helmutlord's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Portal Hoppin']

Amazing

What amazing style and pacing!

[Ride Like The Wind]

Well done

Sometimes it wasn't as clear as it could have been, and it pretty much copied the pod racer sequence from Phantom Menace beat for beat (open field, small rock pillars, tight enclosed canyon, pirates taking pot shots, final two-person showdown) - but apart from that it was well done, ambitious, enjoyable, and an excellent piece of music.

[LARRY episode 1.5]

Great, but...

Well done, once again. This series really showcases some genuine professional level writing. It's not just the usual low brow, ad-libbed, thrown together stuff you see so often on here.

That being said however, I must say that priest paedophilia and gay references are real bottom of the barrel stuff. I guess once upon a time it WAS novel and edgy, but these come about a year too late (if not more). They weren't even an original take, just a straight up carbon copy of the hundreds of times I've seen these 'jokes' before.

I'm surprised you felt you needed to put them in, as the rest of this was REALLY strong. I'm pretty sure you're a talented enough writer to come up with more original jokes than these, but even just removing them - I thought would have made this a stronger piece.

I wasn't too much a fan of the poop joke, or a few of the more in-your-face pop culture references but that's a lot more just my personal opinion.

---

Anyway I don't have much else to say, as you can pretty much pick anything else from it, and I either loved it or learned from it! Great punch line, and the backgrounds were particularly excellent. Well done, as always.

Jazza responds:

thank you very much. i get what your saying. truth be told i dont consider myself a writer by any means, and i think my strength is how i can draw from cliches, and yeah sometimes it is JUST cliche, but in other cases i think i pull it off in a defferent or original way. look at all my old crap, it's a boat i get very stuck in, i cant think on too many original ideas! but i think thats why i'm so at home making this series because EVERY character is an overendulged RIP on big cliche's. so yeah, it wont always come across as perfect, but nowadays EVERYTHING is cliche anyway so i'm just having a bit of fun with it.

i DO agree with what you said though, you are right. i wrote the script in 20 minutes and animated over 2 months, and i generally just write whatever crap comes to mind... i'll spend more time on the next script.

thanks mate!

[Beauty is Humanity]

Hooray

A bit of optimism for once! As well as originality. That's two big ticks already.

The visuals were pleasant, I think you're only going to get better. The fact that you actually went to the effort of animating the transitions - massive points for that. Well done, I look forward to more.

Though I have to say the text made no sense. In what context does 'Beauty is... Exploration' make sense? Beauty isn't exploration, and has only the vaguest of connections.

What about 'Beauty is... Intelligence'? If there was an ugly, immoral, disgusting, irredeemable, offensive - yet intelligent - person standing before you, would you really be able to describe him as beautiful in any way that wouldn't dilute the meaning of the word?

Anyway, that's a small point. Good job!

vezanmatics responds:

you just dont get it.

[A Letter from God]

Let's review the actual animation

There's a lot of people here reviewing the song, but that's not what's this section's for. So, onto the review!

I thought the idea behind all the visuals was perfect. I thought the editing, and timing was excellent. I thought the movement was professional. That was all great.

However, the actual picture quality was unpolished and sloppy - and it didn't need to be. It felt like you took a long time carefully storyboarding, but then ran out of time and rushed through the drawing. It still looked alright, but I thought it was a missed opportunity.

I also thought it could have benefited from a more consistent style - maybe you could have done more with that simple black outline style that you used for some of it. That was cool and suited it very well, made it feel like the funkiest graph or power point ever made.

Anyway, over all very good. You easily earnt an 8 which well surpasses the passing grade in my book.

Lankie responds:

Good review! I'll admit to time constraints, the deadline to handing this in for my Media was looming so I had to rush a bit. Shame really but oh well.
Thanks for the feedback!

[Remove Police]

Well

I love the music, really catchy. And the visuals were engaging - it's been a while since I've watched a flash movie through twice.

The message of the video though... I think you have the wrong idea about the police. Unless you're a criminal. There was a time where scepticism needed to be preached, but now videos like this I think have gone a step too far in the other direction.

[Microcosm]

Very very clever

A wonderfully pure idea.

I hope one day, either you or someone will remake this in a really professional and proper comic book style.

[demoReel 2009]

Context can ruin all

This deserved much higher than a 3.8 - here's why I think it scored low.

I think calling it a 'demo reel' worked against you in the end. Saying Demo Reel prepares people for a polished and professional showcase. I strongly believe if you had have called it 'Animation Practice' or 'Muckin' around in Flash' or something like that, you could have easily scored well above 4.

[Boo sketch]

You gave away the damn joke in the title

The joke is simply pulled straight from Monty Python, so no points for originality. Some people awarded you points for effort, but I don't think this Flash even earns that.

What does this Flash do that a YouTube clip of the actual joke doesn't do much better?

I'll give you two points for at least having good taste in comedy.

[Hoodoos]

Love the idea

Really well done. I applaud your rare ability to not take the easy way out. A very rare ability.

The only non-positive comment I have is that I would have preferred it to actually loop. I could have watched it all day! Could have been the coolest screen saver ever made.