It is finally here! I got to see this in Chicago last night on its second showing (the first showing on the 14th sold out in less than a day). The film overall is an exercise in self indulgence...which can be good, and bad...the good is that it is fun to relive some of the Nerd's web videos and see the self-referencing all over the place with internet stardom and other internet celebrities (such as the Nostalgia Critic) used in cameos...the bad is that there is nothing more uncomfortable than watching people laugh on film at the very thing that you've genuinely grown to appreciate in your own right. in other words, the age old...don't laugh at your own jokes on screen. it's self aggrandizing.

maybe james rolfe will learn this the hard way--although outside of his fans, i don't know how big this movie will get. i do hope it is screened at film competitions because you can tell he put a lot of hard work into it. the practical effects are pretty funny, and they're self aware. he knows you know it's all rubber, plastic, cardboard, and green screens. but because rolfe is such a cinephile, it's a joy to try and figure out what other movies he's referencing throughout.

the film's climax is also a bit of a letdown...it kind of just ends, again, with him entertaining his fans. not really necessary in the grand scheme of things. we already know his fans love him. he's trying to get a new fanbase here, the film crowd...and like i said, it's a bit of a turnoff when you spend a good 10-15 minutes of your 120 minute running time showing how much his fans love him. i would've gone a different direction from that.

other than that, though, it is a very fun movie. i laughed, i was entertained, and i liked the characters. i also liked the plot, that involves government conspiracies revolving around the Atari 2600 flop E.T. game (hilariously referred to as EeTee as an obvious attempt at getting around copyright infringement). Everybody knows getting licensing agreements from big companies are going to require a big budget. This film was made for approximately $325k. Not nearly enough to cover the cost. But still it's kinda fun to see how he gets around all of that.

It's also nice that they were able to snag Robbie Rist (voice of Michaelangelo from the original TMNT movie) for voiceover work for a character. And I love that they got Whitney Moore (of "Birdemic") to be in a cameo as a Vegas chapel bride. And a certain Troma celeb makes an appearance as well.

If you're a fan of AVGN, you'll like it. If you've never heard of him...this may pique your interest. But I will say that you may be a bit turned off by all of the hubbub that Rolfe puts in this movie about celebrating himself as the Nerd. I get that he's trying to pay tribute to his fans (who made him a celeb in the first place)...but there are more subtle ways in doing that that are not as self congratulating.

But fuck it...I liked the movie a lot.

out of