the themesongster) and he was cool to take a photo with me and my friends. But you guys pretty much summed it up - James made a movie. Was it good? Ehh. Was it bad? Ehh. It was really just a movie made for the sake of making a movie. Did he overshoot his luck? Big time! But at least...well...he did it!
Big David Dastmalchian fan, BTW.
Never gave this movie more than 5 minutes of my time. It looks like the bit at 38:40 is a callback to TMNT3, though. Which was also one of the earlier reviews.
Id love to hear your thoughts on Board James. I think they lost the plot towards the end but I feel like the first episodes really show his true talents
I saw this movie in theaters when it had a limited run. The film had a budget just over 100k. I think they did a fantastic job for what they pulled off given the budget. Myself and the fans had a great time seeing it on the big screen.
It was about 250k from the Kickstarter, and they did have a lot of issues filming it, but it's still commendable they had a finished product at the end of it.
I hope I'm not the only one who has an extreme warm spot for this movie. It's not perfect but something about it is so sincere and humble LOL
You guys mention mumblecore and "low budget horror" a lot but are forgetting about Fede Álvarez. The dude isn't even from USA, he's from Uruguay and just by making a 5 min short that costed only 300 dollares he got picked up to direct The Evil Dead, Don't Breathe and now Alien: Romulus. I agree that James main mistake was taking the AVGN as a "sink or swim" project.
@38:30
That scene is a nod to the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 James reviewed, the scene depicts the villian from that movie falling off the cliff into the ocean. That effect is pretty identical but most people wouldn't know it because it's darker and harder to make out. The AVGN movie scene is a mere parody of that.
I think where it went wrong was James tried to use this movie as a stepping stone to get into Hollywood instead of staying true with lore and fanservice of the franchise. Since he reviewed the real E.T. game at the end they were able to acquire the rights for it. I could imagine a movie where it starts out as a game review and throughout you're introduced to familar characters who all meet up.
I watched the movie when it came out because I was a huge AVGN fan and I don't remember hating it
James Rofle has stated in the past that he is a fan of Ed Wood, which kind of explains some of the "campy" special effects. His comedy style to me is like 90% kitsch, so I wonder if the cheesy special effects were misguided stylistic choices.
Ed Wood was never a bad director on purpose, he tried his best with what he got. His movies became cult classics but weren't made with that intention in mind.
This James' asinine idea to "be Ed Wood" on purpose and "aiming to make a cult classic" is such an idiotic concept that only his die-hard, brain dead fans accept it.
it's so crazy that I stumble upon James because of a camera. Then his movie. Now I'm seeing a revisiting of the movie. sure I never watched it but I would love for that guy to make another movie just to redeem himself though I doubt that would ever happen.
Really enjoyed this talk. The only thing I disagree almost wholeheartedly with is your take on CG vs. practical. I think we come from completely different school of thought (and perhaps actual schools) when it comes to that stuff, but I found it pretty interesting to hear your takes on it. Also - the "not shooting at night" stuff isn't an absolute truth, so it's not really "film school 1on1". Perhaps it's what you were taught, and it's one way to do it, but there's no "one way" to shoot a thing like a night scene. I just don't like the "absolute takes", even though - again - I like hearing your takes.
The video quality is too good, I think a low-fi aesthetics would fit this much more.
The only movie I've ever bought digitally. ( I have a big blu-ray/dvd collection though) And though the movie wasn't good, I'm happy to support James.
Fun fact, "cockburn" is pronounced "co-burn".
18 minutes in and this is refreshing. As you've said in your pinned comment, alot of discussion around James Rolfe seems to have slipped into a more mean spirited direction, and whilst alot of the critiques ive witnessed are warranted, i dont think some of the off colour humour helps.
I really enjoy how youve picked on these aspects of his creative work, and im kind of a little bit inspired to talk about my feelings about the AVGN series without it being overtly cruel. Its very influencial content, and i think there needs to be some more positivity around it. 👍
Indeed! A lot of folks just wanna crush or be cruel to the guy.
I liked the phrase "an abundance of quality". Enjoyed hearing this movie discussed in a fair and even handed way.
hot take ; this move is overhated
Here from Folding Ideas' latest video :)
The movie is far from great, but I always was just glad he made the thing. It was cool seeing it in my indie theater. Now it's not exactly a film I would revisit much...
Great channel
I really want james to make a horror movie
I was in this movie and yeah... it isn't great.
One of the worst movies of all time.
I remember being so excited. James put out a massive disappointment
38:40 - to be fair…I think that part where she fades was in referenced (and parody) of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III villain death scene when that character disappeared the same way. Which James reviewed.
That's a deep cut that most people wouldn't get.
Being a fan of AVGN, I bought the blu-ray of the movie right after it came out. It was a letdown, however I could tell that he put a lot of work and passion into it. There are SO many extras on the blu-ray, it's worth it just for that. One thing I remember is that the effects were sent out to a lot of different people around the world. On the one hand, that's a lot of other people helping, but also I'm guessing James didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and cut scenes out that probably should have been. It can also make things a bit uneven effects-wise. There is a scene where James and friends have to go through some kind of Super Mario-esque lava security system. It really didn't make any sense to me, and it looks different from everything else in the film.
One other thing that is really distracting in the movie. It's a really strange disconnect to have the movie about the game "Eee Tee", a different character, when as a viewer it's obvious they actually mean "ET". I think James should have gotten a second opinion about how far to go to avoid IP problems. For example, the movies "Our Robocop Remake" and "Be Kind Rewind" are non-documentary movies that reference other movies and use the actual full names and "characters". Just don't show original footage, recreate what you can and you'd be okay copyright-wise, I'd think?
Please make more videos about AVGN and Star Wars!
I dont hate the look of the movie ive watched it several times. The writing certainly isnt good. The shot of the woman falling down was a reference to tmnt3 but shot much shittier. I hated the discussion about the whole thing once it came out. James did spend his money stupidly but there were people complaining that they didn't the movie free. Some insisted he bought his house with the money he crowd funded
He has lived in the same house since like 2008, long before the movie, he certainly didn´t bought it with that money.
@@DanielCh9393 he switched for sure. He's said he switched and recreated the nerd room. I'm pretty sure he switched it even then I'm not the one saying this people just like talking shit
James has kinda gone to extremes to pretend that the movie never happened. He never talks about it and he's removed a lot of the origjnal behind scenes videos from when he was making it.
28:02 Octopath Traveler 1&2 was beautifully done
Guy has no clue what he’s talking about when it comes to pixel art games
I don't understand why there is so much hate for this flick. I love the film. Its a great tribute and parody of classic sci fi and monster flicks.
It was bad.But we all love James, even if the overall enjoyment now is derived from criticism.
This film is funny and entertaining imo
I hate the movie just like any other sane person, but I have to defend the scene at 38:41 where the blonde woman falls "into" the fountain. That's basically an inside joke from the Turtles 3 review by James where a similar scene happens with almost the same bad effect. Pretty sure most of the people got it back then because the movie was almost over and they were still in shock what an abomination of a movie they have watched.
Look I love James as much as the next guy but id rather watch any of the channel awesome movies before watching the AVGN movie
I believe James felt compelled to make the film mostly due to the success of the character though I think he would knock it out of the park with an indie psychological horror film along the lines of Cinemaphobia but like a murder mystery snuff film thriller.
This is not an insult to this review. It’s a great review. Having never seen the movie, listening to it being described far removed from the subject I just can’t sit through this review. It’s poetic that a famous critic released something worth criticizing (if you have the stomach for it). I don’t.
I don’t blame James though I blame the fans.
I like this movie and I don't know why.
Only you.
James alt account
I’d rather watch the channel awesome movies over the avgn movie
For real? Its that bad for you?
18:39 You meant to say that it raises the question, not begs the question. "Begs the question" actually means to assume the answer.
I think the prequels are over hated but I can’t understand how anyone could prefer them over the originals.
How come their ice cream cones don't melt ?, it cant be that cold because one guy is wearing a sleeveless shirt.
Ice cream cones aren't made out of ice, ice cream is
The practical effects are the least of the problems this movie has. The script, the dialogues, jokes, pacing, acting, characters... those are the real issues here. It's a complete mess. Rolfe tried to paid tribute to so many things he forgot about his own creation. The AVGN is the worst iteration of the character I've ever seen. Its lost...unfunny...it's a shadow of the real AVGN. And the rest doesn't help. Where's Mike Mattei? where's Kyle? where r the people who helped him make it great??
You dont need a trillion dollars to make a good movie. You might need that for marketing and special effects.
It hurts me because i really like Rolfe and his creation (AVGN). But he might be not good for film making. He might be good for smaller things, like his famous episodic youtube series.
Everything about this movie is wrong. Every decision. Everything.
Tmnt 3 the movie is 100% better than the avgn movie james should slice a copy of HIS dvd or bluray copy of his awful movie
That whole practical vs Digital talk was so hard to watch.
Yea; let’s see if you can make better gore effects in digital than something like Tom Savini’s work in Day of The Dead or the prowler; lol
29:21 oooof, that is you opinion, and no opinion is wrong but- but it's a bad opinion- like ungodly bad.
never had hope for this movie and it was trash
Jeeze, I really didn't think it was that terrible. It was aight. It was fine. Had its moments. Never need to see it again, but I don't get the hate.
I remember watching this movie on tubi and i enjoyed it, it's not groundbreaking or the funniest in in the world, but i really like it, better than some crap today, even with its limited budget, the only problem for me wat that it was a little long, i took me 2 nights to complete it. Unfortunately tubi is not available in my country anymore because I would like to rewatch it again.
This movie sucked
It was bad, and I was so looking forward to it too.
I like this movie, it isn’t perfect, but it is fun