Feeding Frenzy

As many reviews before mine, I have to admit being a RedLetterMedia fan, too. That makes it harder to be objective, but there is a reason why most of the reviews are from fans: RedLetterMedias films and videos are not aimed at John Doe and his Everyman-brigade. Perhaps I'm the first German to write a review about this film; so I will give some additional information about purchasing it. I received my package just today. Please be prepared that the package will not be delivered to your home but to the custom office, where you have to pay an additional German sales tax of 19%. So, if you are not the type of film enthusiast who wants to have real DVD packages on the shelf, you should go with the downloadable versions, which RLM offers as well.

If you're from Germany (hell, why do I still write this in English? Well, because you should understand English anyway when watching this movie...) and you have no problem understanding the RLM discussions ("Half in the bag", "Best of the worst"), Feeding Frenzy might be a bit harder though, because unlike in a discussion where things are said several times, the plot moves quickly and nobody repeats what he's saying or asks for better understanding. Furthermore, Mr.Plinkett mumbles more than he actually talks, which is convenient for the film but hard to understand for foreigners.

The movie itself is really funny, not more, not less. It has extremely funny moments while fans of RLM might have higher expectations as Mike and Jay sometimes don't do their very best acting here - but still quite OK. Also, you might be used to much, much darker humor from RedLetterMedia, I think there could have been much more black humor...even though there already is quite a lot of it in here...

What has to be pointed out are several "bad moments", that are obviously intentionally bad as they pay homage to schlock-movies from the 80s, for example when they are tied to a table and you can see that Jesse's nose is itching and then he takes his arm out of the ropes so he can scratch it... This is not very funny but still quite amusing if you understand the tone of Feeding Frenzy.

Movies like Feeding Frenzy underline the weight of RedLetterMedias movie reviews; they show that they know what they are talking about and that they not only make theories about movies but they know how things work when making a film. In the aftermath, Feeding Frenzy is an advertisement for everything else RedLetterMedia does - simply because it's OK and can compete with other, much more expensive movie-productions.

The film hits all the notes of a B-movie horror classic. Messy/unbelievable gore, ridiculous looking monster effects, off beat dialog and out of place erotic scenes.

But the movie has some features that most B-movies don't have: Good acting, a plot that makes sense, a lot of funny moments(intentional ones), a good pace, great camera work and a well used score.

There is pretty much nothing to be scared of in this film though and it seems to just be making fun of or holding a candle to 80s horror films like Gremlins, Critters and Deadly Spawn.

Overall I enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys monster movies(especially the low budget ones) or the comedy stylings of red letter media. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone outside those groups. If you are outside those groups... lighten up and get into one of them.

Here's my problem with this movie: Since this is horror-comedy and done very cheaply, I keep wondering which parts were supposed to be funny and which parts were unintentionally funny. I sort of feel this is perhaps more a parody on how cheap knock-off movies come to be than those cheap knock-off movies themselves. Obviously this isn't something I should concern myself, but I do.

But hey, even though its like jazz and the "artists" are clearly enjoying themselves much more than anyone in the audience, there are good parts. Some of the jokes do actually work. Not many, but some. We know from all those Plinkett reviews and Half in the Bag that the movie makers have some unique insights on films, so perhaps if I had being more familiar with all the movies they were thinking about when making Feeding Frenzy, I would have enjoyed it more.

The real actors in the movie are pretty good, especially considering how cheaply this was probably made and the material they had to work with.

All in all, the best I can give is a very mild recommendation, but tread carefully, this is probably the kind of movie some people will enjoy immensely, perhaps in some sort of twisted "ironic" way, others will see it as a complete waste of time.

Having just watched "Space Cop" and being disappointed with it, I was worried that this earlier movie made by RLM would be worse...but it was much better! Plus the budget for this movie was about 1/3 of what "Space Cop" was. Weird, but it fits with how the budget doesn't matter so much as the writing/acting does for a film.

The story is basically a very comedic take on the movie "Critters", and even though that movie did have some comedy to it, "Feeding Frenzy" has a lot more. I was laughing so much during the movie that I even did some rewinds to rewatch the humorous scenes again. Seeing Mr. Plinkett was a bit of a surprise, and he does a great job in the film. This movie stands on its own and has enough originality, so don't think that it's just a different take on "Critters".

Acting was great and not a single character gave a bad performance. My favorite character was Maris Hilton played by Lora Story. She nailed her lines and had me laughing till my sides hurt. I just wish that she was in the movie more. Jay Bauman as Martin was my second favorite. He did a great job playing a character that has a heart condition. The word play was also very funny, since it was right up my alley.

The cinematography was very professional, especially in the night scenes. I was very impressed with how nice everything looked. Editing was also done extremely well with no plot holes or weird jumps between scenes.

The special effects were okay to average, but with such a low budget it's understandable. The creature design looked original, and definitely stood out from what a "Critter" looked like. I also liked how the creatures moved since it's basically "throw the creature." I'm surprised that so many shooting locations were shown in the movie. This movie also doesn't follow most horror movie tropes. Sure, some end up being done...but a lot of them don't, which is refreshing.

I am so glad that this movie ended up being as fun and as humorous as it turned out, since this is as close to how I would imagine an RLM movie being. Too bad "Space Cop" wasn't this good.

The effects waver between awful and decent, the acting as well, but overall it's an okay no-budget movie with a few good laughs mixed in with the amateurish shoot. I've seen worse movies with 10000X the budget, so this is worth checking out if you like RLM.