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General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: The Fake Shemp on April 12, 2007, 02:40:17 AM

Title: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: The Fake Shemp on April 12, 2007, 02:40:17 AM: REVIEW: AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE COLON MOVIE FILM FOR THEATERS
04.10.07
By Devin Faraci

Before I begin this vastly negative review for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, I think I need to establish my drug bona fides. The reason for that is because many, many people will dismiss the extreme level of hatred I have for this movie because they’ll think I don’t ‘get’ stoner humor. So, for those people, here’s my wastoid CV: I have extensive experience with marijuana; I used to be the kind of guy who goes shopping for pipes just on a lazy afternoon (and smoking so much dope meant I had many, many lazy afternoons). Of course no purchased pipe or bong ever beat the gasmask bong attached to a wheelchair my friends and I used. My experience with psychedelics is also very extensive, ranging from shitty blotter acid to mushrooms to mescaline to PCP (totally by accident). I’ve done enough ecstasy to be able to call it E and not feel stupid, mainly because I have blitzed through many of my brain cells on the substance. Further experience includes various muscle relaxers, pain killers, cocaine, amphetamines, hashish and pretty much anything you don’t have to inject, although one time a friend and I spent a week spritzing dilaudid into our mouths from a syringe. Again, this isn’t to make me seem cool to the junior high schoolers in the audience (although hey, if that works, great. The kids probably have better connections than I do these days), but just to establish that I’m not the sort of guy to be baffled by entertainment aimed squarely at people who are high (although to be frank I never got Phish).

As I sat through the interminable hour and a half of ATHFCMFFT, I began craving every single drug I had ever taken – anything just to get my mind off the nonsense and unfunny distinguished mentally-challenged happening on screen. I even starting jonesing for heroin, a drug I never did. Hell, by the end of the movie I was Jim Jonesing for some Kool-Aid.

The movie is a very, very long version of the 15-minute cartoon that runs on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. For the uninitiated, it’s about a trio of anthropomorphic foods: a floating and super-intelligent carton of fries named Frylock, a snotty and sort of stupid milkshake named Master Shake, and a wad of very stupid meat named Meatwad. They live in New Jersey next to a fat, hairy guinea named Carl. This is the basic set-up, and the idea is that wacky, bizarre and purportedly funny things happen to and around them. At a quarter of an hour in length, ATHF is tolerable on television and can even elicit a chuckle or two.

At an hour and a half, ATHF is like some kind of arcane torture. There’s a plot to this movie, which involves an exercise machine that will cause galactic disruption, as well as the ‘origin’ of the Aqua Teen characters, but calling this flimsy would be really overstating the case. The movie is mostly made up of tenuously connected and blaringly unfunny vignettes featuring popular characters from the show. Oftentimes the jokes, such as they are, feel like nothing more than callbacks to the show or just random permutations of words – I’ve been high enough to think I was sinking into a shag carpet but never high enough to think this shit is funny.

At a certain point in the film I began to wonder if it wasn’t even meant to be funny. Is the existence of the movie itself a meta-joke, one that only the creators are in on? There are long stretches of the movie where things that are ‘strange’ (and that’s in quotes because I don’t think there’s anything in this movie that’s one-twentieth as strange as the least strange thing in El Topo. This film is to surreal comedy as Hot Topic is to punk rock) happen, but not many moments that seem to be structured jokes, or intended to get laughs. My screening was packed with trust fund college journalist hipsters, many of whom were cracking up at the press notes, for Christ’s sake, and they even stopped laughing about twenty minutes into the film. If it is the case that this whole film is a joke on anyone who sees it, bravo in theory, but a big fuck you because I sat through the whole goddamned thing.

In the interest of fairness, there were two things I liked about this film: it opened with a parody of the ‘Let’s all go to the lobby’ concession stand animated advertisement which features a heavy metal band made up of snacks singing about how they will kill you if you talk during the movie, etc. This was genuinely humorous, although the whole ironic ‘metal is hilarious/I actually like metal’ thing is so played out already. The other bit that made me laugh were the Mooninites, who you might recall being the cartoon characters that Boston mistook as Al Qaeda bombs or something. There are two Mooninite characters, and their voices and the way they interact were genuinely funny – how funny, I can’t tell you because when set in this arid desert of non-humor, anything remotely amusing feels like the most decadent oasis of comedy imaginable.

It’s not often that I see a movie that leaves me with the desire to do actual bodily harm to the people who made it, but walking out of ATHFCMFFT I was filled with rage and hatred. Honestly, if George W Bush could prove that Saddam Hussein had funded this movie I would reverse my stance on the Iraq War and say that every single civilian casualty was justified.

0 out of 10
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Human Snorenado on April 12, 2007, 02:47:58 AM: Yeah, it's been getting universally poor reviews. Having hung out with the Williams St. guys, I'd lay even money on this being the truth:

Quote
At a certain point in the film I began to wonder if it wasn’t even meant to be funny. Is the existence of the movie itself a meta-joke, one that only the creators are in on?

But then again, they also think that Perfect Hair Forever was the best thing ever shown on AS. So they could just be that unfunny.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 02:48:31 AM: Tomorrow morning ME

will see it. Ill let you know how i feel.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Vizzys on April 12, 2007, 02:49:34 AM: perfect...hair..forever...the...best...show...on...as?

Unfathomable.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: The Fake Shemp on April 12, 2007, 02:50:31 AM: I'm beginning to think that the whole production is a meta-joke, like Escape from Los Angeles.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 02:57:39 AM: The movie probably cost a few million to make. Less than 10 million. It will make that back quickly and the DVDs will sell like hotcakes.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: The Fake Shemp on April 12, 2007, 02:58:37 AM: Who cares.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: demi on April 12, 2007, 03:00:16 AM: Wow, if you go to the front page you can almost pretend it actually has content thanks to this thread.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 03:01:54 AM: Quote from: Willco on April 12, 2007, 02:58:37 AM
Who cares.

I kind of care. Maybe with a revenue shot, AS could buy back some of its glory and shitcan the barely (in some cases NOT) animated crap.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 03:02:47 AM: Question should i go to work tomorrow with my meatwad beanie on?
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: The Fake Shemp on April 12, 2007, 03:06:40 AM: Quote from: TVC 15 on April 12, 2007, 03:01:54 AM
Quote from: Willco on April 12, 2007, 02:58:37 AM
Who cares.

I kind of care. Maybe with a revenue shot, AS could buy back some of its glory and shitcan the barely (in some cases NOT) animated crap.

Adult Swim was never great with animated fare. It still has The Venture Bros., so quit yer bitchin'.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 03:08:07 AM: Quote from: Willco on April 12, 2007, 03:06:40 AM
Quote from: TVC 15 on April 12, 2007, 03:01:54 AM
Quote from: Willco on April 12, 2007, 02:58:37 AM
Who cares.

I kind of care. Maybe with a revenue shot, AS could buy back some of its glory and shitcan the barely (in some cases NOT) animated crap.

Adult Swim was never great with animated fare. It still has The Venture Bros., so quit yer bitchin'.

You can't deny it's getting worse. They just ordered 30 episodes of the Tim and Eric show, aka the most distinguished mentally-challenged thing to be televised ever. That's more than double their usual order amount, and the show isn't even animated.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 03:10:52 AM: Oh god they ordered 30 episodes of that shit?
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: The Fake Shemp on April 12, 2007, 03:11:25 AM: I don't think it's getting worse, at all. It never had much in the way of real, honest-to-God animated content to begin with. If you're arguing that the content is worse humor-wise, you're probably right, but it's catering to the Dark Shake demographic right now.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 03:14:36 AM: Tim and Eric is the first non-animated show. It's been getting increasingly worse over the past 2 years or so. It has definitely gotten really bad, even if you are judging from a humor perspective, which is what really matters.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 03:17:26 AM: Meh Adult Swim two years ago was the shit but now it sucks. I'll agree only good thing is venture bros and thats only once every other year.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Vizzys on April 12, 2007, 03:21:37 AM: tim and eric :-\ worst show ever, cant believe anything/anyone relating whatsoever to tom goes to the mayor gets a second chance at adult swim.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 03:23:09 AM: Whats worse is that Tom Goes to the Mayor dvd sales are pretty good.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Human Snorenado on April 12, 2007, 03:23:37 AM: The problem with Adult Swim is not money or lack of money. The problem is that the people in a position to make decisions are some of the dumbest, unfunniest mother fuckers in the world. Think I was joking when I said PHF was their ideal show? Cause I wasn't.

My friends and I actually pitched them several different shows. We were sitting there with the Williams St. guys and a CN exec, and they were all "OMG we love your ideas! Now this is what we need to do!" and every single thing they said they wanted to do with our ideas was the dumbest fucking shit I have ever heard of.

I'm convinced the success of AS was a kind of lightning in a bottle thing. We just need to let it go die a peaceful death.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 03:30:33 AM: Never forget good Adult Swim:

(http://pics.livejournal.com/jacksonpublick/pic/0002pcc8)

2008 can not come soon enough.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 03:37:34 AM: Quote from: TVC 15 on April 12, 2007, 03:30:33 AM
Never forget good Adult Swim:

(http://pics.livejournal.com/jacksonpublick/pic/0002pcc8)

2008 can not come soon enough.

Do you have a highres of that? or more art even if its fan art.

And yeah I cant wait either. just another week till the dvd is out for season 2
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 03:41:34 AM: No high res, sorry.

Check out Jackson Publick's blog: http://jacksonpublick.livejournal.com/ He posts artwork once every couple of weeks. A lot of it is never released, and sometimes it is high res.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 03:46:07 AM: I'd wish they'd sell giant sized versions of his work. some of it just kicks so much ass.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: tiesto on April 12, 2007, 08:13:25 AM: I thought Carl was a polak and not a guinea. ???
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: drozmight on April 12, 2007, 01:36:05 PM: Quote from: Emperor Triumph I on April 12, 2007, 03:23:37 AM
The problem with Adult Swim is not money or lack of money. The problem is that the people in a position to make decisions are some of the dumbest, unfunniest mother fuckers in the world. Think I was joking when I said PHF was their ideal show? Cause I wasn't.

My friends and I actually pitched them several different shows. We were sitting there with the Williams St. guys and a CN exec, and they were all "OMG we love your ideas! Now this is what we need to do!" and every single thing they said they wanted to do with our ideas was the dumbest fucking shit I have ever heard of.

I'm convinced the success of AS was a kind of lightning in a bottle thing. We just need to let it go die a peaceful death.

They passed on my "Alexander, His Underwater Car and Shack" TV show :( Actually it's more like they probably never got the pilot.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 01:38:51 PM: I can confirm the movie should be stayed away at all costs. Its like one big joke, that no ones in on unless you think like that. Disapointing but hopefully it makes the money back. Theres not much going into advertisement.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: drozmight on April 12, 2007, 01:41:31 PM: Here's the pilot I sent them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtIQBpn1mFk
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Phoenix Dark on April 12, 2007, 01:45:41 PM: Quote from: TVC 15 on April 12, 2007, 03:30:33 AM
Never forget good Adult Swim:

(http://pics.livejournal.com/jacksonpublick/pic/0002pcc8)

2008 can not come soon enough.

What's this? It reminds me of Johnny Quest
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 01:52:16 PM: Venture Bros PD its a hannah barbara style jq show its fucking great.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Himu on April 12, 2007, 01:55:36 PM: Venture Bros.

The Boondocks and Team Venture are the only good thing about AS these days, or CN in general. AS having ordered a non live action series have officially sold out.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Himu on April 12, 2007, 01:56:37 PM: Quote from: G on April 12, 2007, 01:52:16 PM
Venture Bros PD its a hannah barbara style jq show its fucking great.

It is nothing like Hanna Barbara. They mimic Johnny Quest but that's it.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 01:57:24 PM: Venture Bros rocks. It is on the short list of the best television shows currently on the air.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Himu on April 12, 2007, 01:59:21 PM: Quote from: TVC 15 on April 12, 2007, 01:57:24 PM
Venture Bros rocks. It is on the short list of the best television shows currently on the air.

:bow
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on April 12, 2007, 02:02:40 PM: Season 2 next week on DVD!! I still haven't seen it so I'm hyped!!

Too bad the members of the League of Calamitous Intent have been spoiled for me. :(
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: G The Resurrected on April 12, 2007, 02:05:44 PM: Theres a starman waiting in the sky
Hed like to come and meet us
But he thinks hed blow our minds

Hopefully Hammer will get Bowie for season 3
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Scurvy Stan on April 12, 2007, 03:30:01 PM: I concur with the general feeling that AS has fell in the crapper.Two or three years ago it was damn funny and worth staying up for, now I just kinda stare in horror and wonder wtf happened.
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: TVC15 on April 12, 2007, 03:33:39 PM: Quote from: Synthesizer Patel on April 12, 2007, 02:02:40 PM
Season 2 next week on DVD!! I still haven't seen it so I'm hyped!!

Too bad the members of the League of Calamitous Intent have been spoiled for me. :(

:(

spoiler (click to show/hide)
But now you can play spot the Bowie references, AD-style!
[close]
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Mr. Gundam on April 12, 2007, 04:38:43 PM: The Stranger, my favorite Seattle alternative weekly newspaper has released their review of ATHFCMFFT:

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

dir. Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis

It's my own fault for not getting stoned first. I'd never been to an in-theater press screening before, and for some reason I thought it would be more difficult getting in. As an 11-minute TV show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force is plenty funny, but at feature length (even just 79 minutes) the cartoon's absurd comedy drags. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (thanks, Borat) falls into the same pattern that many stoner shorts do when adapted for the screen: a flimsy, episode-worthy plot is stretched out and filled in with flashbacks and digressions.

The Aqua Teens are a Freudian value meal consisting of super-ego Frylock, a paternal, scientifically minded box of french fries; lazy and selfish id Master Shake; and the self-interested but considerate ego Meatwad. Together, they don't necessarily fight crime, but they regularly triumph in just barely extricating themselves from their own messes.

The film attempts to delve into the characters' origins, first through a story told by Shake involving a sphinx, a giant poodle, and a time-traveling Abe Lincoln. Frylock dismisses that as a lie, and the characters abandon the origin-story business in favor of assembling an exercise machine called the Insan-o-flex that Shake has stolen from their neighbor Carl. This exercise machine serves as the movie's main antagonist, although beloved Aqua Teen villains such as Dr. Weird, the Mooninites, the Plutonians, MC Pee Pants, and the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future all make appearances. Things climax with a paternity-questioning battle between Frylock and Dr. Weird and a life-saving intervention by Rush's Neil Peart.

It's not an unfunny film, especially if you're a fan of the show, but it's not quite as satisfying as it would be to simply watch seven new episodes back-to-back. Stoned, of course. ERIC GRANDY
Title: Re: Devin from CHUD gives ATHF:MFFT a whopping ZERO of 10 stars!
Post by: Bloodwake on April 12, 2007, 07:04:02 PM: Aqua Teen Hunger Force isn't going to be funny?

OMG WORLD SHOCKER.