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==Movie reviews==
==Movie reviews==
{{anchor|Mr. Plinkett}}
{{anchor|Mr. Plinkett}}
Stoklasa created his first video review for ''[[Star Trek: Generations]]'' after rewatching the film. He noted that he thought it was a "shitty movie" and "completely messed up the transition to the big screen from what was a really great TV show", inspiring him to share this view with others.<ref name="popmatters"/> Stoklasa found his own voice to be too boring for the review, and adopted the persona of "Mr. Plinkett", a previous character he had used in one of his short films.<ref name="popmatters"/> Mr. Plinkett is an old man, bordering on senile and psychotic,<ref name="ifc"/> a mannerism that Stoklasa deemed was necessary in order to keep the viewer interested in the reviews and guessing what may occur next.<ref name="dailybeast">{{cite web | url = http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-28/making-an-enemy-of-george-lucas/full/ | title = Star Wars: YouTube Battle | publisher = [[The Daily Beast]] | first = Benjamin | last = Starlin | date =2009-12-28 | accessdate= 2010-03-14 }}</ref> The Mr. Plinkett character also adds a sense of humor to avoid making the review sound too much like a nerd or armchair critic.<ref name="popmatters"/> Mr. Plinkett speaks in a manner that has been compared to a cross between [[Dan Aykroyd]]'s character in ''[[The Blues Brothers]]'' and [[Ted Levine]]'s [[Jame Gumb|Buffalo Bill]] character from ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]''.<ref name="popmatters"/><ref name="cinemablend"/> Through his dialog, Mr. Plinkett is implied to be a [[serial killer]] and has suggested he killed his ex-wife by driving his car into a tree with her in it.<ref name="popmatters">{{cite web | url = http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/122310-red-letter-medias-fresh-spin-on-the-crazed-youtube-reviewer/ | title = RedLetterMedia’s Spin on the Crazed YouTube Reviewer | publisher = [[PopMatters]] | date = 2010-03-16 | accessdate = 2010-03-16 | first = L.B. | last = Jefferies }}</ref> Mr. Plinkett has a fondness for [[pizza rolls]], and encourages feedback by promising to send one to viewers that leave comments.<ref name="popmatters"/>
Stoklasa created his first video review for ''[[Star Trek: Generations]]'' after rewatching the film. He noted that he thought it was a "shitty movie" and "completely messed up the transition to the big screen from what was a really great TV show", inspiring him to share this view with others.<ref name="popmatters"/> Stoklasa found his own voice to be too boring for the review, and adopted the persona of "Mr. Plinkett", a previous character he had used in one of his short films.<ref name="popmatters"/> Mr. Plinkett is an old man, bordering on senile and psychotic,<ref name="ifc"/> a mannerism that Stoklasa deemed was necessary in order to keep the viewer interested in the reviews and guessing what may occur next.<ref name="dailybeast">{{cite web | url = http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-28/making-an-enemy-of-george-lucas/full/ | title = Star Wars: YouTube Battle | publisher = [[The Daily Beast]] | first = Benjamin | last = Starlin | date =2009-12-28 | accessdate= 2010-03-14 }}</ref> The Mr. Plinkett character also adds a sense of humor to avoid making the review sound too much like a nerd or armchair critic.<ref name="popmatters"/> Mr. Plinkett speaks in a manner that has been compared to a cross between [[Dan Aykroyd]]'s character in ''[[The Blues Brothers]]'' and [[Ted Levine]]'s [[Jame Gumb|Buffalo Bill]] character from ''[[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|The Silence of the Lambs]]''.<ref name="popmatters"/><ref name="cinemablend"/> Through his dialog, Mr. Plinkett is implied to be a [[serial killer]] and has suggested he killed his ex-wife by driving his car into a tree with her in it.<ref name="popmatters">{{cite web | url = http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/122310-red-letter-medias-fresh-spin-on-the-crazed-youtube-reviewer/ | title = RedLetterMedia’s Spin on the Crazed YouTube Reviewer | publisher = [[PopMatters]] | date = 2010-03-16 | accessdate = 2010-03-16 | first = L.B. | last = Jefferies }}</ref> Mr. Plinkett has a fondness for [[pizza rolls]], and encourages feedback by promising to send one to viewers that leave comments.<ref name="popmatters"/> Plinkett is also said to be a heavy gambler who particularly enjoys slot machines, married a druggie "Bambi" who he later killed, and often abducts and kills other women.


The ''Star Trek: Generations'' review was met with many favorable comments, inspiring Stoklasa to continue to review the other three ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' films&mdash;''[[Star Trek First Contact|First Contact]]'', ''[[Star Trek Insurrection|Insurrection]]'', and ''[[Star Trek Nemesis|Nemesis]]''.<ref name="popmatters"/> Inspired by these, Stoklasa proceeded to create his review for ''[[Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace]]'', citing his personal dislike of [[George Lucas]] due to the creation of the "Special Editions" of the original ''Star Wars'' movies that marred Stoklasa's memories of the original films.<ref name="dailybeast"/> Stoklasa also considered the ''Star Wars'' prequel trilogy as part of a problem with the movie-production industry, overly relying on special visual effects:
The ''Star Trek: Generations'' review was met with many favorable comments, inspiring Stoklasa to continue to review the other three ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' films&mdash;''[[Star Trek First Contact|First Contact]]'', ''[[Star Trek Insurrection|Insurrection]]'', and ''[[Star Trek Nemesis|Nemesis]]''.<ref name="popmatters"/> Inspired by these, Stoklasa proceeded to create his review for ''[[Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace]]'', citing his personal dislike of [[George Lucas]] due to the creation of the "Special Editions" of the original ''Star Wars'' movies that marred Stoklasa's memories of the original films.<ref name="dailybeast"/> Stoklasa also considered the ''Star Wars'' prequel trilogy as part of a problem with the movie-production industry, overly relying on special visual effects:

Revision as of 20:30, 5 April 2010

RedLetterMedia is a movie production company for Milwaukee-base independent filmmaker Mike Stoklasa. Though Stoklasa has produced other works including wedding and corporate videos and horror films under this title, the filmmaker attracted significant attention in 2009 through a seventy-minute video review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace posted to YouTube, presented by his character "Mr. Plinkett". While Stoklasa has published other video reviews for several Star Trek movies prior to this, the Phantom Menace review received considerable media attention for both the insights provided by the review and the manner of the review style, and Stoklasa has continued to create reviews for other movies in the same style.

Movie reviews

Stoklasa created his first video review for Star Trek: Generations after rewatching the film. He noted that he thought it was a "shitty movie" and "completely messed up the transition to the big screen from what was a really great TV show", inspiring him to share this view with others.[1] Stoklasa found his own voice to be too boring for the review, and adopted the persona of "Mr. Plinkett", a previous character he had used in one of his short films.[1] Mr. Plinkett is an old man, bordering on senile and psychotic,[2] a mannerism that Stoklasa deemed was necessary in order to keep the viewer interested in the reviews and guessing what may occur next.[3] The Mr. Plinkett character also adds a sense of humor to avoid making the review sound too much like a nerd or armchair critic.[1] Mr. Plinkett speaks in a manner that has been compared to a cross between Dan Aykroyd's character in The Blues Brothers and Ted Levine's Buffalo Bill character from The Silence of the Lambs.[1][4] Through his dialog, Mr. Plinkett is implied to be a serial killer and has suggested he killed his ex-wife by driving his car into a tree with her in it.[1] Mr. Plinkett has a fondness for pizza rolls, and encourages feedback by promising to send one to viewers that leave comments.[1] Plinkett is also said to be a heavy gambler who particularly enjoys slot machines, married a druggie "Bambi" who he later killed, and often abducts and kills other women.

The Star Trek: Generations review was met with many favorable comments, inspiring Stoklasa to continue to review the other three Star Trek: The Next Generation films—First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis.[1] Inspired by these, Stoklasa proceeded to create his review for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, citing his personal dislike of George Lucas due to the creation of the "Special Editions" of the original Star Wars movies that marred Stoklasa's memories of the original films.[3] Stoklasa also considered the Star Wars prequel trilogy as part of a problem with the movie-production industry, overly relying on special visual effects:

The Star Wars prequels are the best examples of this where you’re mesmerized by all the visuals and excitement on screen, but if you really stop and listen you’ll realize that almost every line and every action makes no sense and is just there to get to the next special effects scene.

— Mike Stoklasa, "RedLetterMedia’s Spin on the Crazed YouTube Reviewer", PopMatters, March 2010

He has further since created reviews for James Cameron's Avatar[5] and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones,[6] as well as a satirical, short film review of Star Trek.[7]

The movie reviews use a combination of footage from the movie in question, other related sources (such as clips from the original Star Wars trilogy movies for his Phantom Menace review, or clips from documentaries about the production of the film), still images including title cards, and short live-action segments. Stoklasa's reviews have been considered part of an emerging art form that hybridizes mash-up with video essays.[2] The combination of the Mr. Plinkett character and others elements used to present the reviews have been considered "a very clever attack on a certain kind of dumbass fanboy style of film reviewing".[2]

The Phantom Menace review

Stoklasa's review of The Phantom Menace was published to YouTube on December 10, 2009 and quickly became popular, receiving over a million views since its release.[1] The video was widely linked to by many people across the Internet, including celebrities such as Damon Lindelof and Simon Pegg.[1][4] In comparison to his earlier Star Trek movie reviews which lasted from 30 to 40 minutes, the Phantom Menace review was a 70-minute creation.[4] The review took between seven and ten days to complete.[8]

The review contains several elements that have been considered insightful. Stoklasa early on points out that there are no strong characters in the film. He demonstrates this by asking his friends to describe characters from the original trilogy and Phantom Menace; in contrast to verbose descriptions they give for the characters Han Solo and C-3PO, Stoklasa's friends are unable to verbalize much on the Phantom Menace characters Qui-Gon Jin and Padmé Amidala.[3][2] Stoklasa points out that many of the decisions made by Jin's character are highly questionable, and considers if Jin is an alcoholic;[4] he further points out that the character himself is unnecessary save to have a final climatic lightsaber battle.[1] He notes Lucas' attempt to add more concurrent plot elements in each of the successive Star Wars films and calls it the "The Ending Multiplication Effect".[2]

The video was found to be a surprisingly insightful critique of The Phantom Menace despite the sophomoric tone of Mr. Plinkett.[9] Even without the Mr. Plinkett voice, the analysis and critique from Stoklasa was considered to be "plenty fascinating", but with it, the review becomes a "deep-dish analysis packaged like a gonzo stand-up comedy routine".[2] The review was considered to be "an epic, well-edited well-constructed piece of geek film criticism" by /Film,[10] Damon Lindelof, in a Twitter message on the video, noted that "Your life is about to change. This is astounding film making."[11]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jefferies, L.B. (2010-03-16). "RedLetterMedia's Spin on the Crazed YouTube Reviewer". PopMatters. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Seitz, Matt Zoller (2010-01-20). "Ranting in Pictures". Independent Film Channel. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  3. ^ a b c Starlin, Benjamin (2009-12-28). "Star Wars: YouTube Battle". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
  4. ^ a b c d Eisenberg, Eric (2009-12-17). "Epic 70-Minute Review Of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace". Cinema Blend. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  5. ^ Hart, Hugh (2010-02-01). "Phantom YouTube Critic Reams Avatar". Wired. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  6. ^ Eisenberg, Eric (2010-04-03). "70-Minute Phantom Menace Reviewer Returns For Attack Of The Clones". Cinema Blend. Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  7. ^ "STAR TREK (2009)". RedLetterMedia.com. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  8. ^ "Man Behind Epic Phantom Menace Review Speaks". Heeb. 2010-01-04. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  9. ^ Carroll, Jon (2010-01-04). "Revenge of the Fanboy". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  10. ^ Sciretta, Peter (2009-12-17). "Watch This: 70-Minute Video Review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace". /Film. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  11. ^ Frucci, Adam (2009-12-18). "Epic 70-Minute Phantom Menace Review Justifies the Existence of The Phantom Menace". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
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