That Guy With The Glasses (TGWTG): Kickassia Review
If Kickassia deserves to be on the IMDB, then it deserves to be put under the microscope in the same fashion that the TGWTG crew do to the movies they review.
Before we kick things off, I'd like to say that Kickassia is hardly a movie. You're most likely thinking "Why's that? It's clearly advertised as such on IMDB and the DVD."
I'll tell you why: it's because I consider movies to be entertaining and worth the investment of time, and Kickassia is neither. If you have never heard of either Kickassia or ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, the website where this piece of cinema comes from, then let me explain:
ThatGuyWithTheGlasses (TGWTG, for short) is a website that started up in 2008, and stars an internet personality named Doug Walker, who produces shows like The Nostalgia Critic, a show whose host, played by Doug Walker, himself, reviews 'nostalgic' (but aweful) movies. The site also houses other contributors who also review movies, anime, and video games; however, in my opinion, the site has been on the decline of quality since its 1st Year Anniversary.
For its 2nd Year Anniversary, TGWTG produced a 6-part movie, "Kickassia," as celebration, where the various reviewers from the site plan a hostile takeover of a real micronation, Molossia, with the Nostalgia Critic at the helm of command. Despite my own negative opinions of the site since its decline, I will not let that get in the way of making this review as fair as possible.
However, I must also bring something up that was brought to my attention when I read reviews on IMDB (Kickassia's creators are tenacious enough to actually put Kickassia in the credible database in belief that it can be taken seriously): Some fanboys wrote reviews on IMDB for "Kickassia," giving it anywhere from 8-10 stars, and with a specific plea in mind: they ask reviewers not to criticize Kickassia on the basis that it is fanservice for the devoted TGWTG fanbase, and nothing more, casting away any notion that harsh reviews should be taken seriously.
For those who made this plea, think about this for a moment: if a movie, fanservice or not, is on IMDB and on sale via DVD, what do you expect to happen? Just because something is fanservice does not mean it can't be taken seriously as a movie, and that's obviously what Michaud/Walker were thinking when they put it on IMDB.Therefore, Kickassia will be judged like any other movie on the database, no exception.
With that somewhat tedious and bitchy introduction out of the way, let's finally get to reviewing TGWTG's Kickassia.
1. Story and Character:
With any movie under review, perhaps the most vital thing to take into consideration is the story, as that is what the audience comes to be entertained with. So how does Kickassia's story hold up? In short, it's incredibly flimsy. Although it is obviously not meant to be a masterpiece in cinema, more could have seriously been put into the plot, but all we get is instead a string of in-jokes, cultural references, and memes. The main objective of a story is to emotionally impact the audience, even if it is to a very minimal level. I understand that not every single movie is going to heavily impact its audience, but even good comedies invoke the reaction of laughter and joy when they are executed well enough. In the case of "Kickassia," I believe this is not the case because the plot is nonexistent, so the string of jokes does not have the capacity to impact the audience, outside of TGWTG fans, in any way (see "2. Comedy" below for more on why Kickassia does not even invoke laughter).
However, you could argue that some movies are character films ("The Big Lebowski", "Wayne's World"), and you could say that because we are following not a general plot but the protagonists like Linkara (played by Lewis Lovhaug) and Spoony (played by Noah Antwiller), it is a character film. There is a dilemma in this thinking, though: you can't have a character film without characters. Perhaps what I see is the biggest flaw of Kickassia is that the film is devoid of real personality; all of the reviewers who star in Kickassia are cutouts, one monotone personality distinguishing each person. We are presented with the personalities of every reviewer on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, which would have been fine if there was actual character development. Instead, I believe that the protagonists are more like cartoon characters, each having their own quirky gimmick but not really contributing anything meaningful to Kickassia. In short, they personify the memes and in-jokes that have been made popular on their shows and so we already know that we're in trouble because the heart and backbone of any movie, the characters and plot, are both seriously lacking in substance and development.
See: A real character film.
2. Comedy
However, horrible story and zero character development can be overlooked if a comedy has some golden jokes to make it worthwhile, right? ... right?
Well, I'm sorry to say, but there isn't a single joke in Kickassia that is particularly memorable or humorous in any way. Aside from the occasional joke delivered by Brad Jones, aka the Cinema Snob, the writing for the other characters is simply unfunny.
Here's an example: there is a scene where the Kickassia invaders attempt to cross a fence, but have difficulty in doing so. This would have been a great joke, but it goes on for far too long. One of the biggest problems is the comedic timing: Kickassia is seriously lacking in good timing, which is again incredibly ironic seeing as one of the Nostalgia Critic's pet peeves in any comedy he reviews in his show is the timing of the jokes.
Another 'joke' I need to refer to is the "I believe in Santa Christ" scene, where the Critic shoots Santa Christ -a throw-away joke from a Christmas-themed episode of the Nostalgia Critic's show where Santa Claus and Jesus Christ are compiled into a single Christmas icon-, and Kickassia goes on for a good couple of minutes with nothing but the characters chanting "I believe in Santa Christ!"Again, the joke would have been funny had it been timed correctly, but the comedic timing in this scene is equivalent to the time it takes for a quadruple amputee to cross the road without any assistance.
From 1:23 to the end of the video. They spend all that time on a joke that has nothing to do with the film, and is just drawn out for an agonizingly long time. We're also treated to pointless cameos from other contributors to the site. Huzzah?
However, one of the cardinal sins of Kickassia that knocks the score way down is the fact that little of the humor is original. Most of the jokes are either references taken from the multiple review shows on the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses site, or are directly taken from other movies, television shows, or comics. Can you think of another show that solely depends on pop culture references, and has become agonizingly unfunny in the past couple of years? If you're thinking of "Family Guy", you would be correct. Naturally, the lack of original humor in "Family Guy" has resulted in viewers outside of its fanbase vilifying the show as a result, and the same would probably be said for Kickassia. That is, if many people outside of the TGWTG fanbase actually cared enough to watch it. This means the comedy is much weaker than it should be, and the nonexistent acting capabilities painfully emphasize this.
Let me pitch an example: The Nostalgia Critic reviewed the Street Fighter movie when his show was first starting up, and one of the jokes in the video was a clip of M. Bison (played by the late Raul Julia) exclaiming "Of course!" after it is discovered that M. Bison's ultimate goal was to take over the world. For the past two years, the Nostalgia Critic has recycled that clip whenever it is revealed that the villain in the movie that he is reviewing wants to take over the world. For the newer fans who have not seen every single episode of the "Nostalgia Critic" show, they would be completely lost when the Nostalgia Critic (played by Doug Walker), donning an M. Bison outfit, shouts "Of course!" at the end of an interview within the film. The same can be said for the numerous references to Patton, Star Trek, A Few Good Men, Star Wars, and even Looney Tunes: if you hadn't seen any of these movies or shows, you wouldn't know that the humor or quotes from these movies are shamelessly plagiarized.
Here's another example of a cultural reference that is a) out of date, and b) unfunny. Really? Sarah Palin?
To quote a fanboy's defense for "Kickassia's" lack of humor:
"Hence much of the humour and enjoyment to be had relies exclusively on the audience[']s familiarity... each with their own styles, in-jokes, memes, continuity, etc."
Another gaping problem with the humor of Kickassia is that much of the humor, in addition to being poorly timed and lifted straight from other shows or movies, is mainly memes and in-jokes from the episodes on the TGWTG.com website. That's a huge problem, as memes and in-jokes are inaccessible to wide audiences. An in-joke may be funny to a certain group, but as soon as you try to explain it to a stranger, they won't understand what you're trying to say. Again, many of the jokes are lifted from the various shows on the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses website, and most likely if you are unfamiliar with any of the review shows on the site, you aren't going to understand the humor. Such instances can be the "Spider Guy" gag, a joke that may make sense to the TGWTG fans who watched the Nostalgia Critic's review of the movie "Lost in Space", but will make absolutely no sense to any audience member, unfamiliar to TGWTG, who may come across Kickassia.
See: Spider Smith, one of the numerous random memes from TGWTG that manage to creep into Kickassia.
In conclusion, the story and characterization can't be saved because the humor is both largely unoriginal and bone-dry, with jokes lifted from tons of GOOD movies, in-jokes that non-fans won't get, and with the comedic timing of a dead man's pulse. For people who nitpick and criticize movies for a living, they couldn't have screwed up more than in "Kickassia..." unless there is a planned part-two for the inevitable 3-Year Anniversary.
3. Technical Aspects
The technical aspects, like the lighting, sound, score, camera work, and editing, help to form the ideas, story, and comedy into a tangible product: the final film. While the comedy, story, and character development are all surprisingly lacking, the technical aspect of Kickassia is surprisingly decent. However, I'm using decent loosely, as there are some major issues that counteract the overall rating of the "movie"'s technical aspects, and prevent it from being truly great cinematography. With that said, it is surprising that some of the technical issues in Kickassia are as bad as they are, especially coming from a group of individuals who make their livings critiquing movies and are (supposedly) well-versed in making them.
First and foremost, the biggest problem that I have with Kickassia's technical side is the lighting. While, overall, you can see what is going on, some shots are horrifically overexposed, when the lighting in a scene is so strong or bright that it detracts from the quality of the film. For example, the lighting gives off a really annoying glare whenever the characters were in an exterior shot, or whenever they are near a window indoors. This could have been avoided entirely if the natural lighting was controlled on set. It just looks bad, and this is something that you are taught near the beginning of a film or cinema course, so the fact that 'professional' movie critics made an amateur's mistake is especially shocking. The overexposure ruins some really neat shots at times, like during the Dr. Insano and Nostalgia Critic battle where they start firing bolts of lightning out of their hands, colliding in mid-air and both characters struggling for dominance. You can barely see that any of this is happening because of the overexposure from the window in the shot, so that ruined part of the epicness of that scene and just made it look unprofessional.
Examples of overexposure: First, refer to 3:28-4:25. Notice the window in the background?
Annoying, right? Secondly, refer to 5:38-5:56. Can you see the bolts of lighting? I sure as hell can't.
Another large issue that struck me as something to address in this review was that the continuity was all over the place. This is also an important factor in making a movie believable, as the audience wants to believe that the story is unfolding right in front of their eyes. However, to use a strange example, if somebody is suddenly holding a Coke can when they were holding a Pepsi bottle in the last shot, the film becomes a little less believable. In "Kickassia," there are a lot of continuity issues that are rather obvious. For example, when the Nostalgia Chick (played by Lindsay Ellis) goes to proclaim herself the new ruler of Kickassia, she is wearing her Palin jacket. Soon after, when Linkara crowns himself as the dictator of the nation, she no longer has the jacket on. Another error in continuity is when the character Phelous (played by Portean Phelan) is strangling the Nostalgia Critic as the other reviewers claim Kickassia for themselves. His hands change position numerous times throughout the scene, and it's glaringly obvious. Again, continuity is something that is taught on one of the first days of film making courses, so I am surprised to see that the people who made Kickassia, particularly Lindsay Ellis whose college major at NYU has something to do with film, made such a mistake.
Refer to 5:25-6:30, where the Chick goes from wearing a jacket to just a shirt in the same damn scene. Jarring, isn't it?
However, to close off this section, I must again bring attention to a comment made by a TGWTG fan:
"[t]hey were on a budget, they didn't have room for professional... lighting..., things get to be overly bright or dark, and there is grain in some bits) and the continuity can be all over the place".
This is a particularly frustrating comment, as there are movies that have been made on a budget smaller than Kickassia's that had better lighting, had a sense of continuity, and were thus technically superior. The lighting for night scenes in John Carpenter's low-budget film "Halloween," for example, were nothing more than high beams from a car parked off-screen, so the overexposure in Kickassia could have been easily remedied. Although Kickassia was made in four days, there were also other films just as long as Kickassia that were also made on a shoestring budget, and in four days, that were far superior. A popular example is Roger Corman's "Little Shop of Horrors," which would go on to inspire the off-Broadway play and the 1980's musical remake. They pulled off a lot in four days with what they had, so there is no excuse to say that everything in Kickassia can be sub-par simply because they were also on a small budget, and had very little shooting time.
Above: A scene from "Little Shop of Horrors"... yes, that is Jack Nicholson.
In conclusion, while the technical aspects of Kickassia were better than the story, characterization, and humor, there are still some shockingly major mistakes like jarring continuity or horrendous lighting that simply cannot be ignored because it was made with very little money. I could have mercilessly nitpicked other smaller aspects of Kickassia, like how some shots sometimes go in and out of focus, but there is no need to take after the Nostalgia Critic and exaggerate on how bad Kickassia is when there are plenty of legitimate technical problems that kept the cinematography from being truly competent.
The Verdict
After thoroughly analyzing and critiquing this Kickassia, I believe that I can safely say that while it was made to originally be a fun project for the fans on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, it is far from being a good film. The story and character development were nonexistent, the humor mainly derived from memes, cultural references, or painfully obvious joke plagiarism from other movies, and some of the technical aspects, such as the bad lighting and haphazard continuity, made Kickassia a chore for me to watch, let alone review.
While there are few negative reviews critiquing Kickassia out there on the internet, as fans of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses generally tend to flame anything that critiques any product of Channel Awesome as trolling, let it be known that when you make something as half-baked as Kickassia and put it on IMDB as a legitimate movie, or go out of your way to sell it on DVD, there are bound to be potential audience members who will be turned off by Kickassia.
If Kickassia deserves to be on the IMDB, then it deserves to be put under the microscope in the same fashion that the TGWTG crew do to other movies. If the fans or contributors can't stomach the thought of Channel Awesome's work being critiqued and reviewed like their top 'movie critics,' then obviously, something's wrong with this picture.
I applaud you, Mr. Farino. Not only for giving a negative estimation to
this "movie" and providing criticism on TGWTG as a whole, but for doing
it in such a constructive and analytical way.
A brief little back-story: I've been an adequate viewer (not a fan or a
fanboy, heavens forbid!) of some of the shows on TGWTG since 2008, but as
of late I have little to none interest in site whatsoever. Make no mistake,
it started out nice. The shows that I watched (Nostalgia Critic, Atop The
Fourth Wall and some others) were informative, funny and fair, but it seems
that as TGWTG grew and gained popularity (and new members for that matter)
they've forgotten their original goal. The quality has dropped; original
"in-character arrogance" has turned into a real one; and instead of
giving insightful criticism on movies, games and other material, it seems
that reviewers are now more interested in making pointless and obnoxious
cameos, endlessly reusing memes and discarding any kind of negative
criticism as trolling. This is the reason why I have left TGWTG and
resorted to lesser-known, but more honest and informative sites and critics
like TFC, Cheshire Cat and some others.
Now about "Kickassia": I didn't like it. I understand that it was
supposed to be a special 2nd Year Anniversary fan service collaboration, so
you can't really expect high quality, but then what's the point of
advertising it as a movie and releasing it on DVD? If they say it's just a
silly Internet mini-series and shouldn't be taken seriously, then why did
they bother putting it on IMDB? Was it a decent, if a bit silly, low-budget
fan service movie? Yes. Was it a decent movie that anyone can pick up and
enjoy? No. I apologize for this overly long post, but I just wanted to
thank you for this competent (I wanted to say "objective" but that would
be stupid - every opinion is subjective) analysis of this work and for
keeping personal issues with the site out of the way (Something that real
trolls that trash-talked this movie couldn't do).
TLDR Version (For those of you too lazy to read) - TGWTG should stop with
the circle jerk and stick to making actual reviews. Maybe then the site
will have a chance to return to its former decent quality.
Kenny Farino
18 Dec 2010, 12:31
I really appreciate your input, dude! I wanted to have a whack at making a
fair review from a site that I have found personal disappointment from, so
putting personal complaints with the management would have been
inappropriate. If I put in my review that I was banned from the forums for
trying to express a negative opinion of the site, something written off as
trolling, and that was what finally killed my enthusiasm for TGWTG. It's
depressing when something that you really like just gets really bad,
quality-wise...
Kenny Farino
19 Dec 2010, 06:50
Wow that sentence is a mess, lemme reiterate:
If I had expressed dismay at the fact I was banned for making legit
complaints, it would have made the review less credible, and much more
subjective than reviews need be, so the only thing I could have done was
keep the personal feelings to a minimum and just review the movie as if it
were an actual cinematic work.
Maxwell
19 Dec 2010, 07:20
I understood you the first time, but thank you for clarifying :)
As for what you said - I agree with you. Cheshire Cat Studios has the
potential to become an intelligent, constructive and entertaining
alternative to the (now) mediocre at best TGWTG, but in this aggravated
times of Fans vs. Haters wars there is a high chance that a single
misconstrued clause or expression can discard all the credibility of a
well-written and constructive article.
Fans (or rather delusional fanboys, for the sake of fairness towards the
adequate ones) have this peculiar defense mechanism that causes their
brains to shut down and go on raving verbal rampage and discard all
negative feedback as trolling, so it is very important to keep all
criticism as professional as possible and not give them any possibilities
to find something personal and write off a legitimate review as a "cry of
a rejected reviewer".
FilmNoMore
19 Dec 2010, 18:03
Flawless Victory.
That Guy Who Needs Glasses
19 Dec 2010, 21:38
I like thatguywiththeglasses but I see your points. You aren't just
trolling because your complaints are right. The lighting ruins the
lightning effects and the continuation is really bad and if these problems
were in a movie that is reviewed by the critic he would rain hellfire about
it. It frustrates me that thatguywiththeglasses and its contributors can
only talk the talk and not walk the walk. From those with lots of
complaints about how to make a good movie they can't do it either.
That Guy Who Needs Glasses
19 Dec 2010, 21:42
I want to add that the film not not totally unfunny because Spoony and his
alterego Dr. Insano always make me laugh even when they do dumb things. And
The Cinema Snob is really good like you said. The Santa Christ joke is a
real bore and they should have edited the whole scene out. Maybe if James
Rolfe the Angry Video Game Nerd was a cowriter then his knowledge of movies
may have saved Kickassia.
LaughingMan
20 Dec 2010, 14:01
@That Guy Who needs Glasses
Though James is certainly skilled and knowledgeable, something tells me
that not even his input could save this film. He would have done the
sensible thing and X-filed this script and started over from scratch.
ONOE
20 Dec 2010, 15:12
What I wonder is if twenty or so reviewers can't make one good movie
together, then what right do they have to criticize other movies? With all
of the problems in Kickassia it really makes Doug Walker look like a jerk
for being so hard on Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" when "The Room" at
least had proper lighting.
duder
21 Jan 2011, 11:20
Honestly this film had a load of potential to be something really funny. a
bunch of over-the-top characters take over a nation and then fall apart as
the film goes on due to the fact that they can't run a nation?
that's a pretty interesting basic plot. unfortunately half the jokes are
simply fanservice for long time 'guy with the glasses' members. the act
structure is also a mess - the first act is them taking over kickassia,
which works well. then they start to get pissed off at the critic's
idiocy, which works well for a second act. however the third 'act' is all
over the place, with the final duel coming way too soon followed by the
overlong santa christ joke, as well as a cop-out ending (as well as the
literally sudden return of the cinema snob).
i will say however, some of the performances are great. i thought doug did
very well as the crazy, self-absorbed dictator, film brain was surprisingly
great as the film's 'suck up', and the 4 'famous' members of the site
(linkara, spoony, angry joe, cinema snob) were all clearly having fun and
played their over-the-top net alter egos with a lot of gusto.
Bob
06 Mar 2011, 13:51
Kenny. Remeber, what Brad Jones said in his Pierre Kirby movie reviews. He
said IMDB sucks.
Don't let it get to you. You don't hate Rinry and Video Game Awesome?
Kenny F.
07 Mar 2011, 07:07
Nah, I don't really hate anybody from those sites :P. Hate is a strong
word reserved for people who deserve it.
LaughingMan
28 Mar 2011, 21:30
Do a Google search for Kickassia Review. ;) Doing a Yahoo! and Bing search
results are even better. Nice work, Ken!
Don
07 Jun 2011, 22:04
Well written, technical analysis that pointed out a lot of issues some of
us were afraid of pointing out. I even remember the commentary made about
the film where they mentioned how they mentioned things like appreciating
the dramatic angle of lighting. I'm sorry, but as a photographer with
credible studio experience in and outdoors, I did not find the lighting
that dramatic nor inspiring.
I suppose what disappointed me more was what this union of all these people
meant afterwards, but that's another story for another thread. I still
check out CA from time to time despite my issue with this project, but that
doesn't change the fact that if this review reflect the rest of this site,
then this site really has the eye and the conciseness to match it (unlike
myself, apparently).
Kenny F.
06 Jul 2011, 15:08
In the commentary, they also said that they made the continuity errors on
purpose to mess with nitpickers. Buuuuuullllllllshit, they did not do that
on purpose. I've been in a college cinema class long enough to know that
lazy college students (or internet producers) will make any excuse they can
to make their product seem more artistic, or to cover their mistakes.
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That Guy With The Glasses (TGWTG): Kickassia Review
