A Review of a so Called Bad Movie - Iron Sky

I have not reviewed a film in a while and after finally finishing “Iron Sky” I felt it was time. Ok where to start. This film does what it says on the tin, Nazi's fled to the moon, built a base, created an army and now it's time to invade the earth!! It starts with a space mission to the moon to advertise the election for the new American president, who uses a black astronaut, James Washington, to advertise the first moon mission in years, using the pun "Black to the moon". Soon after landing he discovers the secret Nazi moon base, getting caught and supplying the Nazi's with the power to fly their ships. After James has been bleached to look white, the only main female Nazi, takes a ship to Earth with James to find more smartphones to power their out dated technology. And then after the female Nazi manages to get into the white house and become the President’s speech writer the shit hits the fan!!

This film has two things going for it. The first being the fact it is so stupid that it seems to work, it is tongue in cheek and it happens to love taking the piss out of its self. The make up on James Washington when he is made to look white is so poor that it is funny, and made even funnier that the characters in the film look convinced that he is white. The actress playing the President is made to look like Sarah Palin and gives a pretty stereotypical performance of Palin, which seems to be a theme in this film, another example being the war room and all the stereotypes from different countries. Greed is also projected well in this film, wondering how far any of the characters, good or bad, would go to get what they wanted. I was impressed that the film started to have a dig at the way our countries are run and basically controlled by the United States, but did not go to far keeping the whole film on a more tongue-in-cheek level.

The second point I want to make about how good the film is, is simply the production design and how well it is pulled off. There is so much detail in this film, and it all looks amazing, from background posters to the massive moon base. The bright colours of Earth compared to the gloomy shades of the moon makes everything stand out and helps to highlight every detail, making it easier to spot little details. The thing I thought might let the film down was the CGI, but I was very impressed to learn that this was not the case. The different vehicles of war on both the Nazi's and the planet Earth's side, were designed brilliantly and were pulled off very well by the special effects department.

The fact that this film reminded me of a 60's Science Fiction film added to the wacky joy that this film created, just look at the costume the main American female captain is wearing in the final battle scene. When reading other reviews I do wonder what the other critics wanted from this film. It's about Nazi's on the Moon in the year 2018 (or something), you telling me that it was going to be ground breaking?? That is like comparing "Snakes on a Plane" to "Citizen Kane"!!

So to sum it up this film is just a colourful comic book of a film, good vs. evil, but how far will good go before coming evil itself?? Ok the acting was not perfect, but I did not think I was looking at an Oscar winning film. It's a bit of fun. What I would call a "Throw your brain at the wall" type of film, just forget about everything else for 90 minutes and enjoy a bit of silly fun!!

Wednesday Film Review - The Toxic Avenger

So for my first Wednesday Bad Film Review I decided to start with a real classic. This film is one that I remember best from my childhood, not that I saw this film as a kid but I owned an annual of the Cartoon series that came from it. I talk of “The Toxic Avenger” a film created by the B movie studio Troma and the film which they use as their studio logo! To be honest I had not even seen the film till a couple of days ago and you know what, that was a real shame. Yes, it is a god awful but that is its charm. The only real problem with the film is the acting but again that is half of the joy, it creates most of the comedy and that is what makes it so watchable. The hammed up, cheesy characters make you want to know what they will do next, and breaking the characters up and giving them all an average time on screen allows none of them to become too annoying.

I loved what I took as comments on society, like comparing the police to Nazi Germany and hinting that psycho paths are Christians!! The homemade effort was also something that worked for the film and built on the character of the piece, my favorite part being the Mushy Pea nuclear waste, with other close competitors including the breathing dead dog and the montage of building the house in the swarm. 

The special effects, I loved!! Maybe because it reminds me of the fun we have on “I am Tim” with the slow cost effects, but like “Tim” they still looked pretty impressive, like the head crushing weights and the transformation from Melvin to the Toxic Avenger.

True it made no sense why the policeman’s hands caught fire when touching Melvin, why the Toxic Avenger’s voice changed so much and the fact that at the end no one questioned if the Major was evil or not! Apart from that the story was reasonably solid and never became boring. I look forward to checking out the sequels and over Troma Films!

Acting 4/5

Cheesiness 4/5

Overall 4/5