Monday, August 19, 2013

The Sci-Fi Boys (2006)

This was kind of a frustrating viewing experience.  They talk to a lot of great people here, which is fun for sure.  However, it kind of meanders around a lot, like there was no real direction to it.  The best parts are the archival footage talking to Forrest J Ackerman and a young Rick Baker, then seeing them in present day.  I like that a lot, and some of the clips of the home movies these monster kids were making back then.  Kids having fun, that's just great, despite the fact that only friends and family would ever want to watch most of these movies ("say, we don't wanna watch my movie again, do we?") more than once.

The fact they were just out there doing it is pretty cool.  It's a lot of hard work, and that's coming from someone who made 8mm movies back in the 70s.  My movies were always fun to make, but they sure weren't masterpieces.

The worst part is the new voiceovers recorded for the trailers they use.  Whoever does the voice went way over the top and sounds ridiculous.  What was the point of that?  Heck, why did they even have to re-record the voices? 

One of the funny things they talk about is how the effects got better and better, and the stories didn't improve or got worse.  I don't think the irony was apparent to some of them at all.  I'd rather have a good story and average effects, but I think I'm in the minority there these days.

It's mostly a fun doc.  I'm glad I didn't buy it though.

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