The Cinema Snob Movie

The Cinema Snob Movie is a treat for fans of Brad Jones's internet review series, even as it tries to extend its appeal to a broader audience. It has a lot of humorous moments, but starts to get bogged down towards the end.

The film provides an origin story for the Cinema Snob character, who started out as wannabe exploitation filmmaker Craig Golightley but adopted the persona of a film snob to impress a film commissioner for some filming permits. Things become complicated when a series of gruesome murders begins.

The film is at times very funny, with the best moments coming from Noah "The Spoony One" Antwiler. Although there are some in-jokes for fans of the web reviews, the film doesn't mine that vein too much. Indeed, given that most people buying this DVD will be fans of the series, it might have been better to cater to the fans a bit more.

The film has a good message about liking movies you actually enjoy rather than whatever critics tell you to like. However, the last twenty minutes of the film get bogged down in too many unnecessary scenes. The movie is about a half hour too long, an issue that besets most of the Brad Jones / Ryan Mitchelle collaborations. Still, it's well worth your time.

As a fan of Brad's work across the board, I can say that I enjoyed the film for its meta humor but still found it lacking from a mainstream perspective. Without knowledge of the personalities behind the characters (such as Noah Antwiler's contributions as "Spoony" or Ed Glaser's work on TGWTG.com), the movie will fall flat for those unfamiliar with their body of work.

POSITIVES The Cinema Snob is an entertaining character and is the engine which drives Brad's other work. For every experimental project, there needs to be a mainstream draw to interest the viewer. One would not be interested in Star Wars fan fiction, for example, if one had no knowledge of the Star Wars franchise to begin with. "The Cinema Snob Movie" is a major boost to the weekly (or bi-weekly) reviews Brad does as his cantankerous, barefoot reviewer on thatguywiththeglasses.com. It provides depth to the universe in which he lives and opens new avenues for characters to appear in the future.

The cinematography is miles ahead of anything Mr. Jones has done in the past, shown in superior framing of scenes and more compelling camera angles that seem very appropriate to the mood. Jillian's addition to the cast always feels organic (marriage helps that along, I guess), so the romantic scenes aren't as awkward as they could be. The story itself is also an interesting narrative, as we're taken from "story A" (the producer's quest) to "story b" (the murder mystery) in a seamless transition. The "who done it" aspect is played very well and the resolution is quite entertaining and comical.

NEGATIVES One of the casting choices acts as a minus here. Jake feels like an odd choice as the "buddy" of the Snob, especially since Jerrid is the built-up character in the site's main series. His acting isn't terrible, but at times he seems to be a bit too boisterous and overzealous in his effort to sell the scene. It ends up bogging down the entire first half of the film and making the viewer wish Jerrid was waking up with the pizza stuck to his cheek.

The biggest drawback in the film is also its strong point. Without the meta humor attached to the main Cinema Snob review series, the film will fall flat for those unfamiliar with Jones' other work. Although the jokes stand on their own, the casting choices lack any "big names" to prop the film up, relying on the viewer's knowledge of TGWTG's cast of characters to draw interest in the movie. The performances of the actors are by no means awful, but they are average enough to warrant a big name that could have acted as a cheap draw for potential fans.

Due to the nature of the film, I must explain prior to my review that I am not in any way a "fan" of Brad Jones or Cinema Snob. My introduction to his work came very indirectly through his ties to Nostalgia Critic and Channel Awesome. I do not have the experience needed to fully appreciate a "made just for fans" movie; this is my introduction to the work of Brad Jones.

There are some negative aspects that I feel must be discussed upfront. The cinematography is very much amateur-grade: lots of hand-held camera shake, camera shake where there was no excuse for not using a tripod such as stationary establishing shots of houses, complete failure to add proper lighting, select shots that are poorly framed, and continuity errors across cuts between different viewing angles of the same shot (bottles changing position on tables and a hand that vanishes are the most egregious errors that come to mind.) The sound design leaves A LOT to be desired as well, from the audio levels in the same conversation being significantly different between speakers to the ambient sound of traffic suddenly cutting in when the POV changes. The movie is two hours long but probably could have been executed in 90 minutes if some of the unnecessarily slow parts were cleaned up. There are some instances where the acting is unconvincing. If this was even a "low-budget film" by the industry definition, this would be enough to earn it a review that boiled down to "what is this crap?"

Fortunately, this isn't such a film, and I didn't go in expecting anything with apparent high production values. This film was obviously a labor of love and provided something for a bunch of like-minded friends to work together on. The great thing about this film is that it doesn't even try to take itself seriously. It's obviously made to appeal to people who are "in" on Brad Jones' previous work, but despite being an "outsider," I found myself able to enjoy it. Being able to appreciate the "WTF? factor" is crucial to enjoyment of this film, because that's what makes it amusing. On the surface, it's littered with flat, minimally expressive dialogue, but that's what makes the more ridiculous parts so worthwhile. You find yourself caught off-guard and suddenly laughing at what seemed like a contrived, knuckle-dragging story just seconds earlier.

I can forgive amateur production if the story is decent and the execution is clever. This film was hard to watch in the beginning since I was not used to the "flat" dialogue and sneaky subtle humor, but by the time the credits rolled, I found myself wanting to watch it again, if for no other reason than to pick up on the subtle humor I missed. I also appreciated the special effects; they can be quite a treat, and it's fun to stop the video and try to figure out how they pulled them off.

If you'd like to see a no-budget film that's executed pretty well, this is definitely a good choice. It's not a very serious film, but it isn't supposed to be, and while I am certain that some people would never be capable of appreciating it, you owe it to yourself to give it a chance.

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EDIT/UPDATE: I've seen this film many times over now, and having done so brings some new perspectives. I've watched some key Cinema Snob reviews that get referenced in this film and realized that I would have enjoyed it more had I seen these episodes first. There seems to be a plethora of in-jokes and references to Cinema Snob episodes. This is both understandable and acceptable, but as a newcomer to the works of Brad Jones it detracts from the enjoyment of the film a bit due to not understanding the meaning behind these seemingly random utterances. I've also noticed that enjoyment of the story drops sharply as it transitions away from snarky comedy halfway through. As with Brad's previous film Paranoia, the later parts of the film have issues relating to continuity, transitions, and too many scenes dragging on for far too long. Audio and lighting problems are still present and obvious when they happen...and dear lord, SO MANY of the supporting characters are NOT convincing actors at all!

All of that being said, each watch of The Cinema Snob Movie has become more and more enjoyable to watch every time I see it, especially as I look up the incredible number of actors and films name-dropped throughout and better understand what they're talking about. The cringey moments of really bad acting start to become funny as well. If you want a movie that can both feed into a MST3K/RiffTrax mocking session with your friends and give you a bunch of genuine laughs as well, you'll definitely appreciate this one. As far as no-budget feature-length films by amateurs goes, it's very hard to find much better, and if you have an interest in making your own films, you can learn a lot by watching it, especially from the commentary tracks on the DVD.

I would like to start off by saying I am a fan of Brad Jones and The Cinema Snob. I love his movies Freak Out, Cheap, and Midnight Heat. I think Game Boys is fine, I'm not the biggest fan of Paranoia or Hooker with a Heart of Gold, but we'll get to that later. With that said, I was expecting to love The Cinema Snob Movie, so I bought the DVD, popped it in and was blown away at how bad it was. I feel terrible for saying that because I see the love and the effort put into the making of the movie from the director, actors, writers, etc. but I just felt so let down by this movie. Before I talk about the bad, I'll talk about the things I like: 1) The cast...for the most part. Brad, Orlando, Jillian, Noah, and the array of side actors in the film club all do a great job, there are weak links, but I'll get to that. 2) The writing. While I have some problems, I felt the story was well enough written that I was watching to see what happened next, I may have gotten bored, but I couldn't turn it off. 3)The directing. On the one hand, the point-and-shoot style of filming is a little too bland for my taste, it works for a comedy, and it works as a joke in itself after the characters talk about how their style of filming is such. I felt the movements were naturalistic, the cuts during the murders do well in concealing the effects while letting you see enough to leave an impact.

Now for the bad: 1) Jake and Ryan. I'll be the bad guy and say I hate Jake as an actor and personality. I don't find him funny, I find his delivery stilted and awkward, and I can't stand his voice. I know that last one is an unfair criticism, but it really is a distraction for me in any of Jone's work even Midnight Heat. His delivery is awkward here too and I dreaded anytime he was on screen. As for Ryan, I am a huge fan of him as an actor and personality. He was a stand out in Freak Out despite such a small part and was one of my favorite parts of Cheap. Oddly enough, he lacks the personality he showed in those films, and I know that was intended, but just because it was intended doesn't mean it works. 2) The pacing. This movie is over two hours long. The murder plot doesn't come until the second half. Most of that first half is just telling jokes, which, fair enough it's a comedy, but if you want to have a murder mystery too, shouldn't that be introduced a little sooner? It's just a personal preference. 3) The look and sound. I do not like Paranoia, Hooker with a Heart of Gold, and The Cinema Snob Movie for similar reasons, but the one that connects them all is their look. I'm not talking about how their shot, but how their shots look. It's too clean, but not clean enough. On the one hand I feel this is an unfair statement as it shows Team Snob is growing as filmmakers, but on the other hand I miss the look of his old movies. For some reason, it's easier for me to accept bad audio and bad lighting than it is for me to accept sort of good lighting and OK audio.

Let me get this out of the way first, I'm a fan of Brad Jones and his Cinema Snob character. But as the old saying goes it's possible to have too much of a good thing.

The story deals with a fictionalized creation of the character of the Cinema Snob. He's an exploitation filmmaker wannabe who's got a great script, an actor lined up and everything but can't get a deal to make the movie. So he goes undercover as a pretentious film guy for reasons. There's murder, intrigue and enough community theater acting to choke a horse.

I'm not saying it's bad but I am saying it's something that really didn't need to get made. It is interesting as a bit of a time capsule seeing the old "Team Snob" and seeing which ones are still around today.