The Machine

I think 6/10 is very fair here. It's not a great movie, and that's ok. If you like Brent Chrysler, you'll be entertained by this movie. I can see why he was so happy with how the movie turned out, it's just all him being something he's not for two hours (which again, is fine!). I can tell this was really just something that everyone involved with had a lot of fun with, from the actors to the editors with those kitschy transitions and strange Russian subtitles. It's quirky, and I think it works here.

Mark Hamill was a crazy get for this movie and I can't believe he agreed to do it. It definitely helped the movie's case. Jimmy Tatro was a good casting for young Bert as well.

One observation to make- Bert's character in this is literally Po from Kung Fu Panda. It's just a fat guy who dumb lucks his way through everything until the very end when his actions seem a bit more intentional and he accepts who he really is inside.

I was recommended to sit down and watch the 2023 action comedy "The Machine", and thus I opted to do so. I was not familiar with the movie prior to being recommended watching it, so I didn't really know what I was in for here. But I was told that Mark Hamill was on the cast list, which definitely got my attention.

Writers Bert Kreischer, Kevin Biegel and Scotty Landes put together a script and storyline that made for an adequate enough viewing experience. However, I must admit that I was a bit surprised that three writers collectively could not manage to conjure up a more outstanding script for a movie.

Now, don't get me wrong here, because "The Machine" certainly was a watchable enough movie, and had some adequately funny enough situations and moments as well. And while it isn't a bad movie, it just didn't strike me as being a particularly memorable or outstanding movie actually. It was sort of generic and somewhat mundane in ways. It is hardly a movie that I will return to watch a second time.

The acting performances in "The Machine" were good. I am not familiar with Bert Kreischer at all, but he was adequate in the leading role. It was, of course, a blast to see Mark Hamill on the screen and having a role as he did. It was, however, Iva Babic who stole the light here, because her performance was the best in the entire movie.

I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "The Machine". And I will say that the movie is certainly entertaining enough for a single viewing. But that is also the problem with the movie, because it doesn't have the contents to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of director Peter Atencio's 2023 movie "The Machine" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Full disclosure, I am russian. Bert is very funny guy and he should stick to comedy. His machine routine was funny enough but it didn't translate well to movie. His story actual story is quite dark, and it goes through very bad time in Russia, but he makes a good humor story of this mess in his standup. Where he makes a funny standup, the movie falls well short of his act. Romanian setting with western actors speaking horrible, bearly understandible Russian, with even worse translation; was the funniest part of the movie for me. Over the top caricature characters can only take movie so far, it needs a good script.

Bert Kreischer gets a lot of hate and a part of me would've loved to see him come out with a terrific film to shut all his haters up. Unfortunately that was not the case. This film was not a lot of fun to watch at all.

Kreischer has no comedic timing and no sense of when to let a joke breathe. Comedy isn't easy and people only think it is because the best make it look so effortless. The biggest mistake they made in this film though was casting Mark Hamill, who is also painfully unfunny, giving Bert no one to play off. Hamill is trying so hard in every scene he's in, but he's not a funny guy and doesn't have any charisma.

So all you're left with is the story, and the story gets old pretty fast. This film is only 112 minutes but it feels much, much longer than that. The concept might work in a 13 minute stand-up clip, but stretched out to this length it becomes pretty tedious. 4/10.

I really wanted to like this movie and I didn't hate it per se, but it was not what the trailer made it out to be. I am a huge fan of comedy/action movies like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent but this one didn't quite fit the bill. The set up took way too long. I spent the first probably hour and fifteen minutes thinking meh I could leave and wouldn't care if I didn't see the end. It hit its stride in the middle and then tied everything together but not in the most satisfying way. The main character arc seemed a little abrupt and not so much earned. Mark Hamil was not used correctly. He did the best with what he was given and it seemed like a film he would have enjoyed making but his comedy was a little forced. The best part of this film was definitely the end, when the comedy reached its peak. The action was very fun to watch on the big screen but other than that if you've seen the trailer you've seen the best comedy it has to offer.