InsaneSmilie's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[B.Y.E.]

Innovation in stick animation

When I saw what this was I took the the rating with a massive pile of salt. After all stick killing animations on Newgrounds are about as common as the pixels they're made of. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one actually took a turn to innovation (though be it a very slight turn), with fast pace slap stick style humor. And for once it's a stick animation the doesn't just use the generic sound effects I've gotten so sick of.

While I am sick and fed up with stick animation at this point, everything here is just done right.I still give it a 9/10 because to me doing everything right is not necessarily worthy of a perfect score, but while I'll continue to hold it to my unreasonably high standard it's definitely worth a watch.

[Cat Face 5]

Browser short

Back in the old days of television there existed things called shorts, little 2 minute cartoons with exaggerated characters and quick punch lines that would serve as comic released in between the actual programing. Cat Face is almost identical to those obnoxious flicks with the sole exception being that you view on your web browser instead of on your TV. And of course it has all the same flaws including an obnoxious intro that's almost as long as the actual flick with a corny and annoying theme song.

That said I have to admit actually liking Cat Face. So it's only 2 minutes long but that works for a simple little in browser video and it's a hell of alot better than alot of other movies on this site that helplessly outstay their welcome by dragging out jokes that were never that funny to begin with. It's hard to to criticize something that's so short but for the same reason I can't justify giving a particularly high score either so lets judge it for it merits. The voice acting is superb, the illustration is adaquit, and worth a laugh or two, so you might as well check it out.

Of course in the time it takes to read this review you could have already watch the whole thing which makes wonder if there was any point reviewing it in the first place. Then I remember that everything on this site is pointless in one way or another so quit complaining and watch the damn movie already.

[Fallen Angel Ep. 1 (Pt3)]

An amasing specticle with only a few flaws

When I saw Fallen Angel on the fount page I had to double check to make sure it was by the same author that released the fallen angle teaser more than years 4 years back. Generally when somethings in the works for that long it's safe to say it's not going to come out at all or at least not meet the expectations set by the trailer and considering the amount of time the developers had, such was the case with fallout 3. Rob however seems to have disproved my theory with the release of the first chapter of Fallen Angel.

So a big nuclear war that results in the downfall of civilization and deaths of hundreds of millions of people, it's a concept that's been used over and over by the film and video game industry in hundreds of productions, but Fallen Angel still distinguishes itself in my mind by having the most realistic apocalypse I've ever seen. You can truly feel the shock wave of a nuclear explosion as it turns New York to dust, and the accurate depiction of modern weaponry and warfare made this first chapter all we could have hoped for. Fallen Angel brings us sunning environments and illustrations to rival Adam Phillips, and an opening plot which appears to pave the way for an epic story line, although only future episode will really prove that because many a stories have had fantastic intros with story lines that royally shat themselves by the end. But lets not criticize on what may be wrong in future chapters and focus on whats wrong with this chapter.

Now while the visuals were stunning the audio was overall very poor, some of the sound effects, while fitting, sounded staticy, and the voice are so muffled it's impossible to keep track of the dialog. It's almost as if Rob's goal was to make as much of the three movies silent as possible. OK so maybe that's going a bit far, but honestly a little music wouldn't have killed it, as opposed that annoy droning sound in the background, or at least give us something to make it feel more like the pulse pounding action movie the teaser promised us. Actually this is something I've been meaning to bring up. For a movie that's been classified as an action movie there really isn't much action in this first episode, but maybe this is just supposed to be a build up, something to set the scene and get us engaged in the plot. Unfortunately this is let down as well by the before mentioned muffled dialog and the complete lack of explanations of the events that take place in this first episode, which ultimately left me confused, and I refuse to believe it's just because I'm thick (even I am). How exactly did a conflict in Iran become a world war, and who deployed those "first nuclear weapons"? Those disjointed bits of text in the first part of the chapter don't really give much incite into whats going on, and it only get worse as chapter goes on. The first chapter is supposed to set scene and give us viewers some incite into the plot rather than keeping everything behind a closed door. Over all I'd say this first episode of Fallen Angel seems to lack a hook to draw the viewer in, and it certainly didn't have me on the edge of my seat with the whole action element.

But really, I'm just nitpicking because the gripping setting and incredible visuals will ultimately overshadow any criticism I can throw at it. The settings incredibly atmospheric, the graphics are stunning, and all the characters are incredibly well drawn and detailed. That said however the camera does seem to be more interested in Sarah's ass than anything else.

[PMP Blog 2]

A bit of potential drowned in pretentiousness

Just for the fun of it, I watched through this whole thing counting the number times you guys repeated yourselves needlessly. The grand total came to 31 times. 31 times!!!!! That would be president Bush making a speech and repeating every sentence and point twice ... oh wait, that actually happened. On a similar note you guys used other filler words such as 'like', 'uh', and 'yeah' a total of 44 times for a grand total of 75 useless filler phrases. In other words about half this blog was Bull Shit.

Right, so now now with cards on the table hard enough to bonce off and slit some one's throat let's get down to the juicy criticism shall we. Now I was about to criticize the animation or perhaps lack-there-of but on reflection an animated blog doesn't necessarily need much animation, and there are plenty of other more poorly animated blogs on Newgrounds and some of are actually genuinely funny. What a blog does need though is humor and this is where you two seem to have missed the mark.

Lets make one thing clear, inside jokes are only funny to the people you know personally, and as a rule of thumb you should never use them in a public blog or any form of media for that matter. I found this flash on the portal under the top 50 of all time and I'm still somewhat bewildered as to how it got there, but the fact that it's on the portal would suggest it's meant to be viewed by all, and yet most of the jokes were inside jokes that will only be funny to you two and your closest friends. It completely isolates everyone else and will not earn you any fans. Sure you could try explaining the joke like you did with that pun thing but it still won't be funny cause you didn't tell it right in the first place.

It may just because I work as an audio tech, but I found the recording quality to be abysmal. The audio just needs alot of touch up. I can tell you guys are using a cheap radio shack quality mic without a preamp, and while that's forgivable you could at least be consistent with the way you talk. Half the time your yelling into the mic and the other half you talking to a wall causing the volume to waiver so much I'd swear you goal is to blow out our ear drums. It's like you guys are mad at us or something. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to offend you two, except maybe this review, but it was written after the fact so point null and void. A little touch up on the audio would have gone a long way.

It's not just the above issues either the bulk of the flash is just announcements and pleads for comments, which all and all amount to the creators (to use a clique term) 'whoring' out their comic. It does have a some things going for it though, there was some pretty cleaver sarcasm buried in there that would have made a good flash better, but as it stands just make a bad flash pretentious. The two creators seemed to be getting a kick out the whole thing, in fact a considerable amount of time was spent just listening to them laugh. In fact all and all this flash blog seems more like something made for the creators and not the viewer.

I suppose I feel more obliged to go all out on the criticism since this flash had a very high score at time of reviewing, but in truth it's not that bad in comparison to alot of the other turds that pop onto the portal 50 at a time, but when you compare it to the shinning gems that normal populate the top 50 the little pebble that is PMP just doesn't stack up. There certainly is plenty of room for improvement, as well as better audio tuning, it would help to actually plan out what your going to say so you don't interrupt each other or spend as much using filler phrases that make the whole thing very boring, and who knows maybe you could even crack a few jokes that the rest of us will find funny.

Klimdeeni responds:

wow.
we had only one inside joke in the whole thing and that was your focus?
if there were any other "inside jokes" they were refrences to the first blog.

as for the auido, yeah it's crap. that's what happens when you have a shitty quality microphone and no money to buy a better one. you work with what you got

and as for not being funny and people not getting it, you might want to tell all the other hundreds of people who found it funny and keep begging for more to come out.

I know you're just being a critic and only going off of this one (not looking at blog 1) and i know the quality isn't perfect, but lighten up. it's just a movie ;)

[N.G. Showdown]

A shinning gem in a ocean of crap

I was begeining to worry, the last 6 pico day submissions I watched all sucked, and I was worried that this pico day whould be only a couple crappy entries. Then I stumbled upon this and it was like a shinning gem in a ocean of crap.

This animation goes back to the old image of pico school, with the cool bad ass personalities of Pico, Nene, and Darnell. It's got a similar setting to the old pico school, as well as all the sexy violance. It's pretty cool how alot of the other big NG characters are worked in there as well. It all leads up to great ending and I think alot of other animators could learning a thing or two from this.

[Valhalla Knights 2]

I liked the first one more

I'll be honest I didn't really like this nearly as much as the first one. Two much happened with to little explainations. The drawings were very well done as usual but I didn't really think the animation was as good as it was in the first one. Not as smooth and more cartoony. Also I think the voices could have been done better. Not to be too critical is still ausome, I just liked the first one more.

[Thamesis - Episode 5]

I'm Hooked

Never been so excited to see a flash animation come onto the portal and now I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one. This is a great series, the text does go a bit fast, but that okay, gives me an excuse to watch it twice. Eagerly awaiting episode 6.

[Tetris Unleashed 3]

That was extreme

Never know tetris could be so hardcore. I liked it. I think I saw something like this this on the portal awhile ago, may have even been this series. Anyways, cool flash, good stuff.

Jimtopia responds:

Could have been, there are two other parts. Thx for reviewing.

[Thamesis - Episode 4]

This series rules

I have never been so excited about a flash coming out. I hooked, seriously, great series, love the art Lion looks really cool. Can't wait for the next one.