Feuer Frei! (Iron Sky)

For the past few days I've watched a ton of movies, due to the fact that I spend most of my time indoors due to the lousy weather, be it cinema, or at home via Netflix or DVD/Blu-Ray. These include "Maniac" (as I was a bit too drunk the first time I watched it), "Parker" (Jason Statham.....need I say more?), "Knucklehead" (horrible "Kingpin" knock-off by WWE Studios), "The Queen Of Versailles", "Cleanflix", "Popatopolis" (highly recommended documentaries), "The Other Guys", "Tremors" (both highly recommended, full stop) and "Daydream Nation" (I'll admit, I watched it cause Kat Dennings was in it).

Also I have been watching a certain horror franchise that I plan to write about for the next Halloween Countdown. Granted it's only March, but considering how time consuming it was last year to write a new blog entry for every day of the month, I'm doing these posts in advance, so all I need to do is some editing before the final product is posted. With that, I still have to squeeze in this week's blog post, in which the film of choice (well, my mate's choice really) is "Iron Sky".

I've been meaning to watch this film for a while, as I've only heard that it's about "Space Nazis" attacking Earth. That's all I needed to convince me to watch it. I've heard mostly negative reviews of the film, so I was expecting this to be a low budget, badly acted, semi-serious action flick. But with a premise of "Space Nazis", and when "Zombie Nazis" worked in the past, I could do worse.

WARNING: SPOILERS

93 minutes later.....

For a film about "Space Nazis", it certainly lived up to my expectations. Unlike the recent "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters", where it plays it straight despite the chucklesome title, this film knows it's ridiculous and it goes along with its B-Movie material plot.

What took me by surprise was the look of the film. Granted there is a lot of CGI environments and models in this film, but it's never distracting to the point that you feel like you're just watching people acting in front of a green screen. Unlike the recent "John Dies At The End" which had a bigger budget and more notable names attached to it, but the CGI effects towards the end were terrible. With this film, the CGI actually looks impressive, considering its modest beginnings, according to its Wikipedia page.

There's not a lot of "star power" in the film, with the only recognisable face being Udo Kier, and even I had to look up his name. The actress who played Renate looked liked another "actress" that I was convinced it was the woman I had to look that up also. I don't know what that says about me though.

Says it all really.

This sci-fi film throws everything at you in terms of action and comedy, especially the latter. There are some outrageous bits where you can't help but shout out ""what the f**k?" It makes references to films such as "Downfall" and "The Great Dictator", and it also works as a form of satire, especially its similarities with America and the War On Terror. Granted this may be a little outdated as this was made after George W. Bush's term in power, but it still works here regardless.

Considering the fact that it has that B-Movie spirit, the acting is better than expected. The performances had the right level of playing it straight without becoming too serious, which I felt was where "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" stumbled over itself. The futuristic world is relatable to the world of today, and the costumes were not overly bizarre, which helped make this world believable.

While on the subject of clothes, while some of the female characters were "eye-catching" in their dress sense (not to mention one of them nearly disrobed by the vacuum of space), there was zero nudity on display. Normally these types of movies would throw in a bit of nudity into the mix, but I have to give the film credit for not feeling the need to go down this route. Besides, other film companies have made films that mixed political satire and sex.

Well it's already established that I have no girlfriend.....

Verdict?

I have to say, this has been one of the most enjoyable films I have watched in a good while. I enjoyed the over the top story, and no matter how many plot holes or questionable logic that went with it, those are some of the fun parts to watching a B-Movie. And a very well produced, polished looking one at that.

I'm surprised that this film has garnered mainly negative reviews. Maybe it's because the film doesn't go out of its way to be P.C. when mocking whatever nationality or stereotype that's on display. Maybe people didn't like the tongue in cheek nature of the film. Or maybe those people just weren't in on the joke.

Less convincing than Lenny Henry in "True Identity". But funnier.

And on a final note.....

The title of this blog entry is inspired by this song. And I chose this video over the "XXX" version.