Shot on the Panasonic AG AF100
One of the strangest things about the internet as a whole is how it seems to have taken a life of its own. Creating sub-cultures, providing easy access to tons of information, and of course, Cat videos. Also, lots and lots of entertainment value. One such form of online entertainment which I occasionally partake in myself is the Review Show. Where nerds and experts of a specific field like history or film and so on provide video essays on any given subject related to their area of expertise. Other times, there are funny guys in silly costumes who take it to a whole new level. As in way over the top. The Angry Video Game Nerd is just such a crazy show, and his movie is, without question, his magnum opus of ridiculousness. This isn't a movie, it's an experience. One that admittedly is not for everyone but is good silly fun for its own audience.
For those of you who don't know, The Angry Video Game Nerd is a fictional character created by professional online filmmaker, and cinema enthusiast, James Rolfe. Growing up as a fan of horror cinema, especially the classics like Dracula and The Mummy, James Rolfe has wanted to make movies for as long as he can remember and has made countless short films since he first picked up a video camera. One of his short films, The Angry Nintendo Nerd, in which he plays an over-the-top parody of stereotypical video game obsessed nerds, skyrocketed his online filmmaking career. The Nerd, as portrayed by James Rolfe, would review old video games and mock them in an incredibly profane and occasionally gruesome fashion. While his main attraction was the ludicrous amounts of profanity and occasional gross-out humor, at the heart of it all was a guy who just wanted to make movies. James Rolfe has since toned down his act and continues to make Nerd videos to this day, but now he tends to put more emphasis on more clever comedy and commentary, as well as the occasional surprise guest appearance from people like Lloyd Kaufman (the founder of Troma Entertainment) and Macaulay Culkin (I swear I am not kidding).
Anyway, after making Nerd videos for a few years, James Rolfe decided that he was ready to finally make a motion picture, and his Nerd character was the best jumping off point to do so. After raising well over his proposed budget through crowdfunding via Kickstarter, James gathered his friends, put together a cast and crew, and went to work. Some of the ambitions at play for this film was to utilize as many practical effects as possible, to include as many things as James Rolfe liked as a film enthusiast including giant monsters, and to feature a review of an old and much-hated video game.
How did it all turn out?... Well...
Before I run down the story, please allow me to give you a brief history lesson about one of the worst video games ever produced. This is the driving point of the movie's plot, and it's actually kind of fascinating.
Back in the 1980s, a little film titled E.T. directed by Steven Spielberg hit theaters. It was a massive hit and tons of merchandise was manufactured to capitalize on its success, including video games, or rather one game for the great grandfather of gaming consoles, the Atari 2600. Back then, game designers who regularly developed games for the Atari 2600 had an order for about three hundred thousand copies and were usually given at least four months to build the game. Well, the people who were commissioned to make the E.T. game was only given six weeks to make the game and had an order for five million copies. Needless to say, this became a huge problem. Because of this rushed production, the game itself was not tested before release. As such, it turned out to be so unplayable and so unnecessarily tricky, that the few copies that were sold had promptly been returned and refunded. Causing retailers to either chuck the games into bargain bins or return them to the manufacturer. Legend has it, the game became so useless and unable to sell, that Atari recalled all of the unsold cartridges dumped them into their own landfill, where they lay dormant to this very day.
And now, the story.
The story follows The Nerd (James Rolfe) going about his life making review videos and working at a video game store. That is until he's approached by a representative of massive game developer that's looking to produce a sequel to the E.T. game and requests him to review the original mainly for publicity and marketing opportunities. The Nerd is very reluctant, not just because the game is so awful, but because he has a personal phobia of the game. Even so, his fans become infatuated with the idea of The Nerd reviewing the game and even more with the legendary Atari landfill. So, to appease his fans while not having to discuss the game, The Nerd decides to travel to the legendary landfill and prove once and for all that the legend is just that, a legend. However, upon arriving at the landfill, The Nerd stumbles upon an even bigger conspiracy that he could not have even imagined involving actual Aliens and their connection to the original E.T. game. Now, The Nerd must solve the mystery, and in doing so, confront his greatest fear.
This movie is a no-nonsense, self-aware, overcranked, absolutely insane experience. While it is catered to a specific audience, there is still a great deal of passion put into every single frame. Even if you don't like the film, there is still so much about it to admire. Speaking personally, while I am a proud fan of The Angry Video Game Nerd for my own reasons, despite there being occasional jokes that don't land for me, I find his movie to be an odd yet enjoyable experience. This may be one of the best visualizations of the word "fun." The film embraces its own insanity thereby encouraging the audience to do the same. A rare treat indeed.
The main attraction of the film is, arguably, the special effects. As I mentioned earlier, the majority of the effects are practical. As in they utilized a lot of miniatures, puppets, and classic tricks such as rear projection to create most of the events on screen. While a good deal of CGI (Computer Generated Imaging) was also used, the general rule of the film was to use as many practical effects as possible. Due to the films limited budget, some of the puppets and miniatures do look, admittedly, pretty obvious. Even so, that did not seem to bother James Rolfe. In his behind-the-scenes features, James comments that when the audience can see how an effect was accomplished, it makes them feel like they're part of the experience. Similar to how a joke can be funnier when only a select few are in on it. Even so, the quality of the effects are so incredible, I am still impressed whenever I see it all unfold.
Just like the previous film I reviewed (Down and Dangerous), Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie was shot on the Panasonic AG AF100, and was captured utilizing the cameras internal AVCHD codec. This makes the film even more impressive to me. Not just because of the excellent quality of the format, but also because of how well utilized it is for the movie. Typically in films that have as many special effects like this one (miniatures, green screen, CGI and so on), filmmakers will want to utilize a more advanced capture format that allows for more flexibility in image manipulation. As I mentioned in my most recent blog post where I discussed AVCHD in great detail, I said that it is a pretty limited video format in terms of color space and wiggle room. It is not the first option most modern filmmakers would consider when taking on such an effects heavy movie. And yet, despite that, all of the effects in this film are gorgeous and seem to integrate into the images almost flawlessly. What's more, none of the effects shots ever look muddled or ugly as some might suspect given the capture format.
I was fortunate enough to get in touch with James Rolfe himself to inquire about his experience with the camera and the choice of video format. I was curious to know if he had any negative experience with the restrictive video codec when color-grading or adding in the special effects. More importantly, I was interested to learn if he ever received any complaints about the image quality. In his response, James Rolfe confided in me that during pre-production for the film, they had actually considered a more advanced camera system, including some 4K models, but ultimately couldn't afford it. He further told me that when applying his color-correction and special effects, he never encountered any serious problems that made him question their vitality or quality. Even better, no one ever complained about the image quality or capture format. Needless to say, this made my heart soar.
Now, one could argue that since this film was "Home Made" and mostly intended to be seen on televisions and computer screens by a smaller audience, that any validation regarding the films capture format is irrelevant because it wasn't made to be a serious movie. I would argue that, on the contrary, this was indeed a serious movie. Because the people who made it were passionate about it all the way through its conception and distribution. This movie did play in theaters for mass audiences, both Nerd fans and general audiences alike. Even those who were unfamiliar with The Nerd admitted how impressed they were with the film and how much crazy fun it was. Are we meant to believe that genuine labors of love such as this film are automatically invalidated because of their capture format and their intended audience? If that's the case, then there's really no reason to make, watch, or enjoy movies of any kind. Trying to invalidate a film for its technological aspects or audience reception is like trying to disregard a well baked Chocolate Cake because it was made with Hershey's chocolate rather than something more prestine. If the Cake still looks and tastes good, who cares which chocolate was used?
While it is not exactly for everyone's enjoyment, Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie is a film that just about everyone can admire in some way. It has a ton of heart and embraces a high level of silliness that, frankly, is missing from a lot of Hollywood movies, and even indie films these days. Filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts alike can learn a lot from the film. If you're the least bit curious, give it a look. Just be prepared for a couple of moments that can only be described as juvenile.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you all for reading.
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