Saturday, May 8, 2021

Clown Doll/Fried Barry

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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).
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Clown Doll                                                                  OK/G
The title is one word (ClownDoll) in some places and The Clown Doll in others, but apparently this is the only movie with that title, so whatever.  I do love clown movies and I do love doll movies.  The doll here is life-size and the clown design is obviously a mask and wig, so this is really a slasher movie with a clown as the slasher.  Is that a complaint?  Not at all.  I actually liked the way the clown looked.  I want to recommend this film based on that alone.  Plus, there are some kills, some of them worthy too.  It is slow at times and it is a low-budget film, that much is obvious, but it’s not as bad as it could’ve been based on that, although, yes, it would’ve benefitted from a better budget.  I was hoping it wouldn’t contain an overdone twist I thought it was leading towards, and while it does feel a bit ambiguous at the end, it’s actually exactly what you think it is after I pondered about it afterwards…I hope.  Even if it does contain one of those “open to interpretation” endings, I’m sticking with my conclusion because it’s a much better movie that way.  Not a bad addition, nor a masterpiece, to the clown horror subgenre.  5/3/2021

Fried Barry                                                                 B
The titular character is abducted by aliens and undergoes an ordeal that puts the ones from Fire in the Sky to shame.  It could just be his drug-induced state, so I don’t know.  A synopsis tells me an alien inhabits his body and uses it to travel through Cape Town, which is in South Africa, if you didn’t know.  Whatever, the movie didn’t work for me as an alien abduction film or a drug-induced one.  I read that it’s an acquired taste and I wonder if it’s one of those films in which you yourself need to be fried to enjoy it.  I can see it likely becoming a cult film, as some are already labeling it, and hence the “acquired taste,” but I’m definitely not one of those fans, nor do I see myself ever becoming one; I think it’s one of the worst movies of the year.  It currently has an 83% score out of 42 critics on Rotten Tomatoes though, so what do I know?  5/7/2021

Bonus review:

June 9                                                                          OK
(haiku review)
Is found footage dead?
Some may say, but what isn’t?
This one’s just okay.  5/8/2021

Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):

Butchers  >>>EH

The Little Things  >>>EH/OK

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)  >>>OK

---Sean O.
5/8/2021

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