It's been quite a while since I've had a movie come in that's caused SUCH confliction in me over whether I love or hate it. But with 2012's "The Amazing Bulk" I think I may have to reset the clock. Because this film? Well…it's… "Distinct" I think that's the nicest way I can describe it. The film initially started life as an attempt to cash in on the "Asylum" phenomenon of making movies that vaguely knock off other movies. In this case it was initially intended to be a spiderman knock off of all things featuring a female version of the webslinger under the title "X-Spider" when that fell through though, director Lewis Schoenbrun decided to instead have a stab at another of Marvels much loved properties. Wolveri-
Equally, because I'm keen to address the elephant in the room up front, mainly because I think it would be TOO easy to just dunk on this for its looks. YES. The entire movie, barring stock footage, was shot on green screen using either stock backgrounds or prebuilt digital assets, generally with the aim of building up the sense of depth within the shot when it quite literally would just be a couple of people stood in front of a screen. And I mean that to the fullest extent. Tables, desks, book shelves, items on real tables (where they could afford real tables) are all digitally generated and layered into the shot.
But, with ambition comes limitation…and the limitation here is…well… he's basically used whatever he could get his hands on in order to create this. Meaning quite regularly art styles are mismatched, some items are in higher resolutions than others meaning they look way more prominent in the shot compared to other things, which is problematic when people usually use prominence within the shot to denote importance, and it's because of this haphazard "thrown together" look that the majority of people who review this feature basically open with "Look at this crappy piece of crappy crap" and never actually move on from the fact that it just looks dreadful. Which…I get it, but I feel that almost plays down the other elements of this film outside of that.
From my perspective? This gave me very strong "Tim and Eric" vibes. And in particular it reminded me very strongly of the Gregg Turkington "On Cinema'' venture "Deck of Cards" (I'd wager heavily that their style on that movie was inspired by this movie) and, I kind of dig that "Weird hodge podge" style so long as there's entertainment to be had from it. Whether intentional or not, If it made me laugh and kept me watching, no matter how bad it looks, it's kind of done one of the key jobs of film making…to entertain.
The film follows frustrated and very sleepy scientist Hank Howard, and for some reason thats never fully explained, we open at around the half way point in the movie as we follow a prostitute wandering the cold CGI streets looking for a client. Dipping briefly into a back alley for a smoke, she's accosted by a mugger called Scully, who offers her a light, and then shoves a gun in her mouth with unclear intentions. All this is cut short however as we're then, completely cold, introduced to the titular "Amazing Bulk" the great purple bollock of power itself. Who terrifies Scully, causing him to accidentally kill the prostitute, before turning the gun on "Bulk" only to get taken out himself, causing the purple bollock to waddle away in what can only be described as scenes reminiscent of watching a man about to shit himself clutching for dear life as he tries to find a bowl.
We then enter into an extended title sequence in which…TOTALLY random imagery giving a vaguely knowledge driven slant is just thrown onto the screen seemingly without rhyme or reason. Which WILL be a recurring motif throughout so buckle up for that one.
We then flash back 24 hours and we're finally introduced to Hank and his co-worker who are trying to develop some kind of super serum on behalf of the military that'll allow them to turn their soldiers into unstoppable, stamina machines who could punch tanks unconscious and basically take over the world.The testing has been going on now for around 4 years and in that time every serum they've tried has failed. What do the failed serums do? Well; seemingly they make CGI rats disappear in a puff of blue smoke and that's about it.
The pair are exhausted and frustrated after years of trying and failing to get ANYTHING resembling results. And it's here that Hank's partner ribs him about having cold feet about his partner Hannah, the pair have been together almost as long as the experiments have been going on and Hank STILL hasn't proposed to her. But Hank confirms he IS planning on asking and has bought a ring. But he needs Hannahs Fathers permission to do it. Unfortunately; Hannah's father is a general in the military and MORE importantly is currently the guy Hank reports to as the military are funding the super serum project. And despite being a scientist, Hannah's father STILL treats Hank as if he's a jobless bum because he hasn't been able to create the ultimate super soldier serum right out of the gate with no prior research or experience in the subject.
Anyway; shortly after this chat, Hannah shows up at Hank's workplace and convinces Hank to leave work early to go have some fun, they hop in the car and…oh god. Anyway while out, Hannah randomly asks Hank if he wants kids someday, Hank says "Not right now" and is concerned this is Hannahs way of telling him she's pregnant, but Hannnah confirms that she isn't but kind of takes away from the way Hank reacted that his work is currently more important to his life than his future family. (none of this matters by the way, it's just killing time)
Later that Night Hank has been invited over to the general's house to have dinner, and Hank decides that this will be the perfect opportunity to get the generals permission and then pop the question to Hannah later that night. Unfortunately things don't quite pan out as expected as, while down in the TOTALLY CONVINCING wine cellar with the general, Hank asks the question and the general is IMMEDIATELY apoplectic at even the thought of it and basically flat out refuses to allow Hank to pop the question. This devastates Hank and he pretty much immediately leaves the dinner date, confusing Hannah in the process.
It's here that a kind of…B-plot develops as we then cut to a medieval castle that I can only assume exists in a pocket dimension just outside of the city limits, where we're introduced to one Dr. Werner Von Kantlove…cards on the table, I don't know what he is. He isn't really a mad scientist, he doesn't really fit the bill as a nefarious political influencer, he doesn't seem to have a job of any description and even though he has connections to organized crime units, he doesn't seem to BE a crime influencer himself. He's just a big campy daft man with a LOT of money who likes launching missiles at things with his girlfriend/wife/mistress "Lolita" who's purposefully played as a young and naive character.
So…I don't really know what his drive or purpose is, i'm just going to go with "This is a silly world and somehow this mans managed to get more money than god and access to a silo of missiles'' ANYWAY; one of the first things we learn about Kantlove is that he's impotent, and as such, he vents his frustrations by launching missiles at much loved and treasured international landmarks such as the sphinx, big ben and the Taj Mahal. He also has a short temper and will happily kill his own guards if he thinks they're taking the mick out of him.
Meanwhile; we then cut back to Hank and Hannah who, after enjoying some time at a local fairground decide to grab the subway home where they get jumped by Scully who takes Hank's wallet, Hannahs earrings and the engagement ring Hank was going to give to Hannah at the fair. BEYOND depressed about the situation, Hank takes Hannah home and decides to take his frustrations to the lab, Which Hannah misinterprets as Hank preferring to spend more time at the lab than with her, so she leaves in a huff. Hank returns to the lab, and after working on the serums some more he finally ends up with a purple looking concoction that he hasn't seen before. He trials it on a houseplant and it goes from nearly being dead, to fully revived and thriving. So…Hank decides to speed up the testing phase and injects himself with what's left of the serum. And after the bog standard "Jekyll and hyde" style transition, Hank is wooshed into a tornado and transforms into the Bulk!
We then see the opening of the film again, but from Hank's perspective where we also see him take back Hannahs engagement ring. Back at Kantlove castle we meet two gangsters who've turned up to have a meeting with Kantlove in which they present him with a ring they got from Scully, it's Hannahs engagement ring. It turns out that Hank only got the box back. In a move that only really exists to give Hank a bit of an excuse to interact with Kantlove and Lolita in later acts. Anyway; the next day; Hank wakes up in his apartment covered in purple and the police knocking at the door, Hank lets them in and the pair discuss the robbery and double murder that happened the night before and after exchanging information the cops head back to the car. But one of the cops is adamant that he thinks Hank is the murderer.
He has a couple of hints leading towards it, one being that Hank knew about specific details on the murders that havent yet been made public. The other being that when the cop shook Hank's hand he ended up covered in purple stuff, the same purple stuff that was found splattered all around the crime scene. Shortly after they see Hank literally leave his apartment and head RIGHT into the crime scene, checking to make sure no one was looking.
So…they go to corner him, and, in a fit of anger, Hank transforms into the Bulk and what can only be described as a 5-10 minute CGI running on the spot carnage filled chase ensues as the bulk runs through the city knocking over anything he vaguely comes into contact with while the police chase him on foot and, for some reason a news copter which was just in the area decides to join in too. It all ends in disaster, as one of the cops gets accidentally murdered, and the news copter flies a little bit TOO close to the bulk who takes it out with a mighty cgi swing of a fist. After that, the bulk turns back into Hank and the surviving cop promptly arrests him, winding Hank up in a federal jail.
While in there, the general turns up at the jail to transfer Hank to a secret facility where he presents him with an ultimatum. He explains that while he's been unconscious (during the transfer) that they've managed to synthesize an antidote from Hank's blood that'll cure him of his random purple bollock-ness. He tells Hank that he'll give him the antidote AND give Hank his full blessing to marry Hannah on the condition that he helps the military on an urgent matter. Y'see; Kantlove's decided he's fed up of shelling landmarks and now wants to destroy the moon. As in…launch missiles at the moon to make it not there anymore. The general says if Hank can go to Kantloves castle and take out Kantlove or stop the missiles before they launch, the antidote and blessing are his, Hank reluctantly agrees.
And so we encounter the final act in which Hank must Storm Kantloves castle and stop the missiles from destroying the moon! In a frankly ludicrous finale! Will Hank succeed!? Is the general being *COMPLETELY* honest with Hank about his intentions!? And…why did they make Kantloves Dog CGI? What was the point? Everyone knows someone with a dog…just use a real dog. It doesn't even do anything THAT unusual…USE A REAL DO- all this and more will be answered if you have the constitution to make it through "The Amazing Bulk".
And honestly; when it comes to the script on this thing. I'm having to do some soul searching because I'm struggling to decide whether I think it's hilarious or if I genuinely and sincerely hate it. I can only liken the plot of this film to feeling like it was written while intoxicated. It has a broad idea of what it wants to do, but it doesn't seem to know what order to do it in, what works and what doesn't and while the main plot itself is INCREDIBLY simple, it somehow manages to overcomplicate itself to the point that it almost borders on farce. There's a loose act structure here, which is always a good starting point. But a lot of time is given to the 1st act and establishing everything meaning the 3rd act ends up a little bit short and feels like it's having to cram a lot in, ultimately ending on a somewhat disappointing fizzle rather than a grand daft bang. As a result, the pacing also suffers because the script's plot developments happen so inconsistently it means that the film has to keep stopping and starting just to get the exposition out of the way.
I think parody gets too easy a ride these days honestly, too many people will excuse a bad film if it has a few goofy visual moments and I think that does a disservice to the actual art of parody. From a script perspective, the Amazing bulk…for the VAST majority of the runtime isn't really a parody. What the film instead relies on is weird and goofy visuals combined with a couple of weird and goofy performances. And apart from one VERY brief exchange in the script where the general tells Hank that Kantlove wants the super serum to cure his Erectile Dysfunction, there's basically nothing here that I would say was intentionally written to be funny. It goes into camp cinema infrequently, but there's a difference between "Camp" and "Comedy" and If this film had a legitimate budget and had shot on sets and locations, I don't think it would be considered parody. I think it's only really when the post elements came in that that humor found itself.
What I can say is that, Dialogue wise, that drunken disarray that acts as the tent poles for the plot seems to have transferred perfectly. We have inane dialogue on hand that's rambly, stilted and littered with weird "Isms" that made me snort laugh. I realized fairly early on what the dialogue reminded me of. It ALL sounds like dialogue that Tommy Weisau would write for the room. Don't believe me? If you have a copy, go and watch it. Get a couple of lines of dialogue, pause the movie and say them out loud in a Tommy Weisau voice. IT'S UNCANNY. And honestly? It kind of endeared me to it in a weird way.
All the characters just mow through their lines like squirrels on the highway with no real care given for how they need to be delivered or what exactly is being said. And in an almost woozy move, for some reason, the writers and director have decided to litter the film with references to Stanley Kubrick's movies, with multiple music cues calling back to "A Clockwork Orange", "Dr. Strangelove" and "2001: A space oddity" Kantlove is clearly a play on "Strangelove" his partners LITERALLY called "Lolita" and there are numerous references to dialogue from Kubrick's films and visual cues to 2001 throughout. it's not like the plot has anything to even really do with Kubrick movies. I literally just think the writers and director really liked Kubrick movies and decided to just shove a load of references in "For the lols". it's…BEYOND bizarre. Ultimately; this is a poor script, no mistaking it. Stoner fodder at it's finest. But It does have moments where it shines and that dialogue is SO delicious to me as someone who enjoys the Wiseau style of delivery. While it may be rife with padding and over-explanation, I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh a few times at this and that I didn't, to some degree, enjoy it…even if it is the ramblings of the bizarre.
The script was written by Keith Schaffer and Jeremiah Campbell. Jeremiah has 16 writing credits, his last was in 2013 and looking at what credits he has I'd say I think this is probably his best known work. Keith has 4 writing credits and again this is probably his best known…Both of them seem to work in the kind of B-movie horror and sci-fi that is my stomping ground, so I doubt this will be the last time I'll see them.
The film was directed by Lewis Schoenbrun, he has 6 directing credits and this is also probably his best known work in this field. He's really more of an editor, holding various post production roles and having over 50 credits to his name including "UHF '' and "Mystic Pizza". And as a fun fact and an aside on this, Lewis fully financed this film by himself, as he didnt want to "compromise the vision" he had for the film…I can't quite believe that was ACTUALLY his given reason…but there you go. In fact the only other person who DID have any kind of involvement in this film outside of the cast and crew is David S. Sterling…as in Sterling Entertainment David S. Sterling…As in "Camp Blood'' David Sterling…and as soon as I found that out…my feelings on this film suddenly made ALLL kinds of sense.
On the direction front, im equally torn as to whether to praise the fact that SO much planning had to go into this production to even make it function, i'm talking getting actors angles right against the greenscreen, getting the framing correct, the lighting, making sure movements within the frame worked with everything else going on, Basically, while it looks like garbage, an ASTONISHING amount of work would have been required to pull something like this together. But contrasting that; I'm at a loss in terms of what ACTUALLY I'm able to say that's good about this direction. Because the thing with shooting the entire movie on a green screen is that Lewis has been able to manipulate the footage HOWEVER he required within the edit to make it work how he needed it to. Which does rather call into question how much actual on hand direction was provided. I mean. It's like shoots where they entirely film for coverage. How much can be claimed to be on the director if they just shoot everything flat and wide, then crop in during post to build a sense of direction?
I suppose in terms of how the direction works here, I should take a note from Al Passari and my experience of covering "Flight to hell" and I think the key metrics to measure here are "How distinct is the picture as work thanks to the decisions of the director" and "How well does the director tell the story through the visuals and what impact does that have on the viewer." and in the case of the former, this is about as distinct as it comes. There is NO mistaking this film in terms of stylistic choices, scene guidance and structuring. I don't think ANYONE would want to CLAIM they made this, and so in that sense it's absolutely a very distinct picture that leads on that weird style and guidance.
In the case of the latter though, it's dreadful. While I absolutely respect Lewis's efforts in putting his vision on the screen. I feel because of the chronic use of stock footage, because of the mixed art styles and resolutions and because of the fact that the cast are limited by what they can physically do in a big green void. It comes across as terrifically impersonal. And at times largely impractical too. While it can't be overstated enough that this does look cheap and nasty, Lewis would have HAD to have put in a frankly ludicrous amount of hours in to even get it looking like this. And I kind of have to respect that. But I'd be being disingenuous if I were to say that this film is successful in conveying feelings to the audience when compared to a film that chose to shoot on sets and on location.
I drew comparisons to the work of Tim Heidecker at the top of this review, and I mean it, this sincerely feels like one of the many weird 100% CG projects he's done in the past only, whereas he plays it as an intentional decision for comedic effect, I feel Lewis here chose to do this more out of necessity and convenience than anything else. And thats problematic because it means I don't know how much of it was as intended and how much of it came about through accidental fucking around and finding out.
The one certainty I CAN measure is direction of the cast, which is DREADFUL. And it's totally understandable really. They have no idea what they're supposed to be acting towards or what visuals are going to be dropped in after the fact. Quite often they're just advised to do basic actions which, when green screened, look ridiculous. A lot of the cast look PAINFULLY aware that they look like prannys jumping up and down on a green screen set. So they quite often restrict their movements. Which makes the key'd footage look VERY odd. They seem lost, confused and don't even really seem to know when the camera is rolling more often than not.
Same goes for the cine, it's dreadful. Simply dreadful. Even with complete control over composition EVERYTHING is poorly framed, flat and lifeless, because of the green screening, "even" lighting had to be used throughout because otherwise there'd be green trim fringing on pretty much everyone and everything. While fringing is kept to a minimum, a decent color correction and grade would have really helped give this film a much needed boost and maybe even made the lighting a bit better. They didn't bother with it. Meaning…you can see everyone, but no one ACTUALLY looks like they belong in the scenes they're appearing in because they all have different lighting styles depending on when they were filmed during the shoot.
What is BEYOND hilarious to me is when they get the cast to walk or run through a scene. Because they've had to get the cast to either walk or run on the spot while they green screen in a moving background and then move the actors around the scene with digital movements. And it's HILARIOUS, because none of them know how to naturally walk on the spot, they all end up looking like they're marching, and because their pace rarely if ever matches the tracking pace of the background footage, it results in the goofiest most unnatural movement i've personally ever seen. It's ridiculous. The constant insertion of weird CG characters is bizarre too. We have CGI pugs, rats, monkeys, there are CGI people who act in the background alongside the cast. It's stuff like this that really makes me think Lewis just used WHATEVER he could get his hands on in the edit. Because good lord this thing is hectic.
Performance wise, literally the ONLY reason to watch this movie is Randal Malone as Dr. Kantlove. He's FULLY aware of the kind of movie this is, and gives a performance that's easily one of the most surreal and entertaining that I've seen in a good while. He's over the top, hamtastic and simply fantastic. He's also pretty much the beginning and the end of the good cast members in this production. Terence Lording gets a moment or two to shine as the general. But he's ultimately a bit flat and the rest of the cast are about as "Smiley faces drawn on a balloon" level performances as it's possible to get…in my opinion. They're dull, dry, barely stumble through their lines, have difficulty working with the set space (presumably because they had NO idea what was actually going on) if it wasn't for the fact that the dialogue written for them was so Wiseau-esq I'd say they were a dire. Not Camp Blood bad mind…but certainly heading that way.
And finally; the soundtrack! It's also pretty dreadful! It's basically as much royalty free classical music and sound effects as could be dregged out of the royalty free sites and dumped in no particular rhyme or reason on top of the film. It doesn't feel considered, it doesn't feel like it belongs to the film and it stops and starts with all the grace of a cement mixer with its breaks cut. Sound effects just happen to this film…for better or worse. The actual audio quality of the vocal recording is atrocious too, its open air, noisy, echoey and in some cases running hot. You can tell when they've ADR'd and when they havent because we'll suddenly go from something approaching studio quality to it sounding like it's been recorded in a steel bin. It's quite painful to listen to.
The Amazing Bulk was officially completed in 2008, but remained unreleased until 2012 when it was released online and on DVD by...Tempe DVD. WHAT!? Right, that's it i'm drinking… In 2015 it got a re-release on DVD courtesy of Wild Eye Releasing. And it's not a bad package all things considered we have a commentary recorded in 2014 with some of the crew, amongst some deleted scenes and a behind the scenes on how they did some of the practical effects. Which I thought was quite neat.
To me? This film is Mark Pirro as realized by Al Passari on a budget of $20, and while that sounds like it's ticking all my boxes, the end results are a movie that I feel isn't quite the sum of its parts. While it absolutely is a wild trash ride and I do recommend you check this out if you stumble on a copy in the wild, I don't think I'd actively tell you to go out of your way to check this one out. It has daft moments and IS entertaining periodically, but in the 2020's? This is nothing you can't catch on youtube or tiktok in a shorter, better managed form.
The scripts are insane, and I do admire the amount of work that went into the planning for the CG work, even if it's less than stellar. But at the end of the day, the direction and cine is a really poor show, the soundtrack isn't much to shout about and a few self aware and funny performances does not a good bad movie make. I appreciate that it's a parody, but the thing about parody is, it can't just be random imagery and funny faces. It actually has to have a point…and The Amazing Bulk? I don't really feel has all that much of a point to make, In my opinion.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-amazing-bulk/1/
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