Raiders of the Lost Shark

Just look at that title!
You have to watch it.  You're not sure you want to, but the title compels you.  Or, at least, it compelled me to watch it.

I probably could have found a better use for my time, but really, this movie wasn't all bad.  It's aware of its budget limitations and carries a good amount of humor to keep the audience aware of it too.

This is another "Free" movie that is available to Amazon Prime members.  It definitely falls under independent though.

Let's take a look at the poster art.

Pretty cool, huh?   The movie does have a shark and some bikini clad women.  The helicopters no so much and a plane makes the briefest of appearances.  If you're watching for the jet ski, don't.

The shark is mostly represented by very low budget CGI.  It roars like the MGM lion (which I kind of loved) and it has some unique abilities. A few scenes use a puppet that is just rubbery awesomeness.

 I admit, I wasn't paying attention the entire time, but is the plot in a movie like this really the most important thing?  There is a killer shark and our main characters are the ones who have to stop it.  A mad scientist with a gun makes an appearance and there is some "intrigue", but for the most part, it's pretty straight forward killer shark fare.  The acting is obviously unrehearsed, but the core group of characters are watchable enough.  As for the others, how much character depth do you need from fish food?

If you've already seen Sharknadoes 1-3 multiple times, give this one a chance.  Fans of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", keep your ears open.  I'm honestly not sure if there was an homage in there or just a couple of coincidences.  They made me chuckle though.

Have you seen this one?  Leave a comment on your thoughts below.

Still not sure if this one is for you?  Check out the trailer.

The Black Knight Returns - a very Indie "mockbuster"

Okay, this movie is "Free" only if you have Amazon Prime, but it's a very independent effort (a budget of $20,000 according to IMDB), so I thought it deserved a review since not many outlets are likely to give it a look, no less press.




From the cover art and title you get the idea that the movie wants to invoke a "Dark Knight" vibe.  That may have been more the distributor's intentions than those of director, Juan Avilez.  One can never tell, but what it does is set up audience expectations and, unfortunately, this movie just doesn't meet those expectations.

I feel it is a better film than the 1.6 rating on IMDB makes it seem.  Our hero has a long, storied legacy to live  up and the villains are as cartoonish as one can ask for in a low budget movie.  I think if you placed your expectations somewhere between the camp of the 60s Batman TV series and the more serious incarnations since, you'd have an idea of what you're in for with "The Black Knight Returns".

There are some strong performances and some very weak ones.  A few plot points need more explaining.  (There was a weapon used against the Knights that I didn't understand how it was supposed to be working at all.) Some of these may have actually been explained very well through dialogue, but unfortunately, like many movies under the $100K mark, the audio leaves something to be desired.  The music track is constant and it interferes with the dialogue about 30-40% of the time.

For those looking for violence, there is some shooting and a bit of super hero martial arts, but not as much as you'd expect from an action movie made in 2009.  Most of the blood is digital, which is okay, but at times it doesn't fit the scene.

The lighting seems like maybe three different people were involved.  In some shots it was brilliant and in others just awful.  A few times it was obviously just whatever ambient lighting they had available.  Again, this sort of thing is common on low budget features.  You don't always have control over the lights and sometimes find your ability to change it later digitally wasn't what you expected.

It sounds like I didn't like this movie, but really, it's an ambitious little super hero movie and if you like super hero movies, chances are you've seen all of the big budgeted ones a dozen times.  Give this one a chance instead of re-watching something else while it's still part of your Amazon Prime plan.  You can always switch over to something more familiar 10 minutes in if it isn't to your liking.
MeTV has got some great old Super Hero shows on Saturday evenings also, so  you can make a weekend of it.