Shit From Youtube I Just Found: The Ultimate Ultimate

So, I was on Facebook recently, and someone pointed out to me that there was a section of private messages called Other, which is apparently where messages are deposited from people I don't know or am not friends with. I never noticed this before, and when I checked it for the first time since joining Facebook last year, low and behold I had a request that was actually blog related from like three fucking months ago. They sent me a link to a feature length film available for free on Youtube called The Ultimate Ultimate and asked me to give it a shot and review it if I liked. The link is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoWL9RFve1E

So, I watched it, and I present it to you all as well. I must apologize to the people at A Set Of Works for seeming to ignore this until now, and I will keep a better eye out for stuff like this in the future. As for my review, well, I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this. Being an amateur filmmaker myself, I present it without comment or critique because I always encourage anyone to give any independent film like this a chance, regardless or quality or relative taste, but even with that caveat, I'm kind of conflicted after watching it.



Don't get me wrong, I actually laughed a lot, much more than I expected after a bit of a slow start, but this is one of those movies that had me reaching for the "x" button as often as laughing out loud. Its at times almost unwatchable, and other times strangely captivating. These guys clearly have a handle on jokes and dialogue, but sometimes appear to be deliberately trying to hide genuine talent behind simplistic crudity and randomness. It feels almost Napoleon Dynamite-esque in its stubborn refusal to build to anything or go anywhere in a narrative sense, almost to the point where I wouldn't quite call it a movie even if it is almost as long as one should be.

And yet I don't regret watching it one bit, and the moments I enjoyed, I enjoyed without qualification. I always like amoral protagonists, and the two drunken douche nozzles in this movie are as without drive and emotional weight as anyone, drifting through life having often bizarre and nonsensical conversations and learning nothing from their experiences. I only wish their experiences were more involved. Nothing really happens to them and the characters are funny enough that I wanted them to actually have an adventure instead of just a series of scenes where they stand around being really dumb.

For me, the line between annoying assholes and funny assholes is whether or not the movie wants me to root for them, and I'm never quite sure if this movie is condemning or glorifying these jerks. I want to believe its the former and these guys are smarter than they want to let on. The production is amateurish, but not to the point where it can't be entertaining for what it is. I wouldn't pay for it, but as a free waste of an hour and fifteen minutes, I can think of a lot of worse ways to spend my precious Internet time. There's about as much that doesn't work about The Ultimate Ultimate than does, but at the very least I see enough potential that I want to see how the people behind it evolve and mature. Well, maturity might be too much to expect, but we'll see.

Viva La Indie!