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IMDbPro

The Phantom Menace Review

  • Video
  • 2009
  • 1h 9m
IMDb RATING
9.4/10
2.4K
YOUR RATING
The Phantom Menace Review (2009)
ParodyComedy

A serial killer decides to poorly dissect the critically acclaimed Star Wars prequels to determine their TRUE "flaws".A serial killer decides to poorly dissect the critically acclaimed Star Wars prequels to determine their TRUE "flaws".A serial killer decides to poorly dissect the critically acclaimed Star Wars prequels to determine their TRUE "flaws".

  • Director
    • Mike Stoklasa
  • Writer
    • Mike Stoklasa
  • Stars
    • Mike Stoklasa
    • Jocelyn Ridgely
    • Pernilla August
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    9.4/10
    2.4K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mike Stoklasa
    • Writer
      • Mike Stoklasa
    • Stars
      • Mike Stoklasa
      • Jocelyn Ridgely
      • Pernilla August
    • 10User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos2

    View Poster
    View Poster

    Top cast11

    Edit
    Mike Stoklasa
    Mike Stoklasa
    • Plinkett
    Jocelyn Ridgely
    • Nadine
    Pernilla August
    Pernilla August
    • Shmi Skywalker
    • (archive footage)
    Jay Bauman
    • Self
    Gillian Bellinger
    Gillian Bellinger
    • Self
    Ahmed Best
    Ahmed Best
    • Jar Jar Binks
    • (archive footage)
    Rich Evans
    Rich Evans
    • Self
    George Lucas
    George Lucas
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Rick McCallum
    Rick McCallum
    • Self
    • (archive footage)
    Jack Packard
    • Self
    Hugh Quarshie
    Hugh Quarshie
    • Captain Panaka
    • (archive footage)
    • Director
      • Mike Stoklasa
    • Writer
      • Mike Stoklasa
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews10

    9.42.4K
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    Featured reviews

    1borneobrian

    One of the worst film critiques ever.

    Mr plinkett is a hack who ruined online criticism to satisfy his unexplained hatred for George Lucas. This video is nothing more than a pretentious, slandering hit piece designed to ruin George Lucas' reputation and make the film sound worst than it is. He nitpicks the littlest things, has gross segments in between his reviewing and insults people for liking the movie which I cannot stand. His sense of humor is so unfunny and obnoxious I don't know how anyone can laugh at this crap. Most of the stuff he says are blatant lies that anyone can look up to see the truth about. All he does is pander tot he popular opinion and tells haters what they want to hear instead of being nuanced. The fact that people like Critical Drinker, Mauler and Nerdrotic worship him like a god and believe everything he says astounds me. Honestly, I will never understand how this review became popular as it is a total hateful hit piece that should not be taken seriously at all.
    10imdb2-5

    Funniest review I've ever seen and worth the view

    How do I describe this piece of brilliant lunacy. I remember seeing Star Wars I with all the hoopla on the evening it opened. Excitement was in the air, hundreds of people dressed up like characters of the movie and afterwards, most of the audience left with.... a WTF look on their faces. This film skewers The Phantom Menace in hilarious fashion. What's scary is how accurate most of the points are and how difficult it must have been to make a movie this illogical, sloppy and lazy.

    This is like MSTK3000 but using an analytical approach to the entire movie, including some hilarious sideshow bits from time to time. Clearly a great deal of time was spent preparing this lampooning of a very poor movie. While you might think it would get boring quickly... it doesn't. The jokes mostly hit and there is a remarkable amount of hilariously bad material in this film to easily fit into 100 minutes but this film is only about 70 something in total.

    It's no fluke the other reviewers gave this film such a high grade. There is no commercial motive. It's just damn hilarious.
    10martinpersson97

    Acquired comedy

    These are of course the infamous documentaries that truly put into words in pretty good fashion what the problems with the prequels were.

    It might appear odd to review a Youtube documentary on IMDb, but I feel that it went a bit beyond that and actually delved more into the professional docu/mockumentary area.

    It can of course appear to be a little too spiteful, which I don't really condone - but at the same time, Redlettermedia brilliantly made it a character so that they could really maximizd the satire and go overboard with the hate - whilst still providing some good points.

    I would not say it reallt showcases any things I didn't already believe oe know about the problems in the film, but that shouldn't be the point. Make up your own mind.

    All in all, however, Stoklasa provides some very entertaining commentary mixed with mockumentary and satire.

    Like other views on the subject, it can get a bit extreme, but if you like me are not a big fan of the prequels - I suggest you give this a watch anyways. It's well crafted and all around pretty funny.
    1mduhn

    Immature and Amateurish

    What we have here is an amateurish, purile, biased, incompetent, bordering on parody with a bad voice-over and interspersed with horrid "sketches" video posing as an in-depth analysis of an actual professional film by a bunch of wannabe filmmakers who could never write, direct or act in anything remotely praiseworthy.

    The video is full of lies, be it clips taken out of context and edited to suit the narrative, interviews with their best friends acting as "random fans" to support the false narrative, and genuine ineptitude to properly analyse films that are beyond their artistic means. The critiques are pure drivel from a bunch of cinematically illiterate YouTuber reviewers, and NOT real film critics.

    The coward "acting" in the role of "Mr. Plinkett" is also a Star Trek fanboy and not a Star Wars fan, so keep that in mind. And the whole premise of these Prequel-bashing videos are totally invalidated by watching the behind-the-scenes featurettes, not to mention the blatant praise given to the cashgrab, artistically bankrupt, retro reboots that makes up the Sequel Trilogy that "Mr. Plinkett" loves.
    10Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel-2187

    Probably the most legendary film review on the internet.

    Mr. Plinkett is a film-fluent yet socially-ignorant critic whose obsession with cinema is totally contrasted by his take on reality and his hilariously out-of-touch perspective on society and respect; it's made funnier when we see how his knowledge on stories and beats gives him certain wisdom that he willingly ignores in life. He picks this infamous film apart: right to the bone, everything ranging from the story to the characters and development over the movie's run-time are analyzed and dissected to the nth degree.

    I love this review: it holds a single film up for judgement against modern cinema itself and clearly shows how The Phantom Menace simply doesn't hold up to its cinematic predecessors, Star Wars or otherwise. While I enjoyed the movie when it came out, even I can admit and willingly point out things wrong with the movie. That's the fun of criticism; you can still be critical regardless of whether the targeted work is good or not and still say something meaningful in the end. This review is one of the most entertaining, sincere and outright hilarious things I've ever seen. It's a masterpiece not just of internet culture and fandom itself, but also film criticism and how self-awareness, and awareness of other's mistakes, leads to learning stuff you never knew you wanted to know at all: in this case, how a fictional serial killer knows more about story structure than late-90s Lucas did when he made the prequels.

    I LOVE this review and the series which follows is equally brilliant. It's fantastic filmmaking, criticism and a thorough analysis of cinema that even Roger Ebert (a man who rated The Phantom Menace 3.5/4 stars) praised for its open-ended dissection of 'The Hero's Journey'.

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    Related interests

    Bill Pullman, John Candy, Joan Rivers, Daphne Zuniga, and Lorene Yarnell Jansson in Spaceballs (1987)
    Parody
    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Upon its online premiere in December 2009, the review was widely linked to by many people across the internet, including celebrities such as actor/writer Simon Pegg and writer/producer Damon Lindelof; the latter of whom wrote in a Twitter message about the Plinkett review, noting "Your life is about to change. This is astounding film making."
    • Quotes

      [first lines]

      Plinkett: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the most disappointing thing since my son. I mean, how much more could you possibly fuck up the entire backstory to Star Wars? And while my son eventually hanged himself in the bathroom of the gas station, the unfortunate reality of the Star Wars prequels is that they'll be around. Forever. They will never go away. It can never be undone.

    • Connections
      Features Flash Gordon (1936)
    • Soundtracks
      Star Wars Theme
      (uncredited)

      Written by John Williams

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 10, 2009 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Production company
      • Red Letter Media
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 9m(69 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 4:3

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