Tuesday, March 24, 2009

SLEEP DEALER (2009) (Preemptive Strike)


watch the trailer
FIRST OFF: THIS TRAILER CONTAINS SPOILERS! BE WARNED. I watched it and was annoyed seeing, or rather hearing, what sound like major plot points given away in the cheesy voice over.

OK, now on with the pocket review:

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Well, if you've seen enough trailers you can spot the ones made on a budget. This trailer felt like one of those and sadly, I think once you see past all the cheesy overproduction of the trailer you can see something that might be a good movie. (Sadly because most people won't bother to see past the cheese to the very meaty concept.)


Technically any good? First off, I think this is what we, in the US, would call a b-movie. As in, low budget. It's from Mexico and based on the fact the trailer allowed not a single line of dialog to be heard, I'm guessing it's in Spanish. That's what bugged me the most about this trailer--we have no idea if the film is even in English.

NOTE TO MARKETING PEOPLE: If people are going to be turned off by a non-English-language movie, they won't likely stick around for the whole film once they realize it's not in their mother tongue. SO TELL US NOW.

FX-wise, this movie looks pretty reasonable. Acting wise, it's hard to tell since so much of the trailer is just FX shots. From what the trailer does show us, I'm pretty damn intrigued by it. Generally speaking, it looks like this might be evidence that talented people are finally getting some of that cheaper filmmaking technology.


How did it leave me feeling? Frustrated with the state of trailer-making. If I were a marketer I'd do this film much better justice. Of course, while I'm enthralled with the concept--I can't tell if the movie is any good since the trailer was cornball and ruined bits of the movie. But it looks interesting if nothing else.


Final Rating? NFI - NetFlix It. Definitely looks like a fun scifi flick even if it doesn't quite live up to it's Phillip-K.-Dickishness qualities.

Sleep Dealer opens here in the US on April 17, 2009. Click the poster image above to see the trailer.

Orignal From: SLEEP DEALER (2009) (Preemptive Strike)

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