mcchrist
03-13-2003, 11:29 PM
This is truly one of those unexpected gems that comes along your way and changes your life for better or worse. For a few months, sitting on the DVD shelf at the local used book store was a title that I never heard of before. REFLECTIONS OF EVIL, and for a while I never even picked up the damn thing, I just let it sit there collecting dust.
Another month rolls by and I pick it up and look at the box. Not much there really, the cover was made out to look like a movie section from an old newspaper. What peaked my interest, however, was that the "ad" said Playing in SUPERBIT. That was it, so subtle is the humor in that I had to pick it up sight unseen.
That night after a few beers, I fired up some wings and popped the DVD in. I immediately clicked on the trailer and was immediately floored! What we have here is two minutes of an incredible obese man suspiciously eating a strawberry shortcake, constantly looking over his shoulder the whole time. The music in the background was ripped right out of Clockwork Orange, and images of a ghostly female interspliced throughout.
You don't see a trailer like that every day, browraising to say the least. To be honest, I was now excited as hell!
So I started the main feature after a smoke, and we are greeted by a badly dubbed Tony Curtis who introduces the film. The film immediatly shifts into an old mattress commercial.
We are introduced to Bob, the rotund main character of the film, and within the first minute of the film proceeds to get shit-faced on an entire box of liquor candies and then sprays the sidewalk with a massive (!!!) quantity of puke.
What we find out about Bob is that he's just a dumbass that tries to make a living (unsuccessfully I might add) selling cheap watches on the street. Another thing we find out soon enough is that people don't like him and are constantly giving him a hard time, which he usually returns with spit-flying, a barrage of "Fuck you"s and "I'll fucking kill you" and "Goddammit! Dammit! Dammit!". After some heavy ranting in front of a Miss Congeniality poster, Bob receives some severe head trauma after busting his head on the sidewalk giving us a very large quantity of blood and brain matter (this isn't the only time this happens to Bob).
I'm asking myself, exactly how do I review a movie like this? I mean, Jesus it goes absolutely nowhere and yet at the same time is one of the most hilarious and brilliant films I've ever seen. Let's see what I can do here.
Highlights; Bob's mom making fun of him because he's fat. Bob has a food problem, we find this very early on, and after a few minutes of poking around the nasty molding remains of leftovers in the fridge, Bob manages to find his Mom's stash of junk food she has hidden in the house, Bob enthrones himself among hundreds of video tapes and watches a grainy copy of Poltergeist. Bob's mom gets furious at him and a screaming match ensues.
Highlights; Bob and mom at a diner. Bob is constantly trying to distract his mom so he can sneak bites of a sandwich, much to his mom's fury.
Highlights; Flashback to 1960's with psychedelic scenes of young hippies doing drugs and dancing, etc. Lot's of pills. Somehow this scene manages to find itself at Universal Studios, where a young Stephen Speilberg (!!!) manages to kill his cast and crew while shooting a movie entitled Something Evil
Highlights; Strange happenings during Episode II and Fellowship of the Ring trailers.
Highlights; Bob being harrassed by more people carrying various weapons, Bob also being harrassed by dogs, Bob being gunned down by an ex-marine with machine gun. And then Bob get's harrassed by cops. Scenes of people vomiting blood throughout.
Highlights; Bob wandering around Universal Studios, with nightmarish sequences in the E.T. ride.
Highlights; Schindler's List: The Ride (!!!)
Highlights; Hundred's of people meeting their death after being hurtled from rollercoasters.
This is one of those films like Eraserhead or Begotten where the experienece will be different for each individual viewer. What I can say about my experience with this film is that the director, Damon Packard, has created the only film IMO that is truly dream-like. I had watched this for the first time late at night around 3:00am and after it was all said and done with, I thought I had somehow managed to doze off and dreamt the whole thing. It is so unique in all of its facets, the only reason why a film like this has never been made before is because Mr. Packard had thrown copyright caution to the wind. So much so, that if you were to make a drinking game based off of copyright violations in this movie you would need to be rushed to the hospital for alcohol poisoning after the first 5 minutes. This man uses video clips the same way a hip-hop artist would sample. It all runs so seemlessly, its almost a shame this film could never get a legit release.
Afterwards I did some checking up about this film. On the back of the box it has a website, www.reflectionsofevil.com and what I found there was a bit of a shock, to say the least. Packard had been hand-pressing these DVD's on his own and leaving them sit at ATM's or bathrooms, or with street vendors and the like (apparently, if you're in downtown LA you can find copies of these floating around). He didn't stop there, however. Just look at all the celebrity responses he's had, that's because the fucker keeps mailing copies to them. He did get some positive feedback from Henry Rollins, but some potentially violent responses from Sylvester Stallone and Belushi's lawyer had a thing or two to say.
All things considered, none of that suprises me. Packard's view on Hollywood is nothing short of venomous, Reflections should be enough to clue you in on that. And Packard's love/hate relationship towards Stephen Speilberg seems a bit unhealthy to me. However the sequence with young Speilberg is nothing short of genius IMO, and the guy he cast for the part is a dead ringer, scary as hell!
OK, now about the disc.
Video Quality: Well, the movie was shot in 16mm, 8mm, and video so the quality varies quite a bit, but overall the picture is about as crisp and clean as you can get.
Audio Quality: I've been dreading this because I don't know what to say. Packard had done all the dubbing himself and has created a sound mix that is just as strange as the video around it. It was all deliberate, so I can only say that the quality is great, but you guys with high-end sterios are going to be in for some shocks! Seriously, the audio on this is weird!
Special Features: There's a trailer and some short films by Packard. To be honest I haven't watched the short films, so I really can't comment.
OVERALL
Movie: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: 1/2 out of 5.
Disc: :banana: :banana: :banana: (all things considered)
Now I do see copies of this floating on ebay for about $10, I say its definitly worth every penny.
Another month rolls by and I pick it up and look at the box. Not much there really, the cover was made out to look like a movie section from an old newspaper. What peaked my interest, however, was that the "ad" said Playing in SUPERBIT. That was it, so subtle is the humor in that I had to pick it up sight unseen.
That night after a few beers, I fired up some wings and popped the DVD in. I immediately clicked on the trailer and was immediately floored! What we have here is two minutes of an incredible obese man suspiciously eating a strawberry shortcake, constantly looking over his shoulder the whole time. The music in the background was ripped right out of Clockwork Orange, and images of a ghostly female interspliced throughout.
You don't see a trailer like that every day, browraising to say the least. To be honest, I was now excited as hell!
So I started the main feature after a smoke, and we are greeted by a badly dubbed Tony Curtis who introduces the film. The film immediatly shifts into an old mattress commercial.
We are introduced to Bob, the rotund main character of the film, and within the first minute of the film proceeds to get shit-faced on an entire box of liquor candies and then sprays the sidewalk with a massive (!!!) quantity of puke.
What we find out about Bob is that he's just a dumbass that tries to make a living (unsuccessfully I might add) selling cheap watches on the street. Another thing we find out soon enough is that people don't like him and are constantly giving him a hard time, which he usually returns with spit-flying, a barrage of "Fuck you"s and "I'll fucking kill you" and "Goddammit! Dammit! Dammit!". After some heavy ranting in front of a Miss Congeniality poster, Bob receives some severe head trauma after busting his head on the sidewalk giving us a very large quantity of blood and brain matter (this isn't the only time this happens to Bob).
I'm asking myself, exactly how do I review a movie like this? I mean, Jesus it goes absolutely nowhere and yet at the same time is one of the most hilarious and brilliant films I've ever seen. Let's see what I can do here.
Highlights; Bob's mom making fun of him because he's fat. Bob has a food problem, we find this very early on, and after a few minutes of poking around the nasty molding remains of leftovers in the fridge, Bob manages to find his Mom's stash of junk food she has hidden in the house, Bob enthrones himself among hundreds of video tapes and watches a grainy copy of Poltergeist. Bob's mom gets furious at him and a screaming match ensues.
Highlights; Bob and mom at a diner. Bob is constantly trying to distract his mom so he can sneak bites of a sandwich, much to his mom's fury.
Highlights; Flashback to 1960's with psychedelic scenes of young hippies doing drugs and dancing, etc. Lot's of pills. Somehow this scene manages to find itself at Universal Studios, where a young Stephen Speilberg (!!!) manages to kill his cast and crew while shooting a movie entitled Something Evil
Highlights; Strange happenings during Episode II and Fellowship of the Ring trailers.
Highlights; Bob being harrassed by more people carrying various weapons, Bob also being harrassed by dogs, Bob being gunned down by an ex-marine with machine gun. And then Bob get's harrassed by cops. Scenes of people vomiting blood throughout.
Highlights; Bob wandering around Universal Studios, with nightmarish sequences in the E.T. ride.
Highlights; Schindler's List: The Ride (!!!)
Highlights; Hundred's of people meeting their death after being hurtled from rollercoasters.
This is one of those films like Eraserhead or Begotten where the experienece will be different for each individual viewer. What I can say about my experience with this film is that the director, Damon Packard, has created the only film IMO that is truly dream-like. I had watched this for the first time late at night around 3:00am and after it was all said and done with, I thought I had somehow managed to doze off and dreamt the whole thing. It is so unique in all of its facets, the only reason why a film like this has never been made before is because Mr. Packard had thrown copyright caution to the wind. So much so, that if you were to make a drinking game based off of copyright violations in this movie you would need to be rushed to the hospital for alcohol poisoning after the first 5 minutes. This man uses video clips the same way a hip-hop artist would sample. It all runs so seemlessly, its almost a shame this film could never get a legit release.
Afterwards I did some checking up about this film. On the back of the box it has a website, www.reflectionsofevil.com and what I found there was a bit of a shock, to say the least. Packard had been hand-pressing these DVD's on his own and leaving them sit at ATM's or bathrooms, or with street vendors and the like (apparently, if you're in downtown LA you can find copies of these floating around). He didn't stop there, however. Just look at all the celebrity responses he's had, that's because the fucker keeps mailing copies to them. He did get some positive feedback from Henry Rollins, but some potentially violent responses from Sylvester Stallone and Belushi's lawyer had a thing or two to say.
All things considered, none of that suprises me. Packard's view on Hollywood is nothing short of venomous, Reflections should be enough to clue you in on that. And Packard's love/hate relationship towards Stephen Speilberg seems a bit unhealthy to me. However the sequence with young Speilberg is nothing short of genius IMO, and the guy he cast for the part is a dead ringer, scary as hell!
OK, now about the disc.
Video Quality: Well, the movie was shot in 16mm, 8mm, and video so the quality varies quite a bit, but overall the picture is about as crisp and clean as you can get.
Audio Quality: I've been dreading this because I don't know what to say. Packard had done all the dubbing himself and has created a sound mix that is just as strange as the video around it. It was all deliberate, so I can only say that the quality is great, but you guys with high-end sterios are going to be in for some shocks! Seriously, the audio on this is weird!
Special Features: There's a trailer and some short films by Packard. To be honest I haven't watched the short films, so I really can't comment.
OVERALL
Movie: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: 1/2 out of 5.
Disc: :banana: :banana: :banana: (all things considered)
Now I do see copies of this floating on ebay for about $10, I say its definitly worth every penny.