Cannibal! The Musical and Doom Reviewed!

[Mr_Vindictive]

I've been dying to see Cannibal! The Musical for years now.  Finally got a copy from Netflix recently.  Also, my wife and I went to see Doom this weekend.  

Cannibal! The Musical - I must say that no matter what Trey Parker and Matt Stone do, I love it.  South Park is still as funny as ever, Team America was great, Orgazmo is hilarious and BASEketball was stupid but insanely entertaining.

Cannibal! is the story of Alfred Packer, the only man to ever be tried in America for being a cannibal.  He leads a small group of not-so tough miners to Colorado Territory in order to find gold.  He has no idea where he is going and eventually gets the group lost.  Along the way they meet Japanese Indians ("We have teeeepeees"), a group of French trappers, and a confederate cyclops.

The film is damn funny, but by far the best thing is the songs.  Jesus, they are catchy.  I've found myself humming many of them since seeing the movie.  The best of the songs is "Shpadoinkle" which is a word I now need to work into my everyday speak.  

Do yourself a favor.  Buy this DVD.  Not only is it funny, and has great music but there are also some great Troma features on the disc.  





Doom - Well.......Doom is a strange film to review.  It's kind of like Alien, Resident Evil and Alone In The Dark had a child.......

See, the film isn't really terrible, but it's certainly not good either.  The first hour and a half or so isn't very good.  It has space-marines going to Mars to find out what the hell is going on up there and what is killing the scientists.  Once there, they find that the scientists are changing due to an extra chromosome that the scientists had developed to create super humans.  

The film really does kick ass once the "First Person Shooter" scene hits.  You even get to see the main character get an extra life!  It's absolute genuis, but the rest of the film just didn't have the amount of kick ass action that this one scene did.

Also, if you do see the film, go into it thinking that the characters in the film are actually just kids on their computers playing a multiplayer game of Doom.  Each character in the film does have a "handle" as you would in the game, and I think it might have even been the intention of the screenwriters.

Overall though, I would say to wait till it comes out on DVD.  It's not a bad movie, and it's decently entertianing.  But, wait till it comes out on cable or DVD.

[peter johnson]

I was the original singer for "Let's Build a Snowman" -- replaced due to "creative differences" --
I coulda been a contenduh . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[Mr_Vindictive]

Peter,

Serious?  I never know wether to trust you or not.  ;)

[Mofo Rising]

peter johnson wrote:

> I was the original singer for "Let's Build a Snowman" --
> replaced due to "creative differences" --
> I coulda been a contenduh . . .
> peter johnson/denny crane
>

You'll always have Gimp, from what I believe is one of Andrew's very favoritest movies.

Skaboi, I got your recommendation.  I'd seen the movie a few years back and it made me laugh.  I love the reasoning behind turning to cannibalism: Well, heck yeah, why not?  If you haven't sent it back to Netflix yet, watch the director's commentary.  They watch the movie and proceed to get very, very drunk.  By the end you can hear them walking out of the room yelling "Strip club!".  One of the few commentaries worth listening to.

I'll probably see DOOM tomorrow during a break in classes, but only because A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE isn't playing at that theater.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Mofo,

I heard a bit of the dir. commentary at work yesterday.  I have to work most Saturdays, so I usually take a portable DVD player with me.

Unfortunatly a major router went down and so I actually had to do work most of the day.  Oh well.  I'll watch the rest of the commentary sometime this week.

[nobody]

"Cannibal: The Musical" is my favorite Matt and Trey movie, right after "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." It may even be my favorite comedy movie, ever.

The hillarious drunken commentary heavily criticizes the movie, mainly for it's rookie filmmaker "mistakes", but I think it's great, despite it's small flaws. The top three best moments, in my opinion:

3. "Are you lookin' at my eye?"
2. "Let's build a snowman!"
1. "Ew! You're cutting into his butt!" ...I won't give all the dialog to this joke because I don't want to spoil the best joke in the movie, but be on the lookout for it. :)

[Mr_Vindictive]

Nobody,

All great moments, but my favorite has got to be the Trapper song that is sung at the Indian camp.

Just watching Frenchy sing so lovingly about cutting out the animal's eyes with his knife is quite an experience.  The verse the trapper with the mohawk sings (quite off key) is also freakin hilarious.

I really can't explain how surprised I was by the film.  I will definetly buy it on DVD from Troma soon.  The DVD also reawoke my love with Troma in general.  I think I'm going to pick up the Nuk Em High and Toxie boxsets at the same time.

[dean]

Cannibal the Musical was actually my first Troma-released film that I watched, so it has a nice place in my heart.

It's a great musical, and a great comedy.   All the songs are damn catchy and incredibly stupid! I love the snowman song the best personally but they are all so good [songs which have such a graphic nature like 'On Top of you']

The DVD only got released here recently, so I'm definitely going to pick it up when I get the chance.

You know, I have to hand it to Troma: they have some darn interesting special features on the dvds they release.  By far one of the more comprehensive-yet-pointless releases.

I just rented The Toxic Avenger Trilogy and Sgt Kabukiman and they are all jam packed with completely random special featurettes, news bulletins and 'public service announcements' which are just great viewing for their complete and utter stupidity and overt 'look at our nude actressess!'

Lots of fun all round really!


Oh and on DOOM; that first person scene seems like quite the idea!  It takes a brave filmmaker to attempt such a thing, and for it to have worked [according to Skaboi] is one of the encouraging factors in me actually spending money on seeing this at the cinemas.

[Scott]

I rented CANNIBAL THE MUSICAL a couple years ago and couldn't sit through more than 15 minutes before fast forwarding which is kinder than walking out of a movie theater. Somehow the film didn't work for me.

Ok, now after having said that 'm prepared for my beating...................... If it's any consequence I really like the title of the film. Couldn't resist renting it.

[Mofo Rising]

Okay, I saw DOOM.  I had to miss the first eight minutes or so to complain to the manager that the sound was not working in the theater.  The central channel was screwed so it sounded like all the actors were talking in an underwater echo tunnel.  After that unpleasantness was over the real unpleasantness began.

Okay, not really, but it was a halfway decent line.

**MILD SPOILERS**
The problem with DOOM is that you will either be mildly interested or completely bored.  The military guys show up and wander around the spacestation for an hour and a half, occasionally shooting or being eviscerated by monsters.

In the meantime, some scientific garbage about an extra pair of chromosomes is paraded around.  Hey, you know who has 48 chromosomes?  Chimps.  So let's just take the time right now to reclassify chimps as "super-humans".  You hear me, Tool?  Goldfish have 94!  My God, the power. . .

I was disappointed this was the central theme.  I haven't played the new DOOM game, but I always thought it was the literal intrusion of hell upon a space station.  That's interesting, and it was why EVENT HORIZON was so good right up to just before the end of that movie.

That's not to say I disliked the movie.  As Skaboi pointed out, it's a weird one to review.  If you're predisposed to this sort of thing, check it out.  You might have a good time.  Everybody else stay away.

The description of the FPS scene was what clinched me going to see this one.  Well, that and I had four hours of nothing to do.  It didn't quite work for me.  I enjoyed it, but it seemed like more of a gimmick than anything else.  Games still do it better.
**END MILD SPOILERS**

Has anybody checked out F.E.A.R.?  I played the demo and it looks to be a hell of a game.  Unfortunately, my computer is nowhere near the level needed to actually play the game.  Playing at minimum is all right, but turn on all those graphical extras and you've got yourself something else.  If you're like me, something else at 20 frames/second.  Damn my budget!



Post Edited (10-25-05 02:59)

[dean]

I just got a demo of that myself, and have only briefly played around with it.  So far it's pretty nice, but nothing too out of the ordinary other than some action and a few little scares here and there [but then again, I'm not that far into it]

As for DOOM, I'm supremely dissappointed that the whole Demons from Hell storyline was wasted.  That was the whole damn point!!!

That's perhaps the biggest thing that annoys me about some Hollywood productions which remake/use other material such as video games and books etc.

If you are going to do it, you must stay true to the main ideas of your source, not change it around like that!!

I mean, some producer/writer comes up with an idea based on DOOM, but the film realistically could have been created and made on it's own merits and not had a single thing to do with the DOOM franchise, and people may say how similar it was, but since it was an 'original' idea then it's ok, because someone can go and make the DOOM movie properly.

I guess they needed the DOOM name to get the funding for the project, but it still annoys the hell outta me that some people change their source material around too much.  I know this is a bit of a rant, but I don't see how they could have just made a movie which had super-genetic monsters in it and NOT base it on DOOM: A BIG draw card for me seeing a film based on DOOM is the creatures from Hell, not the creatures from the science lab test tube!

And yet I'll still probably get conned into seeing this film!  Ah well...

[Ash]

Mofo Rising wrote:

> Has anybody checked out
> F.E.A.R.?  I played
> the demo and it looks to be a hell of a game.  Unfortunately,
> my computer is nowhere near the level needed to actually play
> the game.  Playing at minimum is all right, but turn on all
> those graphical extras and you've got yourself something else.
> If you're like me, something else at 20 frames/second.  Damn my
> budget!

I've heard awesome things about F.E.A.R.
GO HERE to read the review.
Be sure to scroll down a bit and watch the Video Review of it too...
They talk about the game and show kickass footage as well!



Post Edited (10-25-05 11:48)

[Mr_Vindictive]

F.E.A.R. is probably the best shooter to come out this year.  I recently got it, and eventhough I've not had a great deal of time to play it, it's still been pretty good.  As Mofo said, you need a serious computer to run it with all of the graphics turned on.  My Radeon 9800 Pro (vid card) freaked out when I cranked up F.E.A.R.  I can play it now with the graphics turned down, but it just doesn't look as good.

I haven't found F.E.A.R. to be that scary.  The main thing for me is the gun battles.  I am amazed at just how good the A.I. is in the game.  Enemies jumping through windows, hiding behind pillars and desks and such is fantastic.  Throwing a grenade in a room, then slowing down time and watching each enemy fly around is fantastic as well.


As for Doom, my overall opinion is this: "Meh.".  I didn't really care for it, but some parts were fun.  The main problem that I had was that it kept reminding me of Uwe Boll's Alone In The Dark for some strange reason.

[peter johnson]

I did a film for Matt and Trey, and their often unmentioned silent partner/producer/director Jason McHugh in the '80's, just before "Cannibal".  Matt & Trey had shot the trailer for the film a year before they shot the film itself.  The 20min short I did for them is called "The Still Within", Avenging Conscious Productions, which also produced Baseketball, etc.  I played Weird Uncle Merle.  On the basis of Merle, Jason McHugh hired me to play the snowman guy.  However, after our first script readthrough, Trey didn't appreciate my suggestions on how to make the film funnier -- which was weird, considering they'd given me free reign to make any sort of comments/input during the Still Within shoot -- Anyway, they got very rich & famous & I still have to budget my gas & wonder how the bills get paid.  You'd've thunk they could've thrown me a bone/let me do a voice over the years, but I understand they treat all their old acquaintances like filth, so I'm no exception.
peter johnson/denny crane