Rogue Elements: A Ryan Drake Story

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.

This Proof of Concept should have been something that showed that Mr Drinker could walk the walk he talks about. Instead, several things he constantly criticized other films for, those some things appear here. Most importantly, it's just boring and not engaging. I at one time considered myself a fan of the drinker , but as of late I stopped watching because all his videos were the same and he spoke about the same thing over and over, and it seems he didn't have the desire to change and talk about some of the more positive stuff, but when he released this idea upon the world , I was excited. I am glad I didn't put money towards this. I know the people who backed this are pissed. It's just like sci fi tv series level of execution.

I'm a big fan of the Drinker as a critic. I could never really get into his writing as much, and this concept piece illustrates why for me.

Don't misunderstand to title, there's some fun to be had with some of the scenes, but the writing did not lend itself well to the direction it received, which resulted in a disconnect with any emotional investment the audience could have.

For all his talk, Will is not quite able to edit his dialogue down to something tight and concise. It's clear that he knows the story he wants to tell, simple and clear. Simple, indeed it is, but the word count that ended up on the paper did not reflect that.

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.