Bleak Future

Man this movie blew me away! Shot on super 8 with no budget, but it looks great. Slangman is the "Smartest Man In The Known World." He crosses the desert dunes with the tongueless Atlatl and beautifully-dim Femme in search of "The Source" and comes into contact with all sorts of mutants, monsters, and mayhem, until they come face to face with the acid-spraying Malathion Man and the rocket-launching rival smart man Dr. Obvious. Great comic-book cinematography, top-notch mutant special effects, and a great music score!

Stuck for something to watch, I decided to go to CG (if you know, you know) and pick one of the featured films at random. Something I had never done before but I guess the Gods were watching over me this night, as this piece of obscure trash turned out to be one of the greatest discoveries I have ever made. Lets start off by asking, just why is this film so unknown and under-seen? As of typing this, just 27 people (28 when I post it) have seen the thing.

It's set in a post apocalyptic world filled with mutants and humans coexisting. We follow Slangman "as in man of slang" the self professed most intelligent man on the earth. He wanders the desolate world, offering up his vas knowledge at a price. He meets a gut dressed in tartan who is mute due to having his tongue cut out and also an expert with a spear. He also falls in love and purchase an actress, who he decides he no longer likes after he finds out she was wearing a wig. The rest of the film is us following them as they wander around the world.

The tone of the film is something like Monty Python meets Bad Taste with some Alex Chandon like mutants, who for the budget, looks absolutely amazing. They are gooey, slimy and the designs are very well thought out. I loved one mutant who has a small head on the side of his face that's constantly drooling. We meet many a bizarre character along the way. A highlight for me were the Nowhere Men, who do resemble the Knights who say Ni a little, but are damn funny, and have a well edited demise.

The film is shot on dirty Super-8, which looks amazing and just helps to add to the already strange and filthy tone of the film overall. Everything it dubbed, which again works in the film's favour. This really should have gained a following and it's shocking to me that it didn't. I have to wonder if we would have gotten more from director B. Scott O'Malley had it have done better. He has another feature that I'll now be on the look for. If this kind of low budget, DIY trash is your bag, then if you never listen to me again, at least check this film out. It needs a Vinegar Syndrome Blu-Ray ASAP.

Bleak Future: 4 out of 10: I have had friends that would constantly quote their favorite movies (In particular Caddyshack.) and one of the sources of these quotes was that vast work of Monty Python. The Python oeuvre is so influential it has spawned its own adjective Pythonesque. Bleak Future is often a Pythonesque movie. Unfortunately sometimes it borrows a little too much.

It consists of chapters broken up by a video on how the world ended. (The video is a definite nod to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but it is so well done and entertaining I didn't care.) The chapters however are another story.

Filmed in super-8 in a desert wasteland they are a spot on parody of all those mindless post-apocalyptic movies of the last thirty years. These scenes consist of three main characters, a mute Scotsman warrior with a Billy Baldwin haircut, a very pretty blond girl without an original thought in her head, and that guy who won't stop doing those Monty Python impressions.

It's the third guy known as Slangman that gave me fits. His shtick is on display throughout the entire film and it drove me to distraction almost immediately. Every other character is fine. Sure some of the jokes are flat and overdone and there is a scene with the mutants so derivative of Python I thought they were going to ask for a shrubbery, but it is Slangman whose every utterance became the nails on my chalkboard soul.

Other than the small fact that the main character, who is in every scene, is a complete tool this is a fairly entertaining film with a genuinely funny ending. Worth a look if you are a fan of post apocalyptic movies just beware of the mutants that say Nee.

Sweet movie!! Love it, love it, love it! Unique & originality, excellent stuff. Can't wait to see what else O'Malley will produce in the future. Love the characters and everything, the actors were cool & original, so was the plot. Lots of nice action, not a boring moment.

Funny, Fast, entertaining, creative, one of a kind....Make up and special effects are exciting and the original music rings true to the show... Feel the love, feel the hate, laugh and wonder about the future.. We enjoyed the hell out of this film..We were totally appreciative of the "genious" of thought throughout this movie adventure. An exciting experience in the future, witnessing, changes in mankind of every sort. Physically, mentally, spiritually etc..Anything is possible and this movie states it just so. Can you imagine having all that power in one small little "thing?" Well, we couldn't either until it was made believable in this movie. Each character is unique and has his own story to tell. Kudos to you Mr. Filmmaker and crew..Many more to come like this.!