Newport Beach Film Festival: Suck Review Dan Koelsch, April 27, 2010June 6, 2010 Rob Stefaniuk’s Suck is not your average (noticing our NBFF trend?) vampire flick. Sure, the vampires kill people, drink blood, and hate the sunlight, but they also rock. This Canadian horror rock musical follows a band as it slowly chooses the dark side in order to make it big. Does film deliver the goods, or does it…well, suck? Find out after the break. Joey (Stefaniuk) leads a band ironically called “The Winners”. What’s ironic about it is that they aren’t winning anything. Their manager Jeff (Dave Foley) is planning to quit, Joey is constantly having to ask for money from his girlfriend, and they just lost a big gig in front of music executives. Just when Joey begins to think he’s a hack, luck comes their way. Jennifer (Jessica ParĂ©), the band’s bassist and ex-girlfriend to Joey, becomes a vampire, and audiences love it. Eventually she turns the rest of the band into vampires as well, and Joey is forced to make a choice: Lose his soul or lose his dream. As deep as that may sound, Suck is a very superficial film. As to be expected, it is also a comedy. The film is very tongue-and-cheek, and let’s you know it from the start. Maybe appropiately, the film has no soul, and when characters are forced to make decisions, you really don’t care. Even the jokes aren’t that great, because there’s no real drama. There’s very little talk about the mythology of vampires, which helps keep the foot on the pedal, but leaves something lacking. That being said, there are definitely some positives (insert blood joke here) to enjoy in Suck. The music is really good, though the film constantly goes away from the “musical” part of its premise. The smaller roles and cameos are probably the highlights of the film. Foley, of course, is hilarious, but so is Malcolm McDowell as Van Helsing’s decendent. The rock cameos of Alice Cooper, Moby, Henry Rollins, and especially Iggy Pop made this movie worth watching. Sure, this may be a throwaway movie that won’t move you or change the landscape of filmmaking, but it’s a lot of fun despite its flaws. Isn’t that what really matters? Suck premiered in September 2009 at the Toronto International Film Festival and is currently awaiting distribution after Alliance Films bought the rights. See the trailer below. Events Reviews Alice CooperIggy PopNewport Beach Film FestivalReviewReviewsSuck
Pro San Diego Facebook Page Rivals Anaheim’s Attempt To Host Comic-Con March 31, 2010June 6, 2010Last week, the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau publicly threw their hat in the ring as the next venue for Comic-Con International. They even created a Facebook fan page to prove to the CCI group that people were looking for the change. However, a grassroots “Keep Comic Con in… Read More
Comic-Con 2010 Recap and Review July 30, 2010October 18, 2011This was a big Comic-Con for us at MovieViral, as this was the first time we’ve provided live coverage of the event. We’re sure to have even more great coverage next year and beyond, but until then, let’s look back at Comic-Con 2010. Read More
Black Dynamite Film and Viral Campaign Review January 22, 2010January 22, 2010In September 2009, /Film ran the teaser trailer for director Scott Sanders’ Black Dynamite, a comedy based on the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Directed by Scott Sanders and written by Michael Jai White, the film focuses around the main character of Black Dynamite, played by Michael Jai White (The… Read More