Brett Piper is always at his best with FX sequences and not as his best with actors or story. This film being a series of short stories, the script never really polishes any idea before moving on to the next half backed story and most of the time it's up to the actors to fill the time until we reach feature length. Bulk of the characters are the type you fear you'll be stuck next to on a long flight somewhere. FX are few and far between.
Yes they shot on film but it has a flat Saturday morning TV series, and not a good one, for kids in the 1970's look.
The performers all try to overact and the words are just padding here. It looks like every first take was printed and the only direction was make it more over the top. When you have actors who don't really have over the top to give what you get is shrill non actor yelling at each other or mugging like they are funny. They aren't.
Talk talk talk, oh here's a cute special FX shot, talk talk talk talk.
That's pretty much the way the movie goes. It seems a lazy effort from Piper who may well be exhausted from doing all those FX on most of his films himself. There just aren't enough of his charming hand made retro FX to forgive the flat talky nature of the rest of the movie. And the way the script is written, so talk heavy, that seems to have been the intention all along.
There are films of Pipers that are worth watching, I just can't put this one in that pile. Main title music by Jon Greathouse is great fun but then there is almost no score to the rest of the film. Another Piper decision? A function of no post production time? More music please especially in a drag-a-thon like this one.
