As an avid lover of the cinema, very often you come across films that you personally like for whatever reason, and yet you read in the newspapers the very same film you absolutely adore is being savagely cut to pieces by some hoity toity self-professed know-it-all film critic. Occasionally they manage to hit the nail on the head with some films, but 9 times out of 10 these so-called experts wouldn't know good cinema if it dropped into their laps and proceeded to grind seductively into their crotches.
Which is why I am so glad that I came across this incredibly hilarious web series entitled 'The Cinema Snob', created by fellow cinephile and all around good egg, Brad Jones.
The series is absolutely brilliant in that Brad essentially portrays a satirized or parodied version of the overly pretentious film critics who seem to hate everything and anything film related that isn't arthouse or cannot be considered high art by any stretch of the imagination. And the beauty about the series is that many of the films reviewed are essentially rare or very hard to find B-grade or even Z-grade films, from here in America and far abroad.
And its amazing the sorts of films that are reviewed on the show, some are so rare and obscure that when I'm watching clips of them, I have a hard time believing or even fathoming how a film so terrible could've possibly been made. But then I think to myself, 'No one ever goes into film making to intentionally make a bad film'. Which is absolutely true, no one ever thinks the movie they are making is essentially bad, but something along the line, whether it be the acting, the directing, or even the script or the special effects, somewhere along the line, something ends up getting lost and it doesn't quite come together the way one hopes it would, and thus that is why there are so many crappy films in existence.
But I digress... some of the films reviewed are not as bad as most, but the show does help provide a measuring stick for which to determine just how bad certain films are when compared to others. For example, there are a series of action films directed by a man named Godfrey Ho, who is famous for taking certain films and splicing them together with extra added specially filmed material in an attempt to somehow make a better film. The films in question also feature a very obscure actor by the name of Pierre Kirby, who is so obscure that not a great deal of information is known about him, or even if he is still alive. But one thing is certain, Pierre Kirby was not only a very talented actor, but when it came down fight scenes that involved the use of weapons or even hand to hand combat, he was just as capable as Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Michael Dudikoff, or even Marc DeCascos, in that he did many of his own stunts and looked pretty damn cool doing it.
Many of the films reviewed tend to deserve being so savagely ripped to pieces, in particular I'm talking about a film from Brazil that is nicknamed 'Brazillian Star Wars'. it is a film that is supposed to be comedic, and features a comedy troupe that call themselves 'The Tramps', and the film is essentially one in a long line of films that feature these idiots. The film itself is horrible because it isn't funny, its just annoying, and that goes double for The Tramps. When one thinks about great comedy teams, names like 'The Marx Brothers' or 'The Three Stooges' immediately come to mind, you know why? Because they were actually funny, not so with 'The Tramps'. largely because they overdo it, and when it comes to comedy, there is a fine line between comedy and just being irritating, and these South American morons don't just cross that line, they take a bulldozer and destroy the line completely.
Sorry, went off on a tangent there. But what I just gave is an example of the razor sharp wit and creative put downs that Brad comes up with to put down truly horrible films. And many of the put downs involve pop culture references, the occasional random video clip or sound effect of some sort that is utilized to great comedic effect.
What is also brilliant about the series has to be the opening theme, which in itself is the theme music used for one of the best series from the 1980's 'The Greatest American Hero'. For some odd reason, that song suits the show perfectly, I'm not sure why, but it does.
In addition to 'The Cinema Snob', Brad also has created a number of other programs that are just as funny. Amongst them are 'Kung Tai Ted', which takes a look at mostly martial arts films in the form of an instructional video hosted by Brad as Ted, with a badly dubbed voice.
Another personal favorite is 'The Big Box', which is mostly for nostalgic value about the days of the video boom, when certain distribution companies would get their hands on the most obscure and hard to find films and release them, very often in large clamshell type boxes. This particular series has Brad mostly off camera as the voice of Vic, and mostly features Brad's beautiful and bodaciously big breasted wife Jillian as the Big Box Model.
Other creations include 'Brad Tries' which features Brad as himself, trying out various obscure drinks, and 'The Bruno Mattei Show', which has Brad (again as himself) with his two friends sitting in a cafe or bar, filmed in black & white, discussing the various highs and lows regarding certain films directed by the late Bruno Mattei.
Two relatively new creations are 'Softly From Cable' which again features Brad's wife Jillian, sporting a blonde wig and dressed in skimpy lingerie, as the character Shannon Shears, this time poking fun at the sort of uber sexy hostesses of late night programs intended to showcase softcore adult entertainment. The other is 80's Dan, which features Brad as the titular character. The premise being that Dan was somehow mysteriously displaced in time and propelled forward from the 1980's to the present day, and finds himself still very much attached to all things 80's and attempting to share with his new friends the beauty and simplicity of things from the 1980's, while they pick apart the nonsensical nature of these things with their post millennial cynicism. What is also so brilliant about this is that it is essentially a parody of the kind of cheesy sitcoms that were prevalent in the 1980's.
Brad Jones has shared his warped sense of humor and creative quirkiness with us all for three years, and in that time he has had his DVD collection stolen, went from clean shaven to sporting a moustache and a goatee, went from a dark a dreary basement set to a more bright and cheery living room, but his penchant for skewering the hell out of the most obscure films remains just as entertaining as ever.
To find out more, please visit his website @ http://www.thecinemasnob.com/
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