It’s a truism that even making a really bad film is hard work. That goes as much for independent short subjects as it does for enormous epics.
Every now and then, however, I see something where, perhaps, not so much work was involved. Not much thought either. In fact, every once in a while I see film where I get the impression I’m working harder reviewing the movie than the filmmakers did making it!
So it is with Michæl Goodwin’s barely worth the time, “Smashin’ It Up.” This utterly lose and deliberately slapdash video short tries, and mostly fails, to mine comedy from a bunch of lunatics pretending to smash things up, getting caught, and then playing at smashing more stuff up. While an apparently improvised rap (really a guy yelling to a drum-beat) tells us what we’re seeing on screen.
Worst of all, mostly, they don’t even really smash very much. Real smashing of actual appliances would have at least been satisfying in a destructive sort of way. Of course, finding cheap stuff to smash would have required work.
Still, I’m giving this film an entire star because one joke made me go “huh-huh” and because Michæl Goodwin was honest enough to put quotation marks around his “writing” and “directing” credits. I was tempted to remove the star because of the lame “We didn’t have any money. What the hell would you have done?” excuse written into the credits, but then, I haven’t made a film in a long time and I’m feeling ashamed, so that lonely little star stays on this review…for now!
