Bezman's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cold Blooded Killer]

Pretty damn fine.

Some really lovely animation and some thoughtful bits, like when he used the decoy.

However, it all suffers from 'bad guy, bad aim' syndrome. He walks towards a man with a gun and he has a clear shot for about 4s, yet we don't hear a single shot being fired.

Then the 'hero' stands about for what seemed like 6s after killing another... you need to make your characters more alert.

Other than that, it was pretty good, with nice camera angles, excellent music and synchronisation with action to said music and some nice explosions.

Just make the characters more alert next time. That's my main gripe. Really spoiled my enjoyment.

A story may be nice but isnt' really essential. Graphics were quality, but can still be improved.

Good luck with your next project.

Stay funky,
Bez

mchawking responds:

thanks! I will try to keep it funky :o)

~Nate Johnson
[e-mail]

[To Be Human III]

Seems promising if I could understand the speech.

No, turning up the volume doesn't help. The music's too loud in comparison and the speech is muffled, not just quiet.

You really need subtitles telling us what's going on.

I got the feeling there was a powerful message going on, but I don't know for sure what it was without the speech.

Include subtitles, or maybe 'speech bubbles' that appear as they speak.

Really groovy song.

Magosis responds:

heh thanks I may fix that here

[3DA Assasination]

A bit pointless.

I appreciate this maybe took you a while, but it really isn't up to scratch imo.

I mean, it's far too short, there's no story, joke, or point of interest to speak of (man walks out house, about to get into car, shot dead... that's all obvious from the first 2 scenes, so I was obviously hoping there'd be some attempt to surprise...)

The song is way too long, going on long after the titles and credits have finished, adding unecessarily to the filesize.

The graphics, though 3d, therefore maybe impressing some viewers, just isn't nice to look at. You could at least have some textures...

It really just looks like a poor Mega CD thing... I mean, 3D is all very good, but try to actually make it pleasing to the eye next time.

Or at least have some joke, twist or something.

Xerferic responds:

You think the music makes the filesize big? Adding textures to the objects just makes the file size stupid.

[Pico's Unloaded]

Sumptuous graphics, as always.

The visuals were lovely - speedlines and depth of field were used occasionally to great effect and the small touch of 'bullet-time' was nicely handled.

The music set the pace perfectly.

The action was fairly well scripted. However, I have a couple of (minor) criticisms.

Firstly, near the start of the movie, it looks as if the same uberkid has been skewed around to make them look as if they're in a circle - it all looks flat, almost like Paper Mario.

Secondly, throughout the action, Pico wasn't put into danger enough for it to be truly thrilling for me and the start and finish, though amusing, weren't enough to make that irrelevant.

Damn fine though.

MindChamber responds:

You make some great points. I'll keep them in mind for my next flash attempt.

thanks for the input

[Rebel T.M.N.T.]

Not great, but some nice stuff... well done. :)

Some of the fbf art was really nice. The crappy shape tweens suck donkey balls though.

A couple of bits (over..., twisted flashbacks) made me chuckle a little, but not nearly enough to make this a 'good' movie.

Still, it was most definitely average.

And that's still a considerable achievement in my book. Specially when you've got professionals, including folk from Disney to compete against. :)

Good work,
Bez

Quimera responds:

Ok, thanks. . .

[Click]

You've really progressed!

Remember me? I fancied watching a flash by some author whose stuff I'd enjoiyed before and I was really surprised by how much you've advanced since I last saw your stuff.

The sketchy fbf art style was really nice (although the clock seemed a bit too 'perfect' for the style and the sun didn't blend in too well, being a solid colour).

Maybe for your next step forward, you could start making better use of varying line thickness to show off shadows?

The music was nice, and the ending theme started off great, but I wasn't too keen on the way it stopped and played the first 6 notes again and again.

The fading in of colour at the end was also really nice.

However, despite this being sweet on the eyes, the story lets it down somewhat as it's a bit unoriginal and we never are 100% sure of what's going on - why would the guy withstand a bullet to the heart, several more body shots, then be killed in an instant by the last bullet?

It just seemed as if he becamse superhuman for the 2nd half of the movie then lost his power. At least, that's what it seemed like to me.

I think if you combined the art style with some of your humour, it could be a great treat for us.

All in all, this was a lovely watch. Sweet on the eyes, and a fairly original style.

Commando-Cheese responds:

I remember you, Bezman. Thanks for the in-depth review! I could use alot of these tips for my future movies

[A Tribute to Howard Stern]

Not too great, but nice art.

The art was really nice. But still, the fact that it was just 7 pictures (or however many) and pretty much nothing else was done by you kinda makes me look down on it. It seems like a learning project rather than a great one if you see what I mean, which isn't meant to be an insult - I suppose you would have been learning when you made this?

If there was more animation, maybe even lip synching, maybe speech bubbles or something, then the visuals would be closer to the standard of the audio clip.

As it is, it was the audio clip alone that entertained. The little joke with Tom wasn't really enough to make me smile even.

Sorry to be harsh, but in any case, you've prograssed far beyond this as 'lost at sea' shows.

So, congratulations on your progress and here's to your future progression.

SketchMichaels responds:

You are correct, sir; this was my second flash, and purely experimental. I think this would be something nice to redo someday... I just don't have the motivation (or time, for that matter), to take on such a project at this time.

[Eternally Yours]

Not too keen on this.

The art was really nice, and the animation was OK.

I just wasn't too keen on the basic 'story'. It seems to be an attempt at sweetness, but becomes part sickly, part cliched, part morbid.

SketchMichaels responds:

= one screwed up kid. Thanks for the reviews :)

[Lost At Sea]

nice joke

Maybe if Tom's short description hadn't ruined the surprise it would have been even funnier...

The graphics, whilst economic, were really nicely drawn. And the economy was in itself fairly ingenious - such as the way the mermaids you see through the telescope are the same as those later shown and the simple tweening that's so effective.

The characters - as I said - were wonderfully drawn and this played an important part in bringing about the humour and character present in a simple action, such as a wink.

The voices too were great, my only complaint being some poor recording.

The island and sea look as if they've been taken from a computer game or something and look slightly at odds with the rest of the animation. It might have been nice to have had those drawn in the same style.

I loved the final joke and the incidental picture that came up during the credits was charming.

Overall, a charming and amusing animation.

SketchMichaels responds:

Constructive criticism! My best review for this submission yet :)

I wasn't sure how the backgrounds would turn out; they're masked, a background manipulated image with a flash low-opacity graphic on top.

And the great majority of this movie was frame by frame, not tweening :P

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for the detailed review (I appreciate this a thousand times more)!