Rogue Elements: A Ryan Drake Story

Rarely has a crowdfunded project more comprehensively dunked on the mugs who gave it money. But Rouge Elephants goes all-out to subvert expectations by displaying all of the very same tropes that its creator mercilessly mocks when he observes them in others:

An anodyne, anonymous John Guyman lead with no character or presence. I've watched this twice and still couldn't name one trait of Nothing Dork.

Pacing that opens with a mild bang then immediately slips into flashbacks, tell-don't-show, and even as-you-know exposition to pad out the run-time.

Not one but two girlbosses who perform ridiculous feats of combat, when they would be laid flat by the first hand put on them.

Dialogue that's stilted, cheesy, clumsy, interchangeable, repetitive and rambling.

An utterly generic plot that's so genre-compliant that surely it must qualify as parody.

Bear in mint that all this comes from a writer / producer who can recognise all the traits of a great indie production, and yet chooses to use absolutely none of them himself.

It's telling that not one of the creator's circle of content creators has reviewed this short, because there is literally nothing in it to praise, either objectively, or in comparison to any contemporary production like Terminal List or Reacher.

A creator with courage would do a "The Drinker Fixes: Rogue Elements", but we still await that moment of humility and self awareness.

I was eagerly anticipating this production, being a fan of the Drinker and sharing most of his frustration of modern film making.

I've read a couple of Will Jordan's books and found them to be a bit paint by numbers, with the lead character "Drake" being a bit dull. I found this short film to be very similar. My main criticism is the casting of Ryan Drake, I'm sorry but I just don't see how anyone in their right mind would think casting of Moran as an experienced special forces operator was a good idea. Moran was a terrible casting choice and unfortunately, this completely ruined it for me.

Maybe I was expecting too much?! But I was left disappointed.

I like the critical drinker and enjoy his reviews but this movie just goes to show that it's much easier to review movies than it is to create them.

The movie was very amateurish, not just due to the budget. The writing, acting, sound. All of it was like a student film and a bad one at that. Talented film makers can hide the budget but when I came here and saw the budget for this film I was actually surprised they had so much.

The worst part of this film though is that it is just incredibly boring. Everything you see you've seen a million times before (in the 80s) and done much better. I cringed at the dialogue many times, it was cheese on steroids.

There are plenty of short films on YouTube that are far more interesting and unique and fun. It might have been a better ideato have condensed it all into a ten minute short. I don't think this would have made the movie better but at least fans of critical drinker who are curious to see this wouldn't waste as much of their time on this Earth watching this.

Anyway, if you can't do - teach. If you can't make movies - review them.

I was originally planning on giving this 4 stars but that was when I thought they were working with a miniscule budget of about 20k tops. After seeing how much was spent I've knocked it down to 2 stars and that's being generous. If you're a fan of critical drinker I'd recommend avoiding this movie because it is going to be hard to watch his reviews and take his opinion seriously moving forward after seeing what he personally produces.

Overall it was an enjoyable watch if you like fight scenes. It is not a complete story and if you haven't read the books you might be lost. Except for the Ryan character, most of the acting was not up to snuff. Some of the dialogue was stilted and cheesy. Overall this feels like a bunch of guys wanted to make a fighting and shooting short and here's nothing wrong with that! TBH I guess I had the expectation of an actual complete story seeing how it is the Drinker. But that's my fault. My expectations were subverted. The cinematography, coloring, and music are really good. The sound design was mostly good. The music mix was too loud and some of the atmosphere foley was wonky and amateurish. All of the gun sounds and fight sound design were great. The after credit scene with the Drinker at the end was hilarious (probably my favorite scene in the film) but it was totally out of place for the feel of the piece. I hope the Drinker gets a chance to make a full film with a complete story that has character development, arcs, etc. Would love to see what he can do if he gets a say in what shows up on screen. 40 min plus is plenty of time to accomplish this BTW. There are plenty of short films that feel like a complete narrative that are half the length of this film.

This 'proof of concept' short film/pilot is a bit of a mess.

First up, the dialogue is bad, and the pacing is inconsistent. The music choices and editing adds no subtlety or tension as it is too bombastic, calling attention to itself. The acting varies between formulaic and atrocious. There are some interesting shots, peppered amongst the majority of generic ones. The story is not that gripping, and the lead role has been miscast, with an actor whose varying accent is his most interesting characteristic.

This is a film based on books by, and co-written by a YouTuber of some renown, Will Jordan, a.k.a. The Critical Drinker, so I was surprised and disappointed at the cliche level of dialogue and plot, given his reviews of movies, and his series of videos "the Drinker fixes". Although a lot of the responsibility for these things must also lie with the Director/Co-writer/Editor Travis Grant, as those three roles also play a pivotal part of how a film is made. While some of the fight scenes are okay, most of the pacing is slow, and the blocking/staging boring. More tension could have been added by giving characters things to do, putting them in motion as they speak the exposition necessary to set up the world this story takes place. Things like have the character who is supposed to speak Russian/Estonian actually speak Russian or Estonian to the guards, and not badly accented English. But mainly establish the main character earlier, as well as make him the one the audience wants to watch.

This 40 minute film had a budget of over $300,000, and many clever, inventive, independent feature films have been made for this level of money or less like Clerks, Open Water, Once, Pi, She's Gotta Have It, The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and one of my favourites - El Mariachi, which had action and gun play.

I found this effort disappointing, and a missed opportunity with a budget not well spent.