REVIEW: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra -- bleah!!

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Picked up a copy of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra and watched it this weekend... what an EXTREME disappointment. The movie was shot in black and white on mini-dv video with a total budget of just over $100,000; digital grain and "nasties" were readily apparent in every scene shot in low-level light (although I was certainly prepared to overlook this as if the movie itself was entertaining).
Unfortunately the filmmakers got it wrong on most every count. As mentioned earlier the movie was shot in black and white (good!) on video (bad!) in WIDESCREEN instead of 4:3 academy ratio for some unfathomable reason. The script was promising (good scientist and girlfriend meet bad scientist, evil skeleton and two space aliens). BUT (and this is a BIG but) instead of letting the comedy flow naturally out of the situations the players found themselves in, the filmmakers decided to make EVERY scene "hilarious" with forced dialog that was as stupid as it was distracting. (Typical example: the evil scientist says stuff like "I will control the world, and by controlling the world, I will control it.) And this goes on, and on, and on, over and over and over and... in nearly every scene, and from all of the players.
The good news is the "lousy" cinematography (videography?) truly was "lousy" in the best sense of the word: badly framed with poor angles and too much/too little lighting, just like the old 50's cheeseball flicks; and the editing was as purposefully "thumbsy" as any Ed Wood film (again, perfect for the subject matter). But the absolutely over-the-top, embarrasingly-amateurish acting completely ruined the movie (and by the way, all of the cast are sporting the latest style blow-cuts instead of 50's-era haircuts and clothes, and none of them are convincing in their roles).
This could have been a fun movie if all involved had the confidence to let the comedy flow naturally instead of playing the entire movie like a five-minute "Coneheads" sketch on Saturday Night Live. It was so bad that I finally shut it off after 50 minutes; I just wish it had been SO BAD that I could watch the entire movie over and over.

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Topic - REVIEW: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra -- bleah!! - yo mama 07:57:26 01/24/05 (3)

Re: REVIEW: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra -- bleah!! - Victor Khomenko 16:47:36 01/24/05 (2)

S'matter, you don't like CHEESE?!? (nt) - yo mama 04:55:59 01/25/05 (0)

Re: ......!!!! nt - patrickU 00:29:58 01/25/05 (0)

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