The Andy Baker Tape

This one surprised with its sweet and sour palette, providing a concept about a food blogger that travels with his half-brother on a food tour.

The concept is ultimately just the wrap that holds the filling, and the filling here has a texture with how the 2 actors work off each other, with both bringing a unique flavour to the film, keeping me interested and engaged throughout with their lightly seasoned interactions. The found footage aspect of the film works exceptionally well, allowing the story to slow boil before adding a peppering of creepiness. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I'm excited to see what these filmmakers cook up for their next course.

At barely over 1 hour, this actually told a good story, and had me guessing about the characters the entire way. If you've seen "Creep" and like it, you'll like this as well.

I rate The Andy Baker Tape, which is a remarkable title, in my opinion, a 6.5/10. To my surprise, its biggest flaw is the introduction to and addition of the horror genre. For me, it does not work as a horror film - it feels unnatural. It begins as a tender slice of life with a jarring transition into thriller territory, but the charming plot makes the watch entirely worth it. Newfound brotherhood and bonding over good food? It makes for an entertaining and cute experience up until the turn for the worse, which is a double entendre. I don't find this film scary in the slightest, but that isn't such a bad thing. It is a completely competent family film. I recommend The Andy Baker Tape.

"The Andy Baker Tape" (2021) is a movie very similar to Creep (2014): you have the main character, who holds the camera, on his way to meet someone he doesn't really know, only to find out this person might be more than what they appear.

The acting is good enough. The main character plays the food reviewer type really well, I enjoyed his way of explaining food textures and whatnot. Same with the secondary character: on the surface, he totally felt like a person I could meet in real life.

The writing is where the movie has a few struggles. The script does a good job in making us care for the caracters within the limited duration of the movie (70 minutes). Now, it only does that because it kinda "cheats" with its found footage concept: you know those movies where the main character has the camera on while more important stuff is going on (stuff that would make any normal person forget about filming)? This is one of those movies. There's a lot of exposition going on while the camera is filming everything, and in some of those moments you ask yourself: "why is this guy filming it? Oh yeah, because it's a movie and the script needs to let me know what's going on" - and there goes the suspension of disbelief, so important to the found footage genre.

These shortcomings won't make "The Andy Baker Tape" (2021) a bad movie. It's an okay flick. You will definitely feel entertained, if you look past some things. If you've watched the amazingly well done "Creep" (2014) before this, the shortcomings will stick out a bit more, but even so, the characters make this one worthwhile. I've seen worse movies with longer durations, so 70 minutes is not a lot to spend even if you don't like this one.

I chose 'The Andy Baker Tape' for my 2022 Halloween film. I hadn't watched a found footage film in a while and this one seemed to be getting some decent buzz. It was okay, but sadly nothing special.

The film is a lot more polished than most found footage films. The actors are better looking and the acting is of a higher standard than you would typically expect. Usually you'd think this would be a good thing, but something that can often sell the found footage concept is the raw and unpolished quality of it.

The ending is always key to found footage films. Why has this footage been found and what ultimately happened to these people? The ending to this one was a bit of a let down. It just wasn't creative enough.

The film is short at only 70 minutes, so even if you are not loving it it is easy to persist. 6/10.