Bringing you a review of two movies today. This is partly because they're very loosely related, partly because I watched them back to back and largely because neither really has enough "meat" to merit it's own review.
I saw these both on Amazon Prime. The two movies are: "Knock `em Dead" and "Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre".
A quick disclaimer needs to be stated here. I am starting a new gig soon and was studying and making notes for it during both of these movies. I REALLY don't think it affected my ability to follow the very thin plot lines, but I may have missed a visual or two that could have improved my experience. I know most people are distracted when watching movies at home now, so I feel distracted watching sometimes gives a more realistic review experience. I may check my phone or play with the dog or do some other "home chore" that anyone else running a movie as a distraction may do, but I feel like it deserves to be mentioned when I am actively participating in something else. I know it's not entirely fair to the movie, but I think the thing that really takes you "out" of both of these films is their insider's peak into the film industry.
"Knock 'Em Dead" is a David DeCoteau film with a killer cast, if you're a fan of 80s and 90s T.V. Rae Dawn Chong, Anne-Marie Johnson and Debra Wilson play out of work, down on their luck actresses, each facing a different major life hurdle. Rae Dawn Chong turns in the best performance of the bunch, but Anne-Marie Johnson and Debra Wilson do a great job of delivering over the top, tongue in cheek, b-movie dialogue driven performances. For much of the film their characters are putting up a front, and so the nature of their acting fits that characterization. You'll recognize other cast members as well, including Jackee Harry and Betsy Russel. The whole cast does a fine to good job.
The plot is pretty straight forward. A group of actors and filmmakers, who did a very popular horror movie a decade earlier, are brought back together, on a private island, to take a shot at making a sequel. They all parted ways on terrible terms all those years ago, but now they're left with no opportunities, except this one. Once on the island for a weekend of shooting, with no cell phones and no contact with the outside world, things start to go wrong. (This isn't a surprise.) As the bodies pile up, a mystery starts to form and a bit of comedy finds its way into the mix, but really, there weren't many big laughs. It was more of the characters making fun of each other with tired old insults. (Check the trailer below.) The kills are unique to say the least. Everything is used from wild animals to explosives. We're told these are kills following the ones from the original movie, but we've never seen the original movie, so we sort of find this out after the fact and I think that hurts the impact a bit.
By the end there aren't many suspects left, but I was still guessing most of the way through. Meanwhile, our three stars get to start liking each other again, all the while worrying if they'll make to morning, never mind Monday. It plays very much like a TV movie from the 80s.
Technically, it's solid, with decent to good lighting throughout, clean enough sound, and special effects ranging from "wow that was bad" to "hey that was better than I expected".
If you're a fan of the core cast, give it a watch, otherwise it's more or less a movie worth having on your radar, but not worth watching over something else.
Now, for "Summer Camp Massacre", Dave Campfield stars, writes and directs this homage to slasher in the woods movies. (A man after my own heart.) I looked up some of his other work and found that Caesar and Otto are recurring characters in several movies like this. I'm going to guess that if you like Caesar and Otto, you'll like Caesar and Otto in this. It took me awhile to warm up to the characters and completely off the wall style. Imagine "Airplane" or "Police Squad" as horror movies and directed by Lloyd Kaufmann while starring a guy doing his best impression of Lloyd acting like a bad actor.
I honestly don't know how else to describe it.
This one did require a bit more of my attention to keep up. Several of the jokes were visuals that were inconsistent with Caesar's account of things. Again we're treated to jokes about life in L.A. and the film industry, which I really think are only funny to people who are in or know people in the film industry. I guess that covers a lot more people now than it used to, but still, inside industry jokes always limit your audience.
Another set of jokes and plot devices relies on the audience knowing horror movies. In a horror comedy, this is a bit more useful, since the viewer is likely to have seen at least a few horror movies. Felissa Rose turns in a fine performance.
Again, for what appears to be a VERY low budget indie, this movie is technically solid. Some of the camera work and lighting is extremely uninspired, but none of it is distractingly bad. The audio is mostly solid and the effects are appropriately and intentionally cheesy.
The only real complaint is that if you don't relate to one of the loser brother characters of Otto of Caesar, you'll have nobody to like or relate to in this movie. Definitely one for Troma fans or fans of horror who like to laugh at themselves and the genre they love.
If after these flicks you're looking for more monstrous laughs, go buy my DVD set of "Lumber vs Jack" and "Jack vs Lanterns". (For a limited time that $25 includes shipping in the U.S.)
I saw these both on Amazon Prime. The two movies are: "Knock `em Dead" and "Caesar and Otto's Summer Camp Massacre".
A quick disclaimer needs to be stated here. I am starting a new gig soon and was studying and making notes for it during both of these movies. I REALLY don't think it affected my ability to follow the very thin plot lines, but I may have missed a visual or two that could have improved my experience. I know most people are distracted when watching movies at home now, so I feel distracted watching sometimes gives a more realistic review experience. I may check my phone or play with the dog or do some other "home chore" that anyone else running a movie as a distraction may do, but I feel like it deserves to be mentioned when I am actively participating in something else. I know it's not entirely fair to the movie, but I think the thing that really takes you "out" of both of these films is their insider's peak into the film industry.
"Knock 'Em Dead" is a David DeCoteau film with a killer cast, if you're a fan of 80s and 90s T.V. Rae Dawn Chong, Anne-Marie Johnson and Debra Wilson play out of work, down on their luck actresses, each facing a different major life hurdle. Rae Dawn Chong turns in the best performance of the bunch, but Anne-Marie Johnson and Debra Wilson do a great job of delivering over the top, tongue in cheek, b-movie dialogue driven performances. For much of the film their characters are putting up a front, and so the nature of their acting fits that characterization. You'll recognize other cast members as well, including Jackee Harry and Betsy Russel. The whole cast does a fine to good job.
The plot is pretty straight forward. A group of actors and filmmakers, who did a very popular horror movie a decade earlier, are brought back together, on a private island, to take a shot at making a sequel. They all parted ways on terrible terms all those years ago, but now they're left with no opportunities, except this one. Once on the island for a weekend of shooting, with no cell phones and no contact with the outside world, things start to go wrong. (This isn't a surprise.) As the bodies pile up, a mystery starts to form and a bit of comedy finds its way into the mix, but really, there weren't many big laughs. It was more of the characters making fun of each other with tired old insults. (Check the trailer below.) The kills are unique to say the least. Everything is used from wild animals to explosives. We're told these are kills following the ones from the original movie, but we've never seen the original movie, so we sort of find this out after the fact and I think that hurts the impact a bit.
By the end there aren't many suspects left, but I was still guessing most of the way through. Meanwhile, our three stars get to start liking each other again, all the while worrying if they'll make to morning, never mind Monday. It plays very much like a TV movie from the 80s.
Technically, it's solid, with decent to good lighting throughout, clean enough sound, and special effects ranging from "wow that was bad" to "hey that was better than I expected".
If you're a fan of the core cast, give it a watch, otherwise it's more or less a movie worth having on your radar, but not worth watching over something else.
Now, for "Summer Camp Massacre", Dave Campfield stars, writes and directs this homage to slasher in the woods movies. (A man after my own heart.) I looked up some of his other work and found that Caesar and Otto are recurring characters in several movies like this. I'm going to guess that if you like Caesar and Otto, you'll like Caesar and Otto in this. It took me awhile to warm up to the characters and completely off the wall style. Imagine "Airplane" or "Police Squad" as horror movies and directed by Lloyd Kaufmann while starring a guy doing his best impression of Lloyd acting like a bad actor.
I honestly don't know how else to describe it.
This one did require a bit more of my attention to keep up. Several of the jokes were visuals that were inconsistent with Caesar's account of things. Again we're treated to jokes about life in L.A. and the film industry, which I really think are only funny to people who are in or know people in the film industry. I guess that covers a lot more people now than it used to, but still, inside industry jokes always limit your audience.
Another set of jokes and plot devices relies on the audience knowing horror movies. In a horror comedy, this is a bit more useful, since the viewer is likely to have seen at least a few horror movies. Felissa Rose turns in a fine performance.
Again, for what appears to be a VERY low budget indie, this movie is technically solid. Some of the camera work and lighting is extremely uninspired, but none of it is distractingly bad. The audio is mostly solid and the effects are appropriately and intentionally cheesy.
The only real complaint is that if you don't relate to one of the loser brother characters of Otto of Caesar, you'll have nobody to like or relate to in this movie. Definitely one for Troma fans or fans of horror who like to laugh at themselves and the genre they love.
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