Space Cop

I'm sad to say that after all the anticipation, Space Cop is fairly underwhelming. It seems strangely uneven, unpolished. And most disappointingly, it's formulaic. I'd hoped for something wittier, more off-the-wall, more creative based on RLM's previous work. Space Cop gave me nothing to think about -- the clichéd plot points, double entendres, tired set-ups, bad models / costumes and archetype characters aren't there to be subverted or analysed, they're just there.

The music works very well, the sets are solid, there are lots of laugh-out-loud moments scattered through. But it's not confident in itself. It feels rushed.

The script in particular feels like a first draft. Motivations and relationships shift wildly from joke to joke - it's hard to understand what we're supposed to think of the characters or how Space Cop in particular is perceived by the others. Sometimes the tone is so muddied it's tricky to tell if a moment is going for humour, tension or drama. At one point the movie slows down so we can watch a striptease and take long, lingering looks at the actress' body. I kept waiting for the punchline, but amazingly it seems to just be there for titillation.

There are highlights. Rich Evans and Jocelyn Ridgely are funny and do very well in their roles. Mike Stoklasa appears to be deliberately hamming it up, which often doesn't 'fit' with the other actors but is enjoyably tongue-in-cheek in itself. The 'real' actors and cameos vary in skill but most are solid and some are great. Len Kabasinski of all people absolutely cracked me up. This movie could have been great.

Overall, Space Cop comes across as either lazy or stumbling. Mike, Jay and Rich have a lot of talent and creativity, but only some of it made it through the filming process on this one.

The issue I have with Space Cop is that it seems to pull its punches.

Mike, Jay, and Rich come across brilliantly on RLM, but their films feel like a nod and a wink to their existing audience. That's understandable, and for the most part it works well, but I feel that these guys are talented enough to go all in on a legitimate film that isn't relying on their fan-base.

Space Cop is entertaining. The opening hostage situation is old school slapstick, but it works as a set-up. I loved the matter of fact way that Space Cop seamlessly finds himself working for the local police without any attempt to hide his character, and Mike's trench coat revived detective creates a perfect comical partnership. Unfortunately I'm not a big fan of the scripted stuff. Yes there are funny moments, but it never felt like the natural and spontaneous chemistry between Rich and Mike was given any room. A lot of the humour came from seeing funny and talented guys from RLM performing in a film, rather than funny and talented guys simply being funny and talented. Clearly they're not going to make an unintentionally bad film, but why not try to make a genuinely good comedy film. They should back themselves with a bit of confidence in their ability, instead of hiding behind the 'nudge nudge wink wink' approach.

I'd love to see them try their hand at a found footage horror. Mike, Jay, and Rich performing deadpan in one of those cliched door-slamming, forest-running, cellar-screaming set-ups would be a sight to behold.

As a huge fan of RLM I was really looking forward to this movie, but I was really disappointed.

It's not funny.

I really like their skits that they have done in the past(HITB&others), but this movie just isn't funny. I was kinda smiling in few parts and laughed twice, but yeah there is just so many missed jokes they could have done. I was writing a better movie in my head while watching it.

They clearly put a lot of effort in to making this movie and I'm not trying to dis them, but I suggest next time they should put much more effort in to the script than the sets and special FX.

They should try making some kind of down to earth comedy(clerks) rather than a high concept one because of their limited budget & crew.

And the acting/casting choices of Rich and Mike were just horrible. Mike should be the lovable cynic and Rich the wacky one not the other way around.

I hope in their next project they don't try to do these "wacky" voices and just speak in their normal voices.

4/10

This movie exists to showcase how every schlocky B movie of the '80s looked and sounded like and to ridicule that by exaggerating all of the bad tropes and characteristics of those films. It is all done intentionally and it's an homage to those very niche films that everyone has watched at least once in their lifetime.

Everything is here: the terrible alien costumes and low budget sets and all-around production value, terrible accents, acting, awful one-liners, and every cliche possible from that era. Music is styled in a synthy way and fits very well.

What is bad is the movie's run time. If it was all focused and condensed in a one-hour movie or even less, it would've been much better. This way you pretty much know after the first 10 minutes what you are getting and it is not really funny or fun to ''enjoy'' it in its entirety. I found it amusing enough to watch it, but I get it if people get tired of it and turn it off. I was thinking about it too. Another problem is comedy. I giggled 2 or 3 times but I cringed throughout the whole film and it can get tiring as the jokes have no breathing space. It is a pretty good movie to laugh at which is its purpose.

I liked some of the jokes and the performances because I love the RLM crew but all in all, this is a below-average parody that even parodies a parody (Scary Movie)...

The long and the short of it is this: if you like RedLetterMedia content like Half in the Bag, Best of the Worst, re:View, or the Mister Plinkett reviews, this will probably be an enjoyable experience for you, albeit, maybe a little more-of-the-same.

Having familiarized myself with a lot of RedLetterMedia's backlog of content going back to their Plinkett shorts and The Grabowskis, it's interesting how the advent of the Plinkett reviews and the Half in the Bag skits have seen their humor evolve. However, I can't help but feel like that this sense of humor and these characters make this film feel more like a really long Half in the Bag skit than a standalone film, which is ultimately my biggest critique of this.

That's not to say the humor is bad, on the contrary, I laughed at a lot of the jokes in this film, especially when I saw a reference to The Grabowskis included in one of the scenes. The cheesy one-liners Space Cop says are also great. My problem lies in that the characters portrayed by Mike, Jay and Rich all feel like characters we've already seen before and feels like more of the same as one of their YouTube videos except with higher production values. Coming into this film after seeing all 5 seasons of The Grabowskis and having watched The Cleaning Lady for the umpteenth time, maybe I was expecting something a little grittier and more of that vein of bizarre humor than this. There are some moments in this film where I felt the joke was included to satisfy a checklist, like Rich Evans yelling "OHHH NO" despite it feeling a bit out of character for Space Cop. I still laughed at that joke but, I couldn't help but feel like characters were being reprised in this film, either for the sake of catering to their YouTube audience who know them for those sorts of jokes on their various review series,or because it's being done somewhat on autopilot- or maybe a little of both.

There are some people who have reviewed Space Cop and have called it disappointing by pointing out technical flaws in the way it was made, but it's obvious this film wasn't made on a very robust budget which is probably why they went for a science fiction schlock comedy film instead of trying to make something more profound.

I just wish Space Cop had an identity of its own but as it is, it's still a fun experience and one that I think many RedLetterMedia fans will enjoy.