Westender

If we are to judge this movie by Hollywood blockbuster standards, then it deserves it's average 5/10 stars rating that it has here on IMDb. This is not a great movie, but I have paid to see many out of Hollywood that are worse.

That said I am mightily impressed with the quality of result that was achieved with virtually no budget. This was largely shot with volunteer work, on a shoe string budget most of us could come up with by begging from parents and friends. This movie stands as an example to all of us that we really could make movies ourselves if we really put our minds to it.

Filmed entirely in Oregon, on some amazingly atmospheric locations, this film was reportedly made on a budget that probably wouldn't provide the perks for one of today's overpaid Hollywood super-stars.

Its evocation of a medieval world has quite a bit more flavor than many of the big studio efforts of, say, fifty years ago, and its flaws are not terribly distracting or disappointing.

It is true that the editing could be considerably tightened and that some plot points are not elucidated too well, especially since flashbacks are used, though not to any true advancement of the linear storyline.

Blake Stadel, as the questing knight of the title, while not a very expressive actor, nevertheless contributes a stalwart presence (and makes the abuse he suffers look convincingly real, by the way).

The cinematography is the real star of this show and the music score is blessedly free of the droning and the bombast that afflicts too many big budget films these days.

All in all a very worthy effort and one that certainly makes a viewer look forward to future efforts from its makers.

This movie is awfully unbearable.

For awhile, I thought it was produced by Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation as a good amount of the film is an exposition of Oregon's forests.

The plot...well I wasn't sure if there's any. OK, let me try - it's a man's quest to find the one ring and on his journey he supposedly find himself. Well, I think that's what they're trying to illustrate but the writer and the director failed miserably. The writer failed to explain several aspect of the film. For instance, how the protagonist fell from grace, or who was the woman, who burned the woman, who was the gypsy etc. Moreover, it seemed like, there are only about 2 pages of dialogue written for this movie and the little dialogue it had, it was very weak. It did not helped that the actors delivery of the dialogue is equally terrible and the acting is not very convincing. The only convincing acting in the whole movie I found was the old man in the cave. However, he can't seem decide if his accent should be Celtic or English.

The director makes up for the lack of dialogue and weak plot with a stunning cinematography. Not bad for a first time director. However, I do find it very boring and exhausting after awhile when all you see is a man walking scenes after scenes with a gorgeous landscape in the background.

This film is not even worth a rental albeit, the DVD cover looked like a John Waterhouse painting.

Many people say that this movie was bad. Its something more. Its pointless. There is no case, there is no climax. There is a guy dressed in a period costume wandering in slow pace through forest and desert. There are some phrases heard every 15-20 minutes and then walking again. Sorry but period/fantasy films require by definition budget. If its a students work they should stick to a comedy or a cult horror b-movie.

The reason why i write this review is not only because i just watched it as a late night show (4am)and left with a ''that was it?'' in the end. Mostly i write because i see an absolutely crazy propaganda from some people that write extremely good reviews for that thing. Propably most of those people are friends of the creators if not the creators he he he. People don't mind those critics. These are not real. The movie is horrible.

Westender is the breakthrough film for M.O.B. Productions. Shot in the filmmakers' home state of Oregon, it is only the beginning for these guys.

The characters are well developed, the cinematography is beautiful, and the story is satisfying. If you're paying attention, you get all the information you really need to know about the characters. I'm not saying the movie is perfect, all movies have their flaws and weak moments, but for being an Indy film early on in the career of M.O.B. Productions, it is very impressive.

I'm personally a M.O.B. Productions fan and I'm excited to see what these guys have in store.