Space Cop

Intentional schlock that has fun with itself and has a good character dynamic that could be worked into a serious movie and make it far better.

The only problem here is that because they are trying to be intentionally schlocky things get a bit too hammy. Fake bad acting and camera winks aren't as enjoyable as actual overacting and real attempts at coolness that are ridiculous. The Room wouldn't be The Room if it was done on purpose.

Overall if you are a fan fo RLM then there is something for you here, and the story is better than most other films of a similar budget, but it probably would have worked better if they had played the whole thing actually straight, rather than fake winky straight while always letting you know that they know how schlocky it all is.

I'm sad to say that after all the anticipation, Space Cop is fairly underwhelming. It seems strangely uneven, unpolished. And most disappointingly, it's formulaic. I'd hoped for something wittier, more off-the-wall, more creative based on RLM's previous work. Space Cop gave me nothing to think about -- the clichéd plot points, double entendres, tired set-ups, bad models / costumes and archetype characters aren't there to be subverted or analysed, they're just there.

The music works very well, the sets are solid, there are lots of laugh-out-loud moments scattered through. But it's not confident in itself. It feels rushed.

The script in particular feels like a first draft. Motivations and relationships shift wildly from joke to joke - it's hard to understand what we're supposed to think of the characters or how Space Cop in particular is perceived by the others. Sometimes the tone is so muddied it's tricky to tell if a moment is going for humour, tension or drama. At one point the movie slows down so we can watch a striptease and take long, lingering looks at the actress' body. I kept waiting for the punchline, but amazingly it seems to just be there for titillation.

There are highlights. Rich Evans and Jocelyn Ridgely are funny and do very well in their roles. Mike Stoklasa appears to be deliberately hamming it up, which often doesn't 'fit' with the other actors but is enjoyably tongue-in-cheek in itself. The 'real' actors and cameos vary in skill but most are solid and some are great. Len Kabasinski of all people absolutely cracked me up. This movie could have been great.

Overall, Space Cop comes across as either lazy or stumbling. Mike, Jay and Rich have a lot of talent and creativity, but only some of it made it through the filming process on this one.

I cannot believe they managed to convince a megastar like Rich Evans to play in this low budget movie. I don't know about that "Mike" guy, though. Is he some kind of secret a**hole?

I enjoyed this movie because of the lessons it teaches about telling a story on a tiny budget.

Mike, Rich, and Jay (along with the other members of the RLM team) focus most of their output talking about movies, about what makes them work and what makes the fall short.

Space Cop is very self-aware, and I don't think it can be viewed by itself as a standalone movie. In many ways, it is a meta-movie, designed to point out the elements that comprise storytelling on the screen.

It's not hilarious or beautiful or fascinating; it's something else, a secondary communication from the creators that brings together many of the ideas from Half In the Bag, Best of the Worst, and The Plinkett Reviews.

I enjoyed this movie, but I did lot of homework with RLM over the years to get the points they are making. I accept it for what it is.

The long and the short of it is this: if you like RedLetterMedia content like Half in the Bag, Best of the Worst, re:View, or the Mister Plinkett reviews, this will probably be an enjoyable experience for you, albeit, maybe a little more-of-the-same.

Having familiarized myself with a lot of RedLetterMedia's backlog of content going back to their Plinkett shorts and The Grabowskis, it's interesting how the advent of the Plinkett reviews and the Half in the Bag skits have seen their humor evolve. However, I can't help but feel like that this sense of humor and these characters make this film feel more like a really long Half in the Bag skit than a standalone film, which is ultimately my biggest critique of this.

That's not to say the humor is bad, on the contrary, I laughed at a lot of the jokes in this film, especially when I saw a reference to The Grabowskis included in one of the scenes. The cheesy one-liners Space Cop says are also great. My problem lies in that the characters portrayed by Mike, Jay and Rich all feel like characters we've already seen before and feels like more of the same as one of their YouTube videos except with higher production values. Coming into this film after seeing all 5 seasons of The Grabowskis and having watched The Cleaning Lady for the umpteenth time, maybe I was expecting something a little grittier and more of that vein of bizarre humor than this. There are some moments in this film where I felt the joke was included to satisfy a checklist, like Rich Evans yelling "OHHH NO" despite it feeling a bit out of character for Space Cop. I still laughed at that joke but, I couldn't help but feel like characters were being reprised in this film, either for the sake of catering to their YouTube audience who know them for those sorts of jokes on their various review series,or because it's being done somewhat on autopilot- or maybe a little of both.

There are some people who have reviewed Space Cop and have called it disappointing by pointing out technical flaws in the way it was made, but it's obvious this film wasn't made on a very robust budget which is probably why they went for a science fiction schlock comedy film instead of trying to make something more profound.

I just wish Space Cop had an identity of its own but as it is, it's still a fun experience and one that I think many RedLetterMedia fans will enjoy.