Press Start

Now that I've had some time to think about the movie and watch it a couple more times, I think I'm able to write a review.

So, Press Start.


I think one of this movie's greatest strength is that it actually tells a story rather than being a random spoofing of everything and everything without any real point, which you get in Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans, and their ilk. You heard it here; Press Start has better writing that the Scary Movie sequels.

The story revolves around Zack Nimbus, the Anime-haired protagonist who is recruited by Sam (a space suit wearing, er, NOT bounty hunter) and Lin-Ku, (a homicidal Ninja who used to compete in tournaments where single punches would result in buckets of blood. You know the one.) and with the help of a little annoying yellow sprite named Zippy, sets off to counter the forces of Count Nefarious Vile, whose evil empire threatens Zack's little suburban town of, er, suburbia.

I'd like to take a minute and talk about Count Vile, who is the most original character in the movie. Rather than being based on some evil overlord, he's actually more of a business manager and would rather sit and talk with his friend Vlad over the phone and leave the management to his assistant, Johnson.

The movie's other greatest strength is that the actors are actually actors. Not to say that there's any big name A-list actors, (their biggest names are Carlos and Dan Pesina, who played Raiden and Johnny Cage, respectively, in the early Mortal Kombat games) but the people they got are actually capable of acting, which is more than you can say about most of the movies like this.

It's actually good, in that low-budget sort of way. It's one of those where the low budget actually kind of works for it. Not in the Ed Wood so-bad-it's-good sort of way; it knows what it is and has no illusions about being "good." Really it's more like Turkish Rambo: They know they don't have the high budgets, but they work with it and have fun anyway. This should come as no surprise, since Dark Maze (who made the movie) is responsible for the American release of Turkish Rambo.

I would definitely recommend this movie. If you're not sure you want to spend the money to see it, check out the Press Start Adventures which you can find here. Season 1 serves as a sort of prequel to the movie, while the following seasons are a follow-up.