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Bottom Feeder
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Stevie McCleary (18th May 2007). |
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The Film
 The production company that backed "Bottom Feeder", who's name I am too lazy to pick up the DVD case to see (which should tell you what I thought of the film right from the get go), sure has a lot of terrible movies coming out that all seem to boast one 'star' and a not much else. I know so because of the trailers I watched off this disc. Some pretty cool people are slumming it for these horrible, horrible films. And the trailers have 'Trailer Voice Guy', who is always awesome to hear. I wish I had his job. In fact the trailer for "Bottom Feeder" is far superior to the actual film...the actual film being something I should probably discuss. And just so we're clear; it's only because I have to. Sometimes I don't even know why people make such films. I can understand bored actors looking for a payday. But for everyone else...I just don't understand. I'm not naive enough to think that people think they're making something that actually matters. Or maybe they just want to make something that is fun and brainless. Mine is not to reason why... Creepy old billionaire is confined to a wheelchair and very badly burned. He has contracted a doctor to help him with a serum to regenerate defective cells. Through this he hopes to regain his movie star good looks. As the doctor explains to him, the serum requires a certain protein to keep you from becoming...really hungry. Because it appears that if you get really hungry you will eat anything you get your hands on and absorb its DNA. Let's just say for examples sake, this might cause you to become a rat/dog/human hybrid. Y'know, if you ate a rat and a dog. Like the good doctor is forced to after the creepy Billionaire's goons cripple him to see if the serum actually works. Throw in Tom Sizemore's maintenance crew who are in these underground tunnels searching for something worth selling, and you've got yourselves a donnybrook of rat/dog proportions. This movie has one of the worst opening credit sequences I've ever seen. It's just plain cheap and nasty. But cheap and nasty seems to be the way things went here...and it's not like this is anywhere near the crappiest looking film I've ever seen, unfortunately, but it's like it's not even trying at times. When we see bullets hitting walls it is done with a poor cartoon effect. Wow, were you too cheap to shell out for actual effects on site? I guess so, as one explosion early on is seen only in the reflection of the bad guy's glasses. Then I think someone switches on a fan so it looks like there is some wind from the big bang. That's just great. And the actual monster is the same type of crappy monster that has been in hundreds of other films. Except this is a rat/dog, which is fairly unique, I guess. But only because no-one's ever cared about a rat/dog before. And still don't, I'd say. The acting from several of the cast is laughable, especially the doctor who is left to talk to himself for a while with hilarious results. It constantly crosses over from being funny to being sad. The rest of the cast are given very little to do, so they don't screw it up too much. It's a shame that Tom Sizemore was in this...but maybe it was an easy two weeks shoot for him. Actually, it's also a shame that within a minute after the initial credit sequence we are introduced to a fat guy, a cute girl, a black guy, an emo kid. All within twenty seconds, as if to say "Worried that you made the wrong choice in renting this? Well, here's someone for you to identify with...no matter who you are!" I'm not saying that "Bottom Feeder" is a terrible film...it's just not that interesting. And there are a thousand others like it that you should/could watch before it. I had trouble keeping my eyes open and that's a pretty bad sign considering it was the middle of the afternoon.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer is hit and miss. The majority of the transfer is sharp, however some softness is present. Detail is sometimes hard to make out in the darker dimly lit scenes. Skin tones appear natural and I found no major print flaws, minor compression artefacts pop up but nothing distracting. It's an average transfer that doesn't really impress but is far from terrible.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround is included. For a low budget film such as this I'm surprised with the overall sound track. I felt it was a rather robust and well mixed track. Dialogue was clear and distortion free, special sound effects make good use of the space as does the film's score. There was some ambient sound but limited at times. The track also delivers some aggressive punch at times and does a fairly good overall in immersing the viewer. This film features no optional subtitles.
Extras
The main extra on this disc is "The Making of Bottom Feeder", a featurette that runs for 28 minutes 1 second. Former Special Effects guy-turned-director is interviewed about the film as are some of the key cast members. Standard making-of stuff is included such as why they wanted to make the film, the cast talks about their characters, plus we get some behind-the-scenes footage of the filming. Overall this clip is rather uninteresting. Also included is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 1 minutes 37 seconds. Rounding out the extras are a series of bonus trailers for: - "The Mad" which runs for 1 minute 35 seconds. - "Dead Mary" which runs for 1 minute 40 seconds. - "Living Death" which runs for 1 minute 41 seconds. - "UKM: The Ultimate Killing Machine" which runs for 2 minutes 1 second.
Overall
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