Sinister Squad

Every now and then The Asylum do manage to hit the nail right on the head. Unfortunately, more than often they swing wide and miss even wider. And such was the case with the 2016 mockbuster "Sinister Squad".

I must admit that I entered this movie with little or no expectations at all, especially since it was going to be a rip off of "Suicide Squad" and also because I didn't recognize anyone in the movie. But mostly because this is after all another The Asylum release.

I managed to suffer a full 22 minutes and 12 seconds into the movie before I was ready to claw my eyes out and just simply downright gave up. I threw the towel in the ring and went to watch something else. I usually don't easily give up on a movie, but there was absolutely nothing compelling about "Sinister Squad". Nothing to make me want to sit there and hope for it to get better.

From what I managed to gather from what I saw was that the story was about fairytale and mythical beings being recruited for something. And that was about as much as I comprehended from the movie.

The acting was abysmal, as it usually turns out to be in these types of movies. So don't get your hopes up here, not even the least.

The effects and creature designs were poor, to say the least. If they at least had proper effects and CGI, or even just proper make-up and wardrobes for the acting talents, then perhaps I would have stayed for more than just a little over 22 minutes.

I lost every will to watch more of "Sinister Squad", and I am not even going to bother to return to finish the rest of the movie.

This is not the brightest of moments in the history of The Asylum. Now, mind you they do put out something good and entertaining every now and then, but "Sinister Squad" is a movie to avoid like a bad case of flu.

It's the bare minimum of what could qualify to be the movie it's packaged to be. Not even one decimal point of an effort beyond that was made. Whoever is reading this, you or anyone you know, your grandmother or that kid who mows your lawn, could gather up a small number of free actors, ask around for an abandoned building you can film in for a day or two for free, have a video editor that can add basic smoke effects, and make a movie just like this.

I watch some of the dumbest movies known to mankind, but some I just can't make it through...this is one of them. I don't think its the actors fault. I think its more the directors and editors. This movie would work if we were in the 1980's. Each scene seems to be stretched for lack of content to fill the movie up with minutes. They could get their point across in half the time they utilize. The actors seem they are in their first year of acting school, however a couple of them really got into their roll, pushing the boundaries of crazy and I know that had to be a huge effort on their part to rise to such occasion. I think at least one or two of these actors would do well under a different director.

Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of The Asylum's (near-universally maligned for good reason) output, though there is curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and compulsive about their output's badness. Admittedly, The Asylum do have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.

'Sinister Squad' is not quite among The Asylum's all time worst, at least it didn't offend as much as others like 'Operation Dunkirk' did, but it is down there with the film that very nearly reached that distinction. The first part of the tagline is correct, the second part couldn't be more wrong. Sinister is also the last word to describe 'Sinister Squad' too.

Despite what people might assume, it is not a blatant rip-off of 'Suicide Squad', having been made and released before that film was released. But like 'Geo-Disaster' did with 'Geostorm' and 'Operation Dunkirk' did with 'Dunkirk', 'Sinister Squad' capitalised upon it. Was one of many who didn't think 'Suicide Squad' was good at all, but compared to this dreck it is a piece of art. Take absolutely no pleasure giving my lowest possible rating and a negative review, being encouraging and generous on the most part, but it is deserved here.

Visually, 'Sinister Squad' looks incredibly cheap even for something made on a low budget. It's very drably, garishly and sometimes dizzyingly shot, incoherently edited (bacon-slicer-like) with glaring and unforgivably sloppy continuity errors and even the scenery doesn't make much impression despite being actually the least bad aspect of the film. Even worse are the pathetic effects, garish make-up and shoe-string budget-like costumes.

Can remember little about the music, which tended to be intrusive, annoying and out of place. The script makes little sense, sounds awkward constantly and on the wrong side of camp throughout.

There is absolutely nothing thrilling, tense, suspenseful, emotionally investable or fun about the story. The predictability may have been forgivable if the film was actually engaging let alone exciting but it fails to be either throughout. Like so many films from The Asylum, 'Sinister Squad' is basically non-stop dullness and intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, with unintentional humour because of the excessive cheese, bouts of mawkish and stilted melodrama and irritating character behaviours that makes one endear to them even less in a film with not one interesting or rootable character.

Won't talk about much the muddled direction, with no style, taste, coherence, direction of story or drama or sense of knowing what to do with the film, or the all round weak at best performances.

To conclude, super bad all right. 1/10 Bethany Cox

If they picked up a dozen of random teenagers from the street and gave them 24 hours to make the movie using just cellphone and home computer, the result would be much better for sure. Story... I saw porn movies with a much better story than this one. Acting... may I even call it acting...Fantasy/Sci-Fi without CGI and with traces of costumes and makeup that look like they were created by 5 years old. It is completely unbelievable to me that someone made this crap, even more confusing why would anyone agree to act in it, and the most unbelievable of all is that any theater or TV station was ready to show it. This is probably the worst piece of crap I ever sa... tried to watch. I gave up after about 20 minutes and I never do that. I am ashamed that I watched even that much, and how makers and actors of this live with themselves after doing it... I really do not understand.

0/10