It's Lloyd Approved, What More Can I Say?

Oh boy. This... this review is going to be tricky.

For anyone who has seen my tribute for the fourth year anniversary of Channel Awesome/That Guy With The Glasses, they'll know I'm a fan of the site, and the personalities within (the ones I'm aware of, anyway. And I will get around to watching more in the new year).

Among these personalities is Brad Jones, better known to the fandom as The Cinema Snob, among other characters. On The Cinema Snob (which you can find at the TGWTG site, http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/, and his own, http://thecinemasnob.com/ ), Brad Jones reviews movies of an exploitive nature, mostly gory horror or pornographical material. He started off doing reviews on YouTube, until his review of Nail Gun Massacre caught the attention of the DVD distributors, and that led to him being kicked off of YouTube, and starting his own site, which I have listed above.

The man's got many projects under his belt, most of them being series still occurring to this day, like The Big Box (a look at movies on VHS and the covers they come in) and 80's Dan (a sitcom about a hard partying 80's guy who somehow time traveled to the present day), as well as other films (which I have yet to see, and I should make that a priority in the new year) and he and his dedicated friends (affectionately named Team Snob) have created some of the best videos you'll see on the web today (like the aforementioned 80's Dan series).

Someday, I should do something more in depth about Brad's site, but until then, let's look at the feature film about his best known character, The Cinema Snob Movie.

Craig Golightly (Brad) is a screenwriter who's eager to get his exploitation film, Black Angus, off the ground, but the head of the local film club, Dan (Ryan Mitchelle, also the director of the film) refuses permits to Craig. Craig opts to go undercover into the film club, under the guise of a pretentious film snob, and winds up in a murder mystery situation.

In my opening line, I mentioned that this was going to be a tricky one to review. That's for three reasons:

1. Being a fan of something, it can come across as bias, even if you were to review something in a negative light. For example, being a huge Batman fan, and a lover of Christopher Nolan's films, my reviews of his Batman trilogy may come across as “fanboyish”, due to the two intertwining. And I admit, on some level, my love for the Batman mythology shines through in those reviews a lot.
   At the same time, that doesn't mean every Batman film is pure gold. Batman And Robin sure as Hell isn't. I don't hate it with a fiery passion, but it is easily the black sheep of the family. And The Batman Vs. Dracula gets a very resounding “meh” from me.
   What I'm getting at is due to the fact that Brad and the gang know their stuff, their ability to make better films is already without question. That doesn't mean I won't find a flaw or something like that, but I'm going in knowing what to expect, and it's going to be hard to be disappointed. Despite the fact that it follows a different format to the show, the roots of the movie are clearly trenched in the exploitation genre, a subject Brad could write a book on (Hell, with the amount of projects he's done, I wouldn't be surprised if he is writing a book right now).
   Now, being a fan of something big like a comic book character is different to being the fan of something comparatively smaller. Brad may not have millions of fans who have grown up with him as the years have passed, but what the fanbase lacks in numbers, they make up for it with fierce loyalty and support. So, on that end of it, should I trash the film, I'll get attacked for “not getting the movie” or something like that. But if I praise it too much, I'll be seen as a suck-up who can't find even the tiniest of flaws in the work of someone I respect. Sometimes, you just can't win.
2. It's hard to recommend this. Not because of quality, Lord no! But it's a bit under the radar, and you can't exactly buy it in stores either.
   If we look at things from a “mainstream” approach, it's not going to appeal to a wide audience because of lack of familiarity with the character, the actors or even the style. It might be a little too meta or self-referential for some, but I think it works. Really, there's no other style Brad and Ryan could go with.
3. I actually don't have a lot to say about it, outside of praise for the acting (especially for Brad, Jake Norvell and Jillian Zurawski), the dialogue and the shifting of the genres working so well.
   It starts off as a Kevin Smith-styled comedy (which already appeals to me, because I love that man's work. Well, a lot of it.), and slides into a murder mystery as I mentioned above. A murder mystery with creative kills. Comedy and murder, never a bad combination in my books. Also, the music at the start and end remind me of Woody Allen films, again, not a bad thing.

The long and short of it is I really liked this movie a lot. Filled to the brim with pop culture references, ranging from obscure to popular, and a lot of lampshade hanging (like at the end, with the whole “bad guy reveals their whole backstory/motivation to the protagonist for seemingly no reason” trope), realistic reactions (well, Jake's are a little mood-whiplashy but that's WHY the character works, because he makes you laugh without taking you out of the moment), and much like Brad's character in the series, the film could be seen as a commentary on film culture today, with the exploitation genre not in good health these days, and the idea of the snobby critic who tries to find the art in everything.

I'm not going to try and analyze it because I think I'd suck at it (OK, I suck at analysis in general, but that's beside the point) but all I have left to say is if you're a fan of the Cinema Snob series, the movie should be right up your alley. If you've never seen an episode in your life, watch some of it, to get a feel for the character and the actor. It's a hard beast to review, but very much well worth your time.

Well, actually, I do have two things left to say:

If I do have a flaw with the movie, it's about something that baffles me. Maybe it's in one of the commentaries, maybe I just need to watch it again, but this movie is supposed to serve as a prequel of sorts to the show. Fine, no problem with that. But aside from the continuity errors that creates (so he goes from having a beard to being clean shaven in his first episode? And the change in location?), it doesn't really explain why he becomes the Cinema Snob. OK, we know why Brad does the role, but the way the movie ends, it's not like he's made some declaration to start picking apart bad exploitation films to reclaim the genre from the hacks or something. It's not that big a deal, but maybe it would have worked better if it was a side-story or something, like the anniversary specials on TGWTG. Or maybe I missed something and I'm just an idiot (I'd put all my money on that option).

Also, a movie mentioned within that Craig wants to make, about people trapped by floods in a casino with sharks (the title is Card Shark), I will throw money at that to somehow make it happen. Hell, the title is hilarious, how bad could the rest of it be?

An easy 4/5 from me. I'm sorry the review wasn't more informative (if I ever get a copy of the Angry Video Game Nerd Movie next year, I'll probably have the same troubles), but it's the kind of thing you need to see to really understand.