Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild

Stuart Ashens (Ashens) may be a guilty pleasure of some... Not as popular as some of the American YouTube Stars such as PewdePie or Markiplier but he is definitely a hit... Especially with UK audiences.

And like many more he has produced a movie... Whats it like? Well actually its pretty fun!

Do not expect ground breaking effects from a man who reviews complete cr*p for a living - But marvel at the amazing number or Pop culture references he manages to squeeze in... Squirm at the obvious little "nods" against political correctness (People not being able to say 'Don't get your knickers in a twist' is so stupid but so fun!!!)

And ask yourself the question everyone is asking - How the bloody hell did he manage to get Warwick Davis and Robert LLewellyn to do Cameos in such a low budget production???

So, yeah! This is your typical, low budget, slightly off the wall film...

But damn its good! It has just the right level of humour and cheese to make it truly watchable.

Its hard to pick a favourite point, as its just one of those films that relishes being what it is... Ashens reviews Tat and made his film to be Tat... And its that which gives it such a unique flavour and makes it work so well.

While it will not win any academy awards or even BAFTA's... Crikey it would be lucky to win a Grammy and everyone and their dog seems to be able to get one of them... It is a fantastic piece of work and well worth watching.

I watched this after Polybius but it did not matter. I liked it overall, but Polybius is way better. There are plenty of nice and funny moments, but I really preferred the ensemble characters of the other. Also as a woman the female characters here were lacking. So you have the crazy one and the nice but a bit dull one which doesn't do it for me, in fact I am scared to think men could see women in these two categories alone (like the Heartbreak Kid and The Wrong Missy, both so awful). I have looked at the Ashens channel on YouTube and it is very different to the films being just a pair of hands and his voice. He has a good voice though. I would really advise to watch the second one by preference.

Seeing the cover and subject, I though I'd be in for a nice little indie treat with 80s nostalgia and some laughs. However, this didn't have much of either (a little bit of nostalgia, zero laughs). Normally I wouldn't have cared enough to write a review about this, but because of all the other reviews giving it great scores I felt I had to give another perspective so people wouldn't get their hopes up.

I've never seen the YouTube series so I didn't know what to expect, but this film wasn't entertaining at all. I seemed like it was trying to be funny, but I couldn't really tell. I guess that's how bad the humour was, since it didn't even really register as humour. I don't remember laughing once. The story wasn't that great either. It was just things happening to move the plot along, but failed at doing it in an interesting way.

In the end I could only get through about half of the film before I had to stop due to lack of any entertainment whatsoever. I'm baffled at why there are so many good reviews. Perhaps friends of the crew? If not, then I'm happy they could find some entertainment in this since I certainly couldn't.

Don't say you weren't warned. I've seen good indie. This isn't it.

I really wanted to like it, but there are so many videos made on youtube that didnt cost anything to make, that are way more humorous. Its alright if you like ashens (like I do) but too many jokes are just forced and poorly timed. Most of the actors are not very good, though ashens is the exception in this case. I get some people will like it but giving it an honest watch I just wasnt one of them. Only masterpieces deserve 9 or 10 stars and this is faaar from it so I dont understand the other reviews.

If you have no prior knowledge of Stuart Ashen, this film isn't going to make a lot of sense. It's well filmed, and it ties in with the themes from his other work. The jokes probably won't make any sense if you are watching this as a stand alone film....they are very dependent on seeing his YouTube series.

Personally, I think it's pretty good for what it is. It's quite amazing what can be accomplished with a tiny budget. There are things in it that could have a wider appeal, but I'm not sure it's about that. I don't believe he's looking to be the next Simon Pegg, more just trying to do something to the best of his ability that resonates with his existing audience. It achieves that and a bit more....so it will be interesting to see how it develops.