Quadruple Bill Mini Musings: Figures, Rims, Weeds, and Videos...

Dick Figures The Movie:
What's it about?
Feature-length action-fest version of the online animation series about bumbling stick figures Red and Blue and their various cohorts. Pink's birthday is coming up and Blue wants to be the best boyfriend ever, so he needs to get her a great present and so, if he returns a special sword to The Racoon, he'll receive the ideal gift ... but booze-and-boob-obsessed so-called best buddy Red is coming along for the ride. All hell promptly breaks loose.
Who would I recognise in it?
Everyone you're familiar with from the original web series.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Fans of the web show will be in hog's heaven. Epic action, impressive animation, laugh-out-loud silliness (from the gross to the utterly random), endlessly inventive asides, and a brisk pace make this well worth checking out. It's available to view on YouTube (in 12 parts), or to buy through services like iTunes, and coming soon on DVD/Blu-Ray. Scattergun, lewd, crude, hyperactive - but all in the best way. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for giant-sized fights, a pot-fuelled Xmas, and nasty videos...

Pacific Rim:
What's it about?
A dimensional rift opens beneath the Pacific Ocean and unleashes a series of gargantuan beasts ("Kaiju") upon the Earth to wreak havoc. Facing extinction, mankind sets their differences aside to work together to build an army of equally huge mechs (bloody big robots aka "Jaegers") controlled by the 'drift-enabled' brains of two pilots. However, with the Kaiju getting stronger, and the Jaegers falling in battle, one last push must be made to try and seal the dimensional rift once and for all.
Who would I recognise in it?
Charlie Hunham, Idris Elba, Ron Perlman, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Clifton Collins Jr, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Guillermo Del Toro's bots vs beasts blockbuster is an exceptionally designed smash-em-up. Combining efficient broad-brush characterisation from the James Cameron school of filmmaking with top-of-the-line CGI, Pacific Rim is bloody good fun from the get-go and looks absolutely gorgeous at the same time. It's a fist-pumping grin-inducer, and quite frankly, what's not to love about a massive robot twatting a massive monster in the face with a massive container ship?! Great.


A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas:
What's it about?
A festively-themed threequel in which the mis-matched stoners, now moving on with their lives, go through another wild night of chaos as they attempt to replace the beloved Christmas tree (burnt to a crisp by a large joint of mystical origin) of Harold's father-in-law.
Who would I recognise in it?
Kal Penn, John Cho, Patton Oswalt, Thomas Lennon, Danny Trejo, Elias Koteas, RZA, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, Neil Patrick Harris, Richard Riehle.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
I enjoyed the first, felt the second was a let-down, and was pleased to see the third provided an up-swing. With a little more heart and motivation behind the central duo (Harold's successful in life and work, while Kumar is a med-school drop-out who has just been dumped by his girlfriend for his childish ways), this flick has a little bit more meaning behind the craziness. Toss in a drug-infused claymation chase sequence, a drugged-up baby and their clumsy father, and another image-shattering turn from NPH, and you've got a pretty fun time ... except for one fairly rapey 'joke' that's a weird, but fleeting, uncomfortable tonal shift. I watched it in 2D, so all of the camera-poking and smoke-blowing 3D nonsense was lost on me, but overall it was an enjoyable throwaway time. Good.


Ban The Sadist Videos!:
What's it about?
Documentary concerning the 'Video Nasties' moral panic during the 1980s and 1990s in the UK featuring interviews with filmmakers, distributors, politicians, and commentators who were there at the time.
Who would I recognise in it?
Erm ... it depends on how well versed you are in this era of British film culture.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
If you want the historical context and detail of how the video nasties scare came to pass, and how it was roughly dealt with in the 'Video Recordings Act', then you've come to the ideal place. It dives into the social and political pressures of both sides, but mostly the tabloid-inspired hysteria that convinced the entire House of Commons to introduce poorly-planned knee-jerk regulation after the Police Force had ripped through innumerable video rental shops confiscating videos (from "Cannibal Holocaust" to incompetent mistakes like "The Best Little Whore House in Texas"). The documentary also covers issues like the Hungerford massacre, and the killing of James Bulger, and how these events affected the culture of violent films and video classification in the UK (with Rambo III and Child's Play 3 respectively). This is a well-informed and indispensable guide to this cultural phenomenon, even if it is a bit dry in terms of presentation. It's ideal to accompany this with Jake West's "Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide", which takes more of a nostalgic fan's-eye-view of the era. Ban The Sadist Videos! is a must-see for any horror or film fan. Great.