Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[.::1200 FRAMES::.]

I suggest more representational work.

Again with the autostart. Why?

No, I don't think the dot in the lower-left is cool. I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not... it just detracts from the other on-screen action. What there is, anyway.

I felt the movie used far too many non-representational lines. The lines - though ocassionally cool (like when they mix to green, change colour behind object or even in their movement) aren't as fun to watch as the representational objects in 'imagination'.

If you really wanted to have a lot of lines, drawing them more stylishly, rather than always with a fixed width brush, may make it better. Or maybe have more going on at once, with rotated mcs etc., for added visual interest.

I did like the effort, the pixellated bits were a nice change and some movement was great.

It just wasn't as entertaining for me.

RESPRiT responds:

Pshh-aw

[.::Imagine::.]

Entertaining stream-of-consciousness-type work.

I'm really not a fan of automatic starts.

Your intro was cool with the dragon, skull etc. setting the tone for this piece.

There was a great pace and we were never bored as you had a steady stream-of-consciousness type effect going.

The slower part of music - from just before the black man to around the ship in water - could have had some slower, more sympathetic, visuals to contrast with the past paced bits.

Also, I felt that your humans could have been better drawn - maybe spend some time drawing people from life and practising.

Overall it was certainly a fun watch though. Entertaining.

I wonder - how did you split this up? Did you swap the file after each 'morph'? It's worked well, whatever your system was.

[Frankenstein Trailer]

I wonder what the teacher's/class's reaction was..

I'm guessing that you were sick of this book and wanted to ridicule it a bit?

First things first - I rather like the font you use fod 'Done!' and 'Play!', as well as various other parts. What is that font?

The starting music, along with the expanding circles and foreshadowing text, was beautiful. You would have been able to pull off a more serious effort with your design skills, so it's almost a shame you didn't go this way.

The 'txt speak' joke and the modern speech in the 2nd scene rankle with me.

I chuckled at the edited frankenstein pics. ('liquify' filter in photoshop?)

For the most part though, the humour just didn't strike a chord with me.

Rammer responds:

actually, i enjoyed the book more than most books i'm forced to read in my English classes. i just thought that some characters' actions were a bit odd and overzealous, and some situations just flat out weird. this is more analogous to Egoraptor's Awesome series than the Assassin collection in terms of reasons for creation. :P

the font was "Odd Modern." if you want it, i can send it to you. just PM me your email address.

like i said in my author's comments, my first intention with this movie was to make something more dramatic, and the intro was made with that intention, but i realized that i didn't have like ANY time needed to create the art that would keep people drawn in, so i decided to make the rest of the movie a parody and keep the intro as a funny contrast.

wtf does "rankle" mean? :P

yeah, photoshop ftw :P

eh, you can't please everyone. i'm glad you enjoyed it a bit, anyway. thanks for the review

(also, my teacher and my class thought it was hilarious. at the end of the movie, my teacher said "i guess my mind's in the gutter, then" and i thought that was pretty silly. my teacher's reaction to the bleeped out part in the letter was pretty funny. it was part shock and part laughter :P)

[Beneath the Sheets]

Good work. Didn't expect that!

This wouldn't have been funny if I'd bothered reading your author's comments first.

The dark high-contrast visuals were a great look. The bgm suited the creepy vibe perfectly.

For me, the highpoint of the movie was definitely the 'replay', with the ghost, trip etc. Seriously awesome.

I think the parts after that should have been shortened as much as possible, since it seems like a let-down after that hilarious ghost.

And maybe waiting for a beat (like 1s) after the final line before the music comes in would give us more time to enjoy it.

I was caught off-guard by the juxtaposition of the ghost but even on 2nd viewing, it was still hilarious.

Fro responds:

I'm happy you enjoyed. Thanks for the review.

[When I'm Running]

A fun story.

I liked the screen shake just before the dino entrance.

In the 'intro', there's a lot of crazy stuff in the background - specially with the lorry and overturned car, I thought that was part of your imagination.

The run cycle could be a bit better - when seen from the front, don't have your arms cross over your body - they should be roughly in the same vertical plane as your shoulders.

And maybe slow down the side-on run cycle a bit. What frame rate is it running at? It looks kinda jerky and there's no change in speed - the legs should pause each time they 'kick back'.

I liked the dino though and the sound was well chosen.

It's a fun little thing. Didn't make me chuckle, but left me satisfied after watching.

OxSox responds:

Thanks for your ever observant review Bezman. Yes, the foreshadowing in the background of the intro was supposed to be caused by the imaginary dino, and would by extension also be imaginary. In the "real life" version it was all imagined anyway. The whole movie was at 24 fps, I'll keep your tips for improving my run-cycles animations in mind for next time. Your reviews are always appreciated :)

[Secret To A Long Life]

An old joke...

The lip synch was indeed decent and I really liked the 3D treatment of the title.

I'd have maybe liked to see some body movement, but for such a short joke, suppose it's not necessary.

The joke is kinda old though and it'd have been nice to see something interesting done with it - even as small as showing a reaction shot of the younger-looking guy.

By the way, why is the icon not from this movie? There's no bearded man here! False advertising! >:-(

Short and sweet. I wasn't impressed with the punchline, but at least you went there swiftly.

- Review Request Club -

[The Last Hour: Chapter 5]

Real improvement!

No hyperbolic hype at the start!

An intro of reasonable length!

I'd suggest you take more time over your drawings. In one frame the vatican-clone has eyes at different levels. A disfigurement? Maybe just a mistake, since in the next his eyes are at the same level.

Think about the line width and draw details that matter - like a collar on the head dude.

I could make out most of the words, but some of the white-clad dude's words were still hard to make out.

Also, I'd suggest to the voice actors that you try and tone it down - currently it seems like overacting. There's no need to try and pack every word with malice. Instead, try and build semi-believable characters.

And in the scene with the followers, having all the women and men be identical looked odd.

The movie is still way too short - even though it's a serial, each episode should be satisfying in and of itself. There's been no time to build characters, no time to build up a real atmosphere - this is like

To be honest, I'm guessing that some of the flaws are due to laziness. You could easily pack 2 episodes together and submit them as one. You could surely spend more time on your work, draw mouth shapes approximating the phenomes, add shading or draw more frames, but you simply choose not to.

If you genuinely want to rival APhilips, you need to start putting in more work.

I do like the new 'play button.

Jaiba responds:

thank you. one day adam phillips will be on his knees before me. and i will reign as king of kings. these are just the earliest work of a future legend. and you are all in at it. you are all part of the evolution of jabai. you will speak to your sons and tell them of being the first to see jaiba's earliest works and to see his raise to godliness.

-jaiba the great.

[The Last Hour: Chapter 4]

Same old problems.

Your movie isn't the worst I've seen. I have seen folk with visuals even worse. You're a beginner. I can understand.

But please don't try and hype up your talent at the start of each movie. Don't compare yourself to Adam Phillips. We're both in a different league to him.

It's great to have high hopes, but comparing yourself to a master in public seems like an empty boast and it just irritates when your work falls so short of his.

I'm glad you changed the typeface for the title into something more futuristic and gave yourself a kinda interesting logo.

The main problem is still the voices - which were hard to understand.

Take more time over your drawings. Draw more drawings wihin the movie.

Make it longer.

I'm sure you can do better than this, but first you've got to start spending more time and fixing basic problems.

Incidentally, the 2nd time I watched this, I left the clock open. The text intro took 2 minutes, the 'movie' 1 minute. Surely you can see a problem?

Jaiba responds:

yes i'm still learning english i am an immigrant you know. but i have cut the intro length and we are working on the drawings and animation.

[The Last Hour: Chapter 3]

Horrible

The entirety of the pre-amble that accompanies your name should be cut. The movie just isn't long enough for that sort of thing.

It seemed like the text section was almost as long as the movie!

The voice of the lad on our left was specially ridiculous. It sounded more like someone being silly than someone actually trying to act in a serious story.

The music you've got is great - why hasn't it been credited by now? Still, don't play it for every single episode. It's starting to get irritating and can drown out the voices.

At least make an attempt at drawing various mouth shapes. Draw different body shapes, trying to convey emotions via body posture.

Use better voices or use text.

The title screen's asteroids were kinda cool and I liked the look of the photo.

Overall though, this is a horrible thing to watch. I'm hoping episode 5 is as big an improvement as you imply.

Jaiba responds:

sorry i have a bit of an irish accent being as i am an irish immigrant. to moved down to the south with my family. but i shall work on it.