Range 15

This isn't the worst movie ever. It's a bad movie, but if you're drunk enough it can be an enjoyable-bad movie. But that's kind of the bad thing about Range 15. It's not what it could've been.

When this movie was being made, I followed all of the updates on Ranger UP and Article 15. I'm a vet, I've been in some really twisted things in Iraq, and I was looking forward to what the film-makers said about the upcoming film. A movie by and for veterans, a flick that would get the veteran attitude and outlook right. A comedy-horror film seemed about the best way to go about it.

But this movie wasn't that. It is no way a movie "for veterans." It's a movie for people who love Ranger Up and Article 15 YouTube videos. The characters don't act like cartoon versions of vets or active-duty military, they act like over-exaggerated versions of the already-exaggerated caricatures you see in those videos. I did laugh quite a bit during the flick, but not because it resonated some deep, veteran-aspect of my humor. No, it was just dumb, goofy jokes that came in at random.

What kinda pisses me off about this movie is the fact that it was so heavily marketed as this big deal due to it being by and for veterans. The movie is slapped together. The script is pretty dumb, serving only to get from one joke to the next, and the effects (both practical and digital) are Sega-CD quality. And that would be just fine. It would be just a crappy, Z-grade zombie flick. But it's not that. It's the "first veteran-made" movie. So it basically sets the tone that we veterans can't really be trusted to make anything of actual quality.

And I'm not some film-snob who is out of touch with the veteran world. I'm a vet and a fan of some pretty bad movies. But at least most bad movies are bad earnestly. The film-makers of those films were trying to make something good… they just screwed up. Range 15, on the other hand, really feels like a cash-grab.

They raised over a million and a half dollars from donations to make this film, and the amount of free stuff (weapons, gear, etc) they got form the sponsors (extremely blatant advertising throughout) makes me wonder where the hell any of the cash went. Maybe it all went to hiring the name-actors that do bit parts throughout. Because it sure as hell didn't go into writing, set design, costuming, or effects.

I can't help but feel that anyone who donated got taken for a ride. The movie just doesn't work. It's a very stock zombie movie, but if someone gave a damn about the project they could elevate that. Instead I felt like I was watching most of the cast just jerk themselves off over how awesome they are (with the exception of Jack Mandaville, who actually gave a legitimately funny performance). It was like they didn't care. They got a bunch of money and cameras, hung out for a couple weeks, threw some credits on the thing and figure it was good enough. No passion, no effort, and roughly zero f***s were given towards making a movie instead of a glorified "look how funny we are" home movie.

I guess at the TL;DR version would read like this:

This movie is bad, but not 1-star bad, and there is some humor in it (seriously, someone tell Jack Mandaville to start auditioning for real movies). It sucks because it so heavily hyped up the veteran aspect that it makes veterans look either incompetent (as in they can't make a movie) or easily-duped (as in they donated to a movie wherein the film-makers just phoned in the production).

Stream it illegally, borrow the DVD from a buddy who paid for it, but don't spend money on it. It's worse than a straight-to-SyFy flick, and those are free.

William Shatner gives a monologue in this "movie" about not letting your past experience in the military dictate the entirety of your future. The way he delivers it, it sounds like he's talking to the screenwriter. This movie is offensively idiotic. If this is the sort of thing that veterans need to do in order to fit in with veterans, then we as a society are doomed. Fascism has already won when this sort of travesty can exist. I honestly wish nothing but failure upon everyone involved in the making of this abomination. Maybe if there were good writing or decent performances, it could get a pass. This is just another Trumpist circle-jerk.

When I first spotted this movie, I took a look at its score here on IMDb, and found it to be a 8/10. Thinking that I had finally found a horror comedy movie that could match (or even exceed) some of my all- time favorite movies, zombieland or Shaun of the dead, I was excited to go see it. I was very wrong. This movie has the worst acting I have ever seen filled with cheesy jokes and an awkward feel throughout, average sets and props with items and locations I could find myself, and a straight forward plot. The reviews given are false, and are not truthful to the quality of this movie. I am not certain, but I believe these reviews are from a screening where they were told to rate it highly, or possible these were simply people working on the movie itself. Either way, not worth watching what-so-ever.

I want to preface this that I am an active duty soldier with 7 years in special operations. I thought that being in the military this comedy would resonate with me. This was absolutely terrible. Nothing about this movie was funny. I thought there would be a good amount of team room humor in this movie. It failed to live up to expectations. I related to absolutely nothing this movie tried to play up as comedy.

I gave it a 3 because it was just barely enough to keep my attention. this was more in part bc i wanted to see how the fucktardery was going to end. The sponsor plugs were absolutely annoying and definitely added to the poor quality of the film.

i would watch Sharknado again over this movie.

This is the kind of movie that will either get good reviews or really get trashed, and I think it depends on the person looking at it. Those who think of military people as these saintly people, who piously go fight our wars with Jesus on their minds, etc, are gonna hate it. Likewise those who can't see broad farce and see all kinds of micro aggression's and the like are going to hate it.

For me, as lowbrow and over the top and so forth it was, it was funny, because the humor in it is not meant to be hateful, it is gleefully poking fun at everything and anything, including themselves, and I think it likely represents the dark, out there humor that veterans, especially combat veterans, seem to have. I saw a podcast recently talking about Chris Kyle (American Sniper fame), and his platoon leader and CO said the movie made him out tot his seriously, saintly person when he was a funny, full of hell kind of guy, as good a soldier as he was...if you are easily grossed out, offended, think the military are all soldiers of Christ on a sacred crusade, I don't recommend this, but it you can laugh at people laughing at themselves, it is funny as hell.