- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,067
Sometimes when I'm in a bad mood, I need a bad movie. Thanks to the Tower Theatre, a theatre/video store that specializes in foreign, independent, classic, and bad cinema I can get my B-Movie fix simply browsing the section conveniently labeled for bad movies. This time I rented "Killer Klowns from Outer Space," and I'm sure glad I did. Killer Klowns is one of those bad movies that knows its bad and is intentionally made a comedy, these films can go one of two ways: They can end up succeeding and being hysterical, or they can end up failing miserably and being painfully pretentious and worse than any pure blood bad movie. Killer Klowns thankfully falls into the former category. Yes, it's bad, but it's hysterical. Most of the gags work, and naturally there are lots of scenes not made intentionally that end up being funny. This is a great movie to watch with friends, I watched it with my wife and she was chuckling as much as I was. The gags are actually quite imaginative and the premise is not wasted, they squeeze almost every potential drop they can out of the absurd but delightfully twisted concept. The dialogue is naturally very corny and very stupid, but thankfully, it contributes as much as the sight gags do to the laughs. One of my favourite quotes right off the top of my head is when a cop (Played by John Vernon) is getting calls from people being attacked by the Killer Klowns, and naturally, doesn't believe them. He gets a call where a man is talking about his wife being taken away, to which the cop replies:
"They took your wife away in a balloon? Well, you don't need the police, pal. You need a psychiatrist!"
Seeing anyone say "They took your wife away in a balloon?" with a straight face, let alone someone like John Vernon is comedic gold in it's own right.
The story is simple, if you didn't guess what the film was about from the name, then you clearly weren't paying attention. Basically, there is an alien race that just so happens to look like clowns (One thing does bug me though, why do so many people think these guys are "real" clowns? They look like the mutated offspring of Pogo the clown and Pennywise the clown!) and use a bizarre array of cartoon weaponry (Like I said, the imagination used here is great. You'd have to see the film yourself though to get the most out of their bizarre gadgets and antics) as they terrorize a small town and harvest victims by cocooning them in cotton candy. That's all you really need to know.
While the movie is genuinely bad in most spots, there were a few things that could land paradoxically enough, in the category of "Good," namely in the special effects. They're actually rather well done and compliment the imagination of the film makers, the Killer Klowns themselves have great makeup and seem really surreal and bizarre. A good example of traditional effects over CG. There was definitely talent put into this film, most of the actors do a decent job and they themselves seem to know what kind of movie they are in, and for those who like to spot mistakes there are some scenes where you can hear chuckling in the background.
I really recommend this film to anyone who loves this kind of movie. It's imaginative and funny, and succeeds in every way possible at being a spoof of bad movies as well as being a bad one in itself. When the movie ended, I had a grin as wide and twisted as the titular villains, and if you can leave your brain at the door for an hour and a half, this is a great way to get in some well needed genuine laughs.
9.0/10 (On the B-movie rating scale, of course
)
"They took your wife away in a balloon? Well, you don't need the police, pal. You need a psychiatrist!"
Seeing anyone say "They took your wife away in a balloon?" with a straight face, let alone someone like John Vernon is comedic gold in it's own right.
The story is simple, if you didn't guess what the film was about from the name, then you clearly weren't paying attention. Basically, there is an alien race that just so happens to look like clowns (One thing does bug me though, why do so many people think these guys are "real" clowns? They look like the mutated offspring of Pogo the clown and Pennywise the clown!) and use a bizarre array of cartoon weaponry (Like I said, the imagination used here is great. You'd have to see the film yourself though to get the most out of their bizarre gadgets and antics) as they terrorize a small town and harvest victims by cocooning them in cotton candy. That's all you really need to know.
While the movie is genuinely bad in most spots, there were a few things that could land paradoxically enough, in the category of "Good," namely in the special effects. They're actually rather well done and compliment the imagination of the film makers, the Killer Klowns themselves have great makeup and seem really surreal and bizarre. A good example of traditional effects over CG. There was definitely talent put into this film, most of the actors do a decent job and they themselves seem to know what kind of movie they are in, and for those who like to spot mistakes there are some scenes where you can hear chuckling in the background.
I really recommend this film to anyone who loves this kind of movie. It's imaginative and funny, and succeeds in every way possible at being a spoof of bad movies as well as being a bad one in itself. When the movie ended, I had a grin as wide and twisted as the titular villains, and if you can leave your brain at the door for an hour and a half, this is a great way to get in some well needed genuine laughs.
9.0/10 (On the B-movie rating scale, of course
)
It was quite fun. I'd recount some of the things we did, but I'd be banned for 10,000 years if I did. We're gonna try and do it again this year, since we're both good friends with all the delightful fellows at the Group of Latter Day Transvestites 