I liked this one more than I should have. The script is good but sometimes clunky, cheap FX terrible, cheap makeup OK. But somehow I ended up enjoying it! The directing could have been a LOT crisper. Comedy needs quick beats and perfect timing. Still, after listening to the Down In Front podcast episode about "2010 Moby Dick" I now understand more about being a low-budget director and having to get to a certain film length without enough money to shoot more film. You just have to put everything you filmed on the screen or your movie won't be long enough! Still, though I'm sympathetic, I do recognize that the comic beats are ultimately in the hands of the director, and they do plod in many places.
The script had some genuinely funny stuff, but suffered a bit from an inability to go completely over-the-top when it needed to. A few more lines of the caliber of Captain Olaf's "Fish Rape" would have been welcome. Also, the lead characters suffered from inconsistency. Were they nerds or not? They acted like nerds, until they meet up with a high-school friend and suddenly HE'S the nerd and they're making fun of him, and worse STOP acting like nerds themselves suddenly. That whole part never made any sense, at least as filmed. Maybe they planned a meditation on "relative nerdiness", but if they did it never paid off.
I think ultimately the "x-factor" was the acting. Most of them did a reasonable job, and all of them brought an enthusiasm and genuine quality that won me over. And Devin McGinn as the sidekick was really a standout - I want to see him in more movies or TV work, especially if he could play a similar character. He really nailed it! So, by the end I was rooting for our unlikely heroes.
One more note: there are a couple of reviews here that say this movie has "nothing to do" with the Cthulhu mythos. I don't know what movie THEY were watching, but as someone who has read literally the entire Lovecraft bibliography, I can say that they spent a lot of time throwing in many, many references, and really made me believe they could have been in a comedy version of Lovecraft's world. There's an abundance of little nods to the Lovecraft reader throughout, and I appreciated them a lot.
Overall - well done! Go into it expecting a VERY low-budget film that's earnestly trying to entertain, and and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
The script had some genuinely funny stuff, but suffered a bit from an inability to go completely over-the-top when it needed to. A few more lines of the caliber of Captain Olaf's "Fish Rape" would have been welcome. Also, the lead characters suffered from inconsistency. Were they nerds or not? They acted like nerds, until they meet up with a high-school friend and suddenly HE'S the nerd and they're making fun of him, and worse STOP acting like nerds themselves suddenly. That whole part never made any sense, at least as filmed. Maybe they planned a meditation on "relative nerdiness", but if they did it never paid off.
I think ultimately the "x-factor" was the acting. Most of them did a reasonable job, and all of them brought an enthusiasm and genuine quality that won me over. And Devin McGinn as the sidekick was really a standout - I want to see him in more movies or TV work, especially if he could play a similar character. He really nailed it! So, by the end I was rooting for our unlikely heroes.
One more note: there are a couple of reviews here that say this movie has "nothing to do" with the Cthulhu mythos. I don't know what movie THEY were watching, but as someone who has read literally the entire Lovecraft bibliography, I can say that they spent a lot of time throwing in many, many references, and really made me believe they could have been in a comedy version of Lovecraft's world. There's an abundance of little nods to the Lovecraft reader throughout, and I appreciated them a lot.
Overall - well done! Go into it expecting a VERY low-budget film that's earnestly trying to entertain, and and I don't think you'll be disappointed.