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STUDIO: Vivendi Entertainment
MSRP: $17.99
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 90 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
•Original Theatrical Trailer
The Pitch
Porno, children and sudden acts of brutal violence. Sounds like a Tuesday in the life of Tom Sizemore.
The Humans
Director: Anders Morgenthaler
Writers: Anders Morgenthaler and Mette Heeno
Starring: Thure Lindhardt, Stine Fischer Christensen, Mira Hallund
The Nutshell
Our main man August the Priest walks in on his very pregnant sister Christina smack dab in the middle of filming a nasty menage a trois plus one gang bang a go-go. That’s how they do it in Denmark. 5 years later Christina is now named Princess. Not only is she a very famous porn star, but she’s damn dead too, which leaves her now 5 year old daughter Mia, living in a brothel. It’s August’s duty as “uncle” to get Mia out of there and give her the life she always deserved. Things don’t work out well and Uncle August is forced to lay down the law by ripping people’s ears off and breaking children’s arms, all in the name of protecting Mia from the horrible world she was brought up in.
The Lowdown
The wonder of animation is that if you can imagine it, you can do it. The pictures will flow together flawlessly because they’re all created in the same place and if the story is strong enough, it takes you right along with the ride. Nothing looks fake or out of place because you know you’re not watching actual people. It’s all created by the same artists working together to create a certain idea, so there’s a constant flow to everything and you’re not taken out of what you see by a sudden onslaught of bad CGI or unbelievable events. Going into an animated film you already have a preconceived suspension of disbelief because you know what you’re watching isn’t real. This enables the animators to do whatever they want and they don’t have to answer to things like child labor laws or animal rights. They do what they want. So gangsta!
With a mixture of animation, CGI and live action moments, this isn’t your run of the mill cartoony movie. The animation is a little awkward at first but I found myself adapting to it very quickly. The CGI is used well and adds a nice touch every now and again. It’s the live action that adds to most to mix. It comes in the form of home videos August recorded throughout his life with his sister. They add a lot more weight to who these characters are. As they reveal more and more about their relationship, we come to understand why he’s willing to go so far to protect Mia and his sister’s name. The characters are very fleshed out and the film does a great job of letting you get to know them little by little right up to the very end. It is a brilliant idea executed very well.
“Uh, yeah, umm… I’ll just catch the next one.”
One of the only stumbles the film has is with the character of Mia. It’s too on the nose with how mentally scarred she is from her environment. Instead of letting us slowly figure out who she is and what she’s become, we’re repeatedly, and often gratuitiously, shown her erratic and inappropriate behavior over and over again. We get it. She’s all sorts of effed up. We don’t need it spoon fed to us but where else are they going to have the opportunity to have a scene of a 5 year old girl showing her secret parts to some boys who’s future calls for some serious ass whoopin. There is no way you could do scenes like these in a live action film. It’s just taking advantage of it’s resources and storytelling ability, but after the 6th moment of Mia doing something crazy it gets a little unnecessary. In the long run it is a very minor flaw that some people won’t even think of as a problem. It just goes a tad over board with it, but at the same time there are some scenes that were so well done I hit the rewind button and watched them again. Everything is balanced.
Mr. Jon Lovitz.
There are general interesting insights and satire of the porn industry that, although are biased (they’re the bad guys), still give you the story from the perspective of the company that owns the rights to all of the Princess material. It’s not shy about showing the impact an uninhibited lifestyle has on everyone involved in a life seemingly without rules. The violence is very sudden and brutal, but it’s not all without reason. It’s there because it should be there and the pacing is pitch perfect. There is never a dull moment and once it starts getting all sorts of bonkers, it just doesn’t let up. There’s constant surprises and great performances enhanced by their live action selves despite not really seeing the animated versions of live action characters until the very end which is when everything falls apart. With the amount of balls it had to go where it does, its rather disappointing that it didn’t have enough juice to go all the way with a minute left. That doesn’t stop this from being a very powerful and surprising film that hits almost every mark perfectly, and for fans of the revenge genre, this is something that needs to be sought out.
The Package
“Extra Features!” ending not only with an “s” to imply plural, but an exclamation point to imply exciting, would lead one to believe that there is something totally awesome to check out. Come to find out all you get is the original movie trailer and an option to go back to the main menu. What a bummer.