13/13/13

To be honest this is the first ever review I have ever written, and I am only doing it in the hope that I can stop a few people wasting a couple of hours of there life and few quid, this movie isn't even worth a pirate download.

From the moment I started watching this movie I was inclined to switch it off but as I had just paid for it I thought I may as well continue in the hope that something might happen, even one or two minutes of fun would have helped here but I got nothing.

The acting was some of the worst I have seen in my life, I mean I can't imagine any of them getting paid to be in this pile of rubbish and the ones who was in here must have been so desperate for work to accept in the first place, the only thing that was good here was the front of the DVD case, which was what made me pick it up, so don't ever judge a book by it's cover LOL.

The directing was absolute garbage, there was so many goofs that i couldn't even start to count them up so I guess they didn't even edit this at all. The music was tacky.

I won't really bother saying much more here as I have only really posted this in the hope that I might be able to save a few of you from wasting your money and intellect.

To sum this up if I could give a zero here I would. There is not one thing that can be written here to give it any sort of credit, so the person who wrote the review with full stars must work for Asylum or somewhere he will be making money, as there is no possible way that anyone could find this entertaining.

Please please please stay away from this at all costs, or if you are tempted please come back to me after so I can say "I told you so" LOL

You have been warned.

I went into watching this movie with some high hope thinking that this movie would be good after all the other garbage that we had to watch this year. But this movie was a complete let down. The cast I will leave alone cause I saw no one that I can relate to....plus the acting could have been better. The whole world coming to an end and we all turn up acting like crazies is like ...What is happening right now or these guys just rip headline news stories and try ( and rather poorly) to convince me (the viewer) that this what's going to happen? NOPE! Save your money and your download time for something better I give it 1 star.

Let me start by saying that James Cullen Bressack's film 13/13/13, released by The Asylum, has, at its core, a GREAT idea. At a time when the Horror and Sci-fi genres seem plagued by remakes, copy cats and irony filled shark attack films, even from so-called first time or indie talent, 13/13/13 has this great horror sci-fi concept.

Basically it's all something to do with leap years violating the ancient Mayan calendar and all those extra days in February, over time have created an extra month and on the date of 13/13/13 everyone who wasn't born on a February 29th goes completely nuts.

It's a wonderful, end of the world scenario that allows for lots of death, destruction, mayhem and the symbolism of the "unlucky number" 13. More importantly, I hadn't really heard of much like that before and it's always nice to hear a fresh idea. Yes, OK, so behind the idea is the whole Mayan calendar hoopla that went around last year claiming that, in 2012, the world was going to end and, I'm sure that, The Asylum liked it for that reason, as they're always making B-Movie versions of big budget disaster films (or Mockbusters as I believe the affectionate term is for them) but this has a decent spin on that and actually attempts something novel with it. The idea that leap years added up would form this weird 13 month is just the kind of bonkers, surreal hokum I am drawn to. There was a bit of George A Romero's The Crazies mixed in there as well but it's, at least, a different Romero source to draw from than the interminable bad zombie films we've had to wade through lately.

The things that I enjoyed in this film were the slow build up to people going crazy, some good and, on some occasions, even darkly comic deaths, a nice, atmospheric, gory and weird hospital sequence and attempts to establish different types of craziness for different groups of people. There was a really strong bedrock here for a pretty decent end-of-the-world horror film and what the filmmakers were able to do with, what was, obviously, a limited budget was, also, very impressive.

What was a slight disappointment with the movie, for me, was the fact that, I didn't feel, the concept went anywhere or was explored as much as I would've liked. For example, it needed a crazy old professor, or someone, who knew about the old world and spouted Donald Pleasance-like doom filled one-liners. The film, definitely, could've done with some sort of further explanation of the situation or some place to go. Maybe a glimmer of hope to reverse the situation using a mystical rock, Mayan gold amulet or something, or, maybe the rising of old beings to establish their order again on earth. As it was, while it was atmospheric, gory as all hell and nicely shot, the hospital sequence went on entirely too long and once our two, Feb 29th born, protagonists finally escaped there was little time for anything but a muddled and, I felt, rushed finale back at the house.

The acting was a problem in the film. I watch a lot of amateur and low budget films so it doesn't bother me a lot but the acting was pretty stale, unfortunately, and not one character really shone in the film. A lot of that might have been the script too because, while the idea was there and the deaths, gore and action were all there, the dialogue was, in places, dreadful. I thought that more creative ways could've been used to convey the craziness other than just rage and repeated uses of the f-word said unconvincingly by actors struggling to act. Don't get me wrong, there were some creative bits of craziness, especially Quentin (Jody Barton) believing himself, suddenly, to be a Korean war general but overall the swearing and the anger felt forced in some of the performances. I liked the laughter and the random acts of violence but thought the opportunity to make that truly creepy was missed. Without a few strong, decent lines of dialogue and the odd interesting character, the film did, very slowly, become something of a slog but there was, genuinely, some nice potential here.

Trae Ireland and Erin Coker were solid enough, but neither of them had very interesting characters. Calico Cooper is Alice Cooper's daughter but sadly didn't get to do very much but what she did was fine though. Jody Barton got the showy role and was, at least, enthusiastic with it and, probably, the strongest performer of the lot. Bill Voorhees, with the name made for horror film acting, was sort of funny in the role of sidekick to Jody Barton despite it being an underwritten, obvious, slob-friend role.

While it, sadly, does go nowhere, there was lots to like in this B-Movie. One positive on the acting was that I didn't feel anybody was winking at me or playing any scenes in a lazy, half-arsed manner. I felt that everyone was trying their hardest and playing the scenes straight and true. This is important because it's become all too fashionable these days, even amongst high-profile stuff like Tarantino and Rodriguez's later work, to knowingly and lazily play every scene just for puerile, pathetic and ironic laughter and, for me, that just takes me right out of the film. While the acting isn't always strong or dynamic, I am glad to say 13/13/13 doesn't do this. The key to making a fun, enjoyable, weird, silly, wonderful, cult or B-Movie is to believe in what you're doing, no matter how ridiculous and, again, this film does succeed in that regard.

While not quite there completely I appreciated this film for it's attempt at a different, creative take on an apocalypse scenario. It was an enjoyable romp, some great scenes, some good enthusiasm and a decent idea at its core.

This being a movie by The Asylum, then all odds are stacked against the movie already. However, and this did come as a surprise to me, then "13/13/13" was actually one of the better produced movies to make it out of the clutches of the guys at The Asylum.

That being said, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that this movie is great, actually far from it. The storyline is adequate, but it was weighed down by some questionable acting and even more dubious dialogue.

The story is about leap years having added time to the calendar as we know it, and one this unique day dated 13/13/13 the world comes crashing down, leaving a small group of people fighting for their sanity as the world crumbles into insanity around them.

I will say that the storyline had potential, but it was just shot down by a heap of irrelevant sidetracking and really annoying characters and bad performances. There were certain aspects to the story that had potential, and could have acquired so much more had director James Cullen Bressack opted to put more focus on these.

The outbreak of violence and erratic behavior was interesting, but it never really amassed into something spectacular. And throughout most of the movie there wasn't an overwhelming sensation of this being a major issue and a world-threatening outbreak of whatever phenomena it was supposed to be.

The characters in the movie were rather two-dimensional and wooden, never really getting to shine on the screen, and as such, then we end up with a bunch of characters that the audience don't really care for or come to have any kind of bonding with in any regards.

Production-wise, then "13/13/13" was actually quite good, and this was definitely a step in the right director for The Asylum, but there is still a long way to go yet.

This movie came and went without leaving a lasting impression, and I seriously doubt that it will make a return for a second viewing. The movie just didn't have enough to offer to sustain a second watching.

Don't get lured in by the interesting poster / DVD cover, which I did, because it is utterly misleading and promises something that has nothing to do with the movie at all.

"13/13/13" gets a mere 3 out of 10 rating from me, given the production value and certain aspects which had potential.

You can see from the very first minutes that the production values of this film are very bad, as the movie goes on, (with the exception of Erin Coker) we see that none of the actors have an ounce of talent for a long feature film. But curiosity got the best out of me, since at the beginning gave me a little jump, I decided to give it a chance, thinking "as soon as I get bored I will stop watching it".

I remember "The happening" from M. Night Shyamalan, one of the biggest missed opportunities for weird circumstances, and 13-13-13, with all the bad acting, low budget, and else, and being a poor man's film, was being better than Shyamalan's failed attempts to recover and prove himself as a good writer and director. Yes, the lines and situations are absurd, but as a viewer you feel compelled to keep on watching, why? You may ask; well, I have watched some many movies, that for me is so difficult to find something interesting and driven, and tired of the "regular" zombies, criminals, and scripts full of dirty jokes, I look for something that can keep me from snoozing off. But… oh, disappointed again! One of the major flaws is the overacting from Trae Ireland, he plays the "state the obvious", over-thinking, bossy, overprotective "hero", too slow to realize the gravity of the situation, wasting time when he should be running for her daughter's safety and definitely I also blame this on the terrible direction. Phrases like "nice catch" and other witty lines made me smile in mockery, really I wished that he have been killed on the hospital's hallway so "Candace" gets to deal with the whole situation, this way the unnecessary characters of Quentin and Joe could have been eliminated from the script. I cannot recommend in any way this zombie-crazies or whatever lunatic concept they tried, and one thing is for sure I will never watch another film where Jody Barton (Quentin) is involved with.