Saw it last night at a sold-out midnight screening. All seats were filled and the crowd was completely into it, and in that kind of viewing environment it's pretty hard not to love it. I really had a blast with it, the movie was much more fun than I expected. I guess having been burned by so many turgid SyFy movies over the past few years, I almost forgot how much fun a movie like this could be when it works.
As for a recommendation... all I can really say is if you enjoyed the trailer, you're going to love the movie. If you didn't... it could go either way.
The movie opens with two truck drivers driving a truck full of toxic waste. Right in the opening minutes, they made a couple of lame crude jokes about sh*t, or maybe they just said something like "I have to sh*t", I don't remember exactly. As soon as they said that, I thought "oh great... it's that kind of humor". Fortunately, that wasn't the case. There are a few crude jokes scattered throughout, but for the most part, I found it genuinely funny.
I was expecting the characters to be extremely unlikable, but fortunately that wasn't the case either. I liked four of them, disliked two of them, so overall that's a fair mix. Plus, I liked the side characters, like the hilarious elderly couple who live next door and the hunter. Even though the movie is all about the genre cliches and making fun of them, it also breaks them in a few ways. For instance, the last character standing isn't at all who you'd expect from a movie like this.
As for the Zombeavers themselves, it's almost entirely practical effects. I did spot a little computer assistance in there, but I'd say about 95% of it is practical. Some of the effects are pretty crudely executed, but it worked perfectly. I don't think the movie would have been nearly as much fun had it just been little CGI animated beavers running around. And honorable mention to the score, which definitely had a bit of an '80s vibe, even though the movie itself is very contemporary with cellphones and references and the like.
The filmmakers set out to make a good bad movie... and they actually succeeded. That approach is usually a good way to shoot yourself in the foot, but this one actually worked for me. You get what you pay for. I suppose it could have just been the audience experience, but I feel like I'd still have enjoyed this had I simply picked it up off the DVD rack. It's a heck of a lot more fun than that Sharknado movie everyone is so crazy about. And at an incredibly lean 77 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
|
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Can't wait!
Linear Mode
