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Reviews
Fat Boy (2013)
Best Student Film of this Generation
This film truly made me believe in love
I didn't know what to expect going into this, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the message at the heart of this, and the young actors give it their all!
Special shout-out to Rhys Evans and Richard Norris, who sold their performances as Jacob and Mr Sharks. I felt the passion behind their roles and it's unfortunate I haven't seen them before.
I couldn't ask for better. The setting and the dynamic is set perfectly and portrays a secondary school environment almost too well.
While the cinematography leaves for a lot to be desired, I feel I can overlook this when I feel so strongly for the rest of this project.
Hands down the best student project you will ever see.
6 Underground (2019)
Weak and Confusing Shambles
With Michael Bay, you almost definitely know what to expect going into this film. Does it have unnecessary car chases, explosions and objectification of women throughout? Oh yes. And with his dream of a 15 rating and the budget he needed, Bay created something that could be considered entertaining. Could.
The second half of the film feels like a solid spy film to throw on in the background and fulfil your boredom for an hour. It isn't offensive to me and has some decent action. However, as you can guess, the first half is quite the opposite. In fact there is no story in the first half, it's mere scatters of introductions and action sequences squished together. How can a film take an hour to establish six characters? In fact how do they manage to mess that up too? They spend so much time slowing down the film for three of the characters, that the rest are all left suffering from the audience not caring enough about them. Bay clearly didn't know which direction he'd like to go and in doing so did all of them, but didn't even finish said directions. For example, as we progress through the second half hour, numbers independently transition on screen to show so-called backstory for these characters. But after 3 they simply forget that this structure existed and threw it out the rest of the film.
I should discuss the characters too, as in any ensemble film, they should be the heart of the film. But this film misses the mark here too, due to what I mentioned earlier where they simply passed over half the cast and hope you catch to on their characters. One (Ryan Reynolds) is the well established character who's known as "The Billionaire." Despite this, they seem to only use this for quippy dialogue and plot convenience. He would be much better suited as "The Leader" or a name more related to his expertise of technology, that served as a much more interesting character trait other than being typical Ryan Reynolds. He only seems to be driven by one motivation to save the world and when bringing in the idea of him leaving his family, you'd imagine this would be an inner conflict we'd see develop and or at least be showcased? Not at all, instead he just visits his son as the end and runs off for a sequel I suppose. I don't think it matters about the other characters, they're all just given irrelevant subplots that mean nothing to us. Five suffers the most from this because I don't think she's given anything to work with, instead of being The Doctor, she's just The Woman. Classic Bay.
I'm getting exhausted just thinking about this film any longer so to conclude, I believe this film suffers from poor editing and direction, especially from the first hour holding back the potential of the story showcased following this. The pacing and dialogue also fell flat, and characters existing more as objects than personality. Despite all of this, the film has some very good action sequences, the cast clearly give it their all and the soundtrack keeps you in the film. I hope the rumoured sequel does not suffer its predecessor's fate.