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BoilerBroJoe
BoilerBroJoe's stats
- Review count2
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewFebruary 19, 2012
- Last reviewMay 27, 2012
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating3
BoilerBroJoe's Reviews
Overall rating
5
/
5
Battle Royale: When Teachers Attack!
PostedMay 27, 2012
Dialogue
4
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5
Special Effects
4
/
5
Art Direction
5
/
5
Acting
5
/
5
Story
4
/
5
Camerawork
5
/
5
The film's insistence on melodrama results in a decent level of campiness - some times intentional, others maybe not so much. And while certainly entertaining, that campiness on occasion undermines what is meant to be legitimately shocking. But what may not be so good is greatly outweighed by what is. In contrast to films (both Japanese and American) that often portray youth as frighteningly over-violent, over-indulgent and oversexed, "Battle Royale" ultimately portrays them as victims, having these things literally forced upon them from above. Its earnest plea to teenagers to fear adults and adult values is what is truly provocative here. But in the end, with all its dark humor and teen angst, "Battle Royale" is simply a fun movie and one that should not be ignored.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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Overall rating
1
/
5
A "Good-Bad Movie" Classic, Ruined
PostedFebruary 19, 2012
BoilerBroJoe
from Manhattan, NY
This review is not for "The Room" itself, which undoubtedly deserves five glowing stars. Instead this review is for the notorious "audience participatory" midnight screenings, which are arguably an entirely different experience.
You can tell that "The Room" is amazingly funny in its unintentional humor, its bad dialogue and its ridiculously poor staging/acting as you watch it on screen at your local theater. Unfortunately you won't be able to enjoy any of those things with an audience screaming over the entire movie. I went into the screening knowing about its history of audience participation - the spoon throwing, the yelling out of lines in unison - and thought, quite frankly, that it could be fun. I did have a sneaking suspicion, however, that something was amiss. Boy was I correct.
The problem with the yelling audience is not just that you can't hear any dialogue, although admittedly, if the sound had been turned up enough to drown out the majority of yells, I would have enjoyed it vastly more. The real problem here is that the already-in-on-the-joke audience essentially sucks the humor out of every moment of the movie, by spreading it bare for all to see. A true "good-bad movie" is a nuanced experience - like a fine wine with subtle, tantalizing flavors. This was beer bong; a force-feeding of watered down, flavorless alcohol, which undoubtedly is something the audience was well acquainted with.
There is no excitement at the next reveal, no ability to explore and discover the movie's badness yourself. The experience, which could have been wonderfully different for each audience member depending on their sense of humor or taste, was painfully homogenized by a public that has decided what is funny, and why, with draconian efficiency. The jokes contributed by audience members themselves are for the most part wildly unfunny and skirt dangerously close to misogynistic territory. (I am aware that those comments in particular are generally meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the satire is quickly lost when each derogatory statement towards women is yelled exclusively by men. One wonders how much of it is mockery of the film's presumptions, and how much is glee at the opportunity to express violent language towards the fairer sex, in public and without shame)
This is not at all to say that I'm above the low-brow and potentially tasteless humor of audience involvement. I'm all for audience participation at a bad movie. A screening at a theater where a smattering of people have taken it upon themselves to insert comments can greatly enhance the experience. But here, the spontaneity and, in my opinion, the authenticity, of a real audience participation is lost. The audience members are not discovering the film's flaws together or at the same pace. There is no sense of wonder and excitement at an organic connection with your fellow members of the public. There is only oppression. A tyranny of the masses.
Watch "The Room" with a few friends in your apartment. I feel like this is how the movie was meant to be watched. Indeed, the cult phenomenon began when a young screenwriter invited a handful of his friends to an empty theater in LA where "The Room" was showing. Word of mouth spread, and then, like all things fed to the pop-culture meat grinder, the joy was killed by a relentlessly trend-obsessed consumer culture. Once you've already seen "The Room" and appreciated it fully, it's up to you whether you'd like to engage in what, at the very least, is a fascinating anthropological study of modern society. Perhaps you will find something to love in the midnight screenings. I know I didn't.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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