Twisties: Why ‘Oblivion’ And Many Other Movies These Days Suck

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In my earliest Smug Film piece, I reviewed a movie called ATM and introduced this idea of ‘Roomies’—movies where the characters are trapped in some kind of room and the whole point is figuring out why they’re there and how to get out. Exam, The Breakfast Club, and Cube are some popular examples. Now I’m going to introduce you to Twisties, which have become quite prevalent lately.

I saw the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion in the theater by myself.  I like going to the movies by myself.  It’s cool.  There’s something about being by yourself in the grandeur of the theater that always reminds me how much I want to make movies.
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The Blue Goop That Comes Out Of A Bag Of Dead Pig Babies: Nights on Netflix, Part II

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June 29th, 2013 12:06 AM.  My girlfriend and I nestled in for a night on Netflix.  This is what happened.

It started with a really ‘clever’ and ‘quirky’ movie called Spork.  That didn’t last long.  Then we tried Kink, a Canadian TV show about an assortment of really arrogant and obnoxious S&M purveyors.  The bumpers took up more time than the fucking interviews.  Next.  Then we tried that Sushi documentary that every keeps talking about but it was boring as fuck.  Then we entered what I call ‘the blur’. This is where you turn off so many movies that are all so similar that they run together.  I can’t remember what any of them are called.

After a while, Netflix kind of beats you down and you end up sticking with the least shitty thing.  Generally, you want to pick something that’s just bad enough to be fun to make fun of, making it bearable.  Most movies are far below that, but finally, I found one.  Here’s what I wrote right after it ended:
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ATM: The Worst Movie Ever to Come Out of the Worst Genre Ever (A Bunch of Dudes Stuck in a Room and They Don’t Know Why)

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ATM (2012)
Directed by David Brooks
Written by Chris Sparling
90 min.

Warning: This review contains spoilers, but it doesn’t matter, because this movie sucks.

In ATM, a guy parks his car about a hundred yards from an ATM for no reason.  I guess just to make his friend walk really far in the freezing cold.  What an asshole.  Then, a few minutes later, after a bunch of stupid devices have conveniently put all three of our main characters in a glass-enclosed ATM together, they’re afraid to exit because they see a guy 25 feet away wearing a coat. I’m not kidding.  They live in New York City, yet they’re afraid of a guy, I guess, because he’s wearing a coat.  It literally just looks like he’s waiting for them to leave so he can use the ATM.  But then, to prove their illogical suspicions were actually correct, the coat guy suddenly murders a guy walking a dog.   As it turns out, the coat guy is a weird murderer who stakes out people at ATMs.
Continue reading ATM: The Worst Movie Ever to Come Out of the Worst Genre Ever (A Bunch of Dudes Stuck in a Room and They Don’t Know Why)