Slice

I'm a fan of the occasional schlocky B-movie, provided it's fun/funny, doesn't matter if it's intentional or unintentional. I knew this movie wasn't gonna be scary, but I did expect to get some laughs out of it, which I unfortunately didn't. It's a mercifully short movie at 82 mins, and yet it felt longer than its runtime.

The cast had some promising names, most of whom were wasted. Zazie Beetz is technically the lead in the movie, but she was criminally under-utilized. Hannibal Buress and the Stranger Things guy barely appeared in the movie. Chris Parnell tried a little. Chance cannot act at all. However, Paul Scheer gave the best performance in the movie, wish the movie had more of him.

I did like the setting of the movie though. A small town with humans coexisting with ghosts as an actual, official part of its population, people going around driving cars and wearing clothes from the 80s but using some technology (like laptops) from the present. It's a shame though, they could've done more with this setting and made a genuinely exciting and fun movie.

Paul Scheer's performance and the movie's setting were mostly the only things I enjoyed about the movie, and they're the reason I'm even giving it a 4/10.

What an strangely so-so, oddly-conceived, painfully mixed bag this film is...

"Slice" is the strange story of Small Town, USA...which also happens to harbor various monsters in it, such as ghosts, witches and werewolves. It also runs primarily off of food delivery services, specifically a tiny little pizza place that may very well be the gates to Hell.

...See, from that log line alone, one would be HOOKED to see what goes down in this film, no?...

"Slice" is the writing and directorial debut of Austin Vesely, who previously directed music videos, and also the acting debut of Chance The Rapper, who has worked with Vesely before (And, to be quite honest, is in this film so little it's a wonder why he gets top billing...). While I want to believe this was a concept the two of them dreamed-up one strange night, I cannot be totally sure.

What I CAN be totally sure of is how much this film works and doesn't work is completely inconsistent, which is truly a shame because there's plenty of things I really enjoyed here...and plenty of things that were absolutely dreadful.

"Slice" fancies itself very much in the same threads of a 80's B-movie run amok. Much of the film is very tongue-in-cheek, the world is played for laughs quite often, and the horror is downplayed often to show how ridiculous the story is getting and keeps borrowing strands of other lore to incorporate and stack the strangeness.

In this case, the screenplay is the one to blame, and the screenplay in its content is hardly lacking in quality. Plenty of monster movie lore is touched-up and taken-from to plant the seeds of an interesting world this film can take place in, and for a long while the tone and world really did mesh and created a fun little world to run around in.

The issue becomes clear about halfway through the film, however; the film's script lands about as often as a shotgun hits a rifle target. That's to say, it is ALL OVER the place, scattershot, throws every bullet at every angle, and rarely hits its bulls-eye.

The script feels cobbled-together, constantly trying to balance about five different sub-plots in a run-time that barely qualifies as a feature-length film (82 minutes? Come on now...). Various characters are established and then never seen again, or are woefully underutilized (You cast Joe Keery and Hannibal Burress and use them for 2-3 scenes MAX? C'mon now...).

Add-in that the humor sometimes hits, sometimes does not. There are big laughs in here, but at other times, the script or the actors can't seem to stick the landing and thus creates giant joke bombs where the film truly needs them most. There was clearly a FUNNY script here, but either the talent or revisions let it down.

Speaking of revisions...Good gravy, was the climax of this film ever hacked-apart and cobbled-together. It feels so patchwork and unfinished in how swift they simply try to end the film, I almost wonder if they simply did not have anything left in the budget to complete it. The cinematography was poor, the editing was poor, the makeup and effects were poor...Everything was just noticeably bad, and not something that should've been in a film that (Presumably) was slated for a theatrical release.

The concept also feels very much wasted in such a short film that never delivers on the promise of the premise. We get these opening moments where we are introduced to a world where humans, ghosts and other supernatural creatures co-exist...yet there's not much fun had with that concept beyond a few jokes and the climax, which simply falls flat on its face. An opportunity was missed with a concept this insane and destined to be fun, and it seems only half the fun was had with the idea.

For all things negative that I have to say...there do exist some bright spots to this otherwise disappointing and confusing venture.

The cinematography can actually be quite good at times, particularly when lighting is played with. It almost achieves its desired effect of an 80's B-level schlock film, something akin to 'The Monster Squad' if it were made in 2018. While in some moments the film looks like a TV sitcom, in rare cases I can really admire what work went into the staging.

The score is also nothing to shrug at, as its use of Synth somewhat works in its favor as another 80's callback. Clearly there was inspiration here, and it mostly works in the film itself. If it had made itself more prevalent, perhaps the score could've saved some more face.

I also can't help but touch-upon the premise again and the world this film "tries" to create, despite its minimal effort. It really is an oddly FUN, weird world it builds for us early on. Much as little is ever developed with it, I really would've loved to see a better writer and a better director and a bigger budget tackle it.

But in the end...this film is a mess. A mess of good things, but a mess of bad things just as well. A great score, great cinematography and a strangely interesting concept are counteracted by a poor script, a terrible climax, and technical aspects that seem just as inconsistent as this entire film seems to be.

For me, I almost dare to give this film extra points because I actually enjoyed some parts of it enough to say I didn't "Hate" it...but at the same time, I know I can't in good conscious recommend it.

It's an ambitious, poorly-executed, disappointing, slightly-interesting mixed bag, for me...

I've never seen Chris Parnell in a movie before, so that was interesting...

This movie had some fantastic ideas and creativity, yet it was unorganized and poorly written. There were too many characters for the story it was trying to tell in 82 minutes. It was poorly paced and felt like it should have taken some more times with certain characters.

The dialogue also was pretty bad at times with some dumb jokes that just don't work for me. I can't even remember any quotes besides "Wait, wait. So you're telling me that my pizza place is built on a gateway to hell?"

Besides all the flaws in this film, I can still say I enjoyed it. You can tell it had a creative idea and Austin Vesely seemed very passionate about this project. I would recommend if you're in a mood to watch an 80s like B movie. I just wished this film was better because I love the idea and the world. It could have been a great film.

(Also want to add that I am happy I didn't drive to Milwaukee to see this film in a theater on September 10th. I almost did that.)

This film feels fun in the beginning if you're a fan of Welcome to Night Vale and just binge watched the first season of Stranger Things and need something to fill the gaping hole season two couldn't fill. Unfortunately by the end you'll feel just as unfulfilled as when you started. It's a bummer because it has some of my favorites in it's cast: Paul Scheer, Chris Parnell, and a cameo by Hannibal Buress. As well as rising stars Zazie Beetz, Chance the Rapper, Rae Gray, and Joe Keery (who are adorable). It did have enough 80's synth throwback to satiate a very basic lizard brain part of my soul. Visually it was ok, there were a lot of great color themes that would have been cool if they carried into the rest of the film. I was pretty bummed and confused the ghosts didn't have any level of opacity/special effects to them. I feel like we're so far past the bad theater makeup for arts sake. I have to agree there wasn't any real humor or scares which made for a really flat film. It had so much potential and some really great ingredients but just never made it above basic unfortunately. I definitely wouldn't not recommend this film. But would advise to set the tone with a Digiorno pizza and eat some cannabis food before watching.

Im not hard to please when it comes to movies but i can confidently tell you this movie is trash and should be in the bin. Terrible acting, tried to be funny but failed, story line is so cliche and dumb. I thought to myself before seeing this movie "it cant be that bad" and it was that bad.