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deadinside91
Reviews
The Dictator (2012)
Not bad, but Cohen could've done better.
Well, after seeing Sacha Baron Cohen's "The Dictator", I have only this to say, for a movie in itself, it's pretty good. For a Sacha Baron Cohen movie, it falls short.
I feel as though Cohen's greatest strength is shock value as seen in his two previous films, Brüno and Borat. There isn't much shock humor in this movie. Instead, we get sort of a mix between dark humor, slapstick, and political satire. In this film, Cohen still wants to maintain his signature shock value sense of humor while trying not to offend anyone, which to me, doesn't work.
My main complaint about this film is that it has the same stupid fish-out-of-water premise he's been doing for six years already where a foreigner goes to America and learns about their customs. Honestly, when will he drop that shtick already? Okay yes, there are minor differences. In Borat, he played a Kazakh journalist. In Brüno, he played a gay Austrian reporter. In this film, he played a Middle Eastern dictator, but with all the differences aside, they're all the technically the same film.
Another problem I have with this movie is the camera work. It doesn't know if it wants to go back it its shaky mockumentary roots or if it wants to be a steady legitimate film. It kind of transitions between both and the result is a confusing mish-mash between amateur filmmaking and steady camera work filmmaking.
All in all, "The Dictator" isn't a bad movie by any means nor is it Cohen's weakest film. It just has its share of flaws. Besides, you can't top Borat. Then again, he wasn't trying to. But, what do I know? I'm just a stupid kid.
Battlefield Earth (2000)
Something special.
Battlefield Earth is deplorable in every conceivable way possible, from the acting, to the directing, to the script, to the special effects, to the cinematography,to the dialogue, to the action scenes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But, no matter how much I lambaste the freaking film, something about it puts a smile to my face. I mean, Battlefield Earth is a horrendous picture, but it's something more. It's something special. There's something about Battlefield Earth that just makes me happy. Maybe it's because it reminds me a lot of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Don't get me wrong, I think Plan 9 is one of the worst sci-fi films ever made, but it was Ed Wood's enthusiasm that made Plan 9 so loved among people such as myself. Maybe that's why Battlefield Earth is so enjoyable to me. It's so ambitious and pretentious that it inevitably brings a smile to my face.
Either that, or I'm just a sucker for bad movies.
Pot Zombies (2005)
The problem is.... they're trying.
I had to sit through Pot Zombies yesterday and boy was it atrocious. I mean, for Troma, that's kinda what you expect, but you don't get that same B-movie charm you get from other Troma movies like The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke 'Em High. The makers of this movie knew they were making crap, but they direct is as if they tried to make us laugh at it's poor quality. With other Troma movies like (again) Toxic Avenger, Nuke 'Em High, and Blood Hook, they also knew they were making Troma schlock, but they kind of let the movie direct itself, go with the flow and don't put such a comedic emphasis on its poor quality.
This movie treats it's audience like imbeciles and tells us what we're supposed to laugh at (as if it were not already shoved in our faces). It's a lot like those (horrid excuses for) parody movies made by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg. They really push that comedy in your face to the point where you literally yell "Okay! We get it already!". If you want to make a decent B movie, watch Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Mystery Science Theater 3000, or anything made by Ed Wood.