James Rolfe / James D. Rolfe / Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) / Rex Viper and Cinemassacre / Screenwave - Now with not much grieving about a 41-year old man still making videos on YouTube. We're the balls on the dick.

[BrunoMattei]

and that was also a perfect time for James to mooch off on Kauffman to a least get him a job in film making. As you know what they say, Hollywood career is built on connections. But I guess its also beneath James to do that.

Oh sweetie... I'm sorry but you must not know, Troma is at the very bottom of the totem pole. No one in the business takes Troma seriously. You could write a script, be the lead actor, whatever, that's not going to open doors in Hollywood. Hollywood looks at a Troma resume as being below porn.

All the people who were involved with Troma and made it had done so because of other things they've completed or other connections made.

 

[Exbein]

I have a feeling that Kauffman is about as negative as a connection can get (as in making other big people in cinema notice you).

Oh sweetie... I'm sorry but you must not know, Troma is at the very bottom of the totem pole. No one in the business takes Troma seriously. You could write a script, be the lead actor, whatever, that's not going to open doors in Hollywood. Hollywood looks at a Troma resume as being below porn.

All the people who were involved with Troma and made it had done so because of other things they've completed or other connections made.

I wouldn't say that, I mean, I rate them the same as Full Moon, and a lot of successful people came from Full Moon. So, I wouldn't discount them completely, I hope.

 

[Internet_Loner]

Full Moon makes higher-quality movies, lowbrow but many did get theatrical releases before the late 90s. The difference is Troma makes no effort to gussy up it's movies as anything but subversise z-grade shlock.

Kaufman is honest in his vision and operation of Troma, unlike Charles Band who thinks he's a genius and has scammed his customers many times because he needs money.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Didn't James Gunn start out at Troma?

 

[Internet_Loner]

Didn't James Gunn start out at Troma?

Yes.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Word. Cinemassacre truth types just come off as not enjoying a thing they once enjoyed and not being able to get over it. I go to that subreddit and I get confused about what I'm supposed to be mad about. That James lost his passion for the Nerd like a decade ago and hired a bunch of uncharismatic spergs to do the heavy lifting? To me, it's just like, whatever, I'll just move on to the 5 billion other YouTube channels that make more compelling content instead of fixating on one.

Dude makes 6 figs and gets to spend as much time with his kids as he wants. My mans is living the dream. Thanks for the laughs, James. You get that paper.

I get why people feel that way because James isn't just another online content creator, he is basically the granddaddy of the internet video as we know it today.

Prior to him an "internet video" was something like the Star Wars kid or the Numa Numa guy, some off the cuff thing, James was really the first guy that approached it like making a professional TV show and it was incredibly mind blowing back in 2006 to see that.

So he should be a much bigger deal than he currently is due to being so groundbreaking, but the guy probably doesn't even have a fraction of the audience someone like fucking Logan Paul has.

And this is all partly James' own fault, he chose to focus on his family than fame and hey, maybe that's the right choice, but his fans are left out in the cold, you can clearly see a difference in his content from before his first kid was born and after, that was the turning point and prior to that he was a great content creator, we've lost what used to be a great content creator and ya know, that's just a shame.

He essentially tapped out after the movie, that was the last time he kept really trying to push things forward and it's all felt fundamentally tired ever since, a certain energy is just gone and you feel that even with a decent episode like Vegas Stakes.

And what makes this so frustrating is like I said, this guy chose family over fame and I can respect that decision, but this dude could have really gone down in history, think of how significant it is that he was a trailblazer in online only content, the dude pissed away a golden opportunity to literally go down in the history books, think of how few human beings get that kind of opportunity.

Are a couple of kids really worth pissing away an opportunity like that? Maybe, but we don't remember artists for their kids, we remember them for their art.

What a great way to fucking live lmao. This dude never heard of headphones?

Seriously, How fucking cucked can one guy be? I'm surprised his wife hasn't forced her way into his videos.

To be fair plugging headphones into a modern TV isn't as easy as you may think, my older TV had a headphone jack built into but I had to jury rig a solution to be able to use headphones on my current TV.

 

[Exbein]

To be fair plugging headphones into a modern TV isn't as easy as you may think, my older TV had a headphone jack built into but I had to jury rig a solution to be able to use headphones on my current TV.

My 2016 tv have a bluetooth I can connect my bluetooth headphones to. I'm sure James have a modern tv that has bluetooth that he can connect his Raycons he shills so much.

but we all know why he can't use headphones, he has to hear April shouting that its time to take care of his kids

 

[Town Drunk]

I get why people feel that way because James isn't just another online content creator, he is basically the granddaddy of the internet video as we know it today.

Prior to him an "internet video" was something like the Star Wars kid or the Numa Numa guy, some off the cuff thing, James was really the first guy that approached it like making a professional TV show and it was incredibly mind blowing back in 2006 to see that.

So he should be a much bigger deal than he currently is due to being so groundbreaking, but the guy probably doesn't even have a fraction of the audience someone like fucking Logan Paul has.

And this is all partly James' own fault, he chose to focus on his family than fame and hey, maybe that's the right choice, but his fans are left out in the cold, you can clearly see a difference in his content from before his first kid was born and after, that was the turning point and prior to that he was a great content creator, we've lost what used to be a great content creator and ya know, that's just a shame.

He essentially tapped out after the movie, that was the last time he kept really trying to push things forward and it's all felt fundamentally tired ever since, a certain energy is just gone and you feel that even with a decent episode like Vegas Stakes.

And what makes this so frustrating is like I said, this guy chose family over fame and I can respect that decision, but this dude could have really gone down in history, think of how significant it is that he was a trailblazer in online only content, the dude pissed away a golden opportunity to literally go down in the history books, think of how few human beings get that kind of opportunity.

Are a couple of kids really worth pissing away an opportunity like that? Maybe, but we don't remember artists for their kids, we remember them for their art.


To be fair plugging headphones into a modern TV isn't as easy as you may think, my older TV had a headphone jack built into but I had to jury rig a solution to be able to use headphones on my current TV.

How many people work 40 hours a week and still have time for family? (almost everyone) I think his movie bombing was his wake up call. His dream wasn't going to happen. So now "too busy with family" is his excuse to just make a paycheck and not try anymore IMO.

So like most of us he does his (now) soulless job to pay the mortgage and doesn't really care anymore.

 

[Dom Cruise]

How many people work 40 hours a week and still have time for family? (almost everyone) I think his movie bombing was his wake up call. His dream wasn't going to happen. So now "too busy with family" is his excuse to just make a paycheck and not try anymore IMO.

So like most of us he does his (now) soulless job to pay the mortgage and doesn't really care anymore.

Yup, the failure of the movie ruined him, it's honestly pretty damn tragic.

He was still putting out good content around 2011, 2012, when he first started work on the movie, but once that movie actually came out that was it, it's always felt flat out tired ever since with very rare exceptions that are now rare to the point of non-existent, the dude is clearly tired and I wouldn't blame him if he just packs it up for good one day soon.

What's also sad is how short lived his heyday really was, we're only talking about 5 years, from 2006 to 2011, maybe even less because you can make the argument his peak was already gone by 2011.

Meanwhile Red Letter Media, not even counting the Plinkett reviews and just starting with Half In The Bag, has put out an entire decade of great content and it of course goes back more than a decade counting the Plinkett reviews, that absolutely dwarfs James' peak.

It really is honestly sad, I'm sure it's not lost on James just how close he really came but he dropped the ball, I'm sure he knows as well as anyone else how shitty the movie was and that killed his enthusiasm for the whole thing.

But hey, it sure was fun while it lasted.

 

[Big Ruski]

Yup, the failure of the movie ruined him, it's honestly pretty damn tragic.

He was still putting out good content around 2011, 2012, when he first started work on the movie, but once that movie actually came out that was it, it's always felt flat out tired ever since with very rare exceptions that are now rare to the point of non-existent, the dude is clearly tired and I wouldn't blame him if he just packs it up for good one day soon.

What's also sad is how short lived his heyday really was, we're only talking about 5 years, from 2006 to 2011, maybe even less because you can make the argument his peak was already gone by 2011.

Meanwhile Red Letter Media, not even counting the Plinkett reviews and just starting with Half In The Bag, has put out an entire decade of great content and it of course goes back more than a decade counting the Plinkett reviews, that absolutely dwarfs James' peak.

It really is honestly sad, I'm sure it's not lost on James just how close he really came but he dropped the ball, I'm sure he knows as well as anyone else how shitty the movie was and that killed his enthusiasm for the whole thing.

But hey, it sure was fun while it lasted.

The movie still shits on the entire TGWTG trilogy, not an exactly high bar, but yea.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Yup, the failure of the movie ruined him, it's honestly pretty damn tragic.

He was still putting out good content around 2011, 2012, when he first started work on the movie, but once that movie actually came out that was it, it's always felt flat out tired ever since with very rare exceptions that are now rare to the point of non-existent, the dude is clearly tired and I wouldn't blame him if he just packs it up for good one day soon.

What's also sad is how short lived his heyday really was, we're only talking about 5 years, from 2006 to 2011, maybe even less because you can make the argument his peak was already gone by 2011.

Meanwhile Red Letter Media, not even counting the Plinkett reviews and just starting with Half In The Bag, has put out an entire decade of great content and it of course goes back more than a decade counting the Plinkett reviews, that absolutely dwarfs James' peak.

It really is honestly sad, I'm sure it's not lost on James just how close he really came but he dropped the ball, I'm sure he knows as well as anyone else how shitty the movie was and that killed his enthusiasm for the whole thing.

But hey, it sure was fun while it lasted.

YouTuber movies are the fucking number one good content creators killers. I'm still worried about Ross from Game Dungeon working in this project for half a decade.

 

[Dom Cruise]

The movie still shits on the entire TGWTG trilogy, not an exactly high bar, but yea.

In some ways it does, in some ways it doesn't.

Kickassia got by a lot on novelty, since it was pretty much the first time someone really tried to make a "movie" and seeing all those people together in one place was kind of cool.

Of course I've never had the desire to rewatch it in the 10+ years since it premiered but I was decently entertained, more than the AVGN movie entertained me, however I never bothered to watch Suburban Knights at all and yeah, the AVGN movie was better than To Boldly Flee.

But the AVGN movie, ironically being more of a "real" movie actually makes it more boring, the TGWTG movies I saw were simply more interesting to sit and watch even as a hate watch, the AVGN movie just mostly bored me.

The best thing I can say about the AVGN movie is it comes close, you know what I mean? A few changes and it could have actually worked.

YouTuber movies are the fucking number one good content creators killers. I'm still worried about Ross from Game Dungeon working in this project for half a decade.

Yeah, they never seem to turn out well, do they? Even Space Cop is supposed to be bad (never watched it) but the RLM guys just shrugged it off, it never impacted their web videos.

How was the Cinema Snob movie? That one I never saw either and I don't remember hearing any reaction to it, so I have no idea if it was any good.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

How was the Cinema Snob movie? That one I never saw either and I don't remember hearing any reaction to it, so I have no idea if it was any good.

I remember watching it, I remember nothing about it.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Full Moon makes higher-quality movies, lowbrow but many did get theatrical releases before the late 90s. The difference is Troma makes no effort to gussy up it's movies as anything but subversise z-grade shlock.

Kaufman is honest in his vision and operation of Troma, unlike Charles Band who thinks he's a genius and has scammed his customers many times because he needs money.

The difference is Charles Band actually did help get some genuinely good movies made, which isn't really the case with Troma.

I remember watching it, I remember nothing about it.

The only I know about it is Jillian went topless in one scene, so that alone makes it the best of all these Youtuber movies lol.

On a side note isn't there a video where Brad was nude as well? So I guess they're the only ones of these Youtuber people we've seen naked lmao.

 

[The Cunting Death]

All the people who were involved with Troma and made it had done so because of other things they've completed or other connections made.

Examples: James Gunn got his start there, but his Hollywood career didn't start until the Scooby Doo movie in 2002 (Tromeo came out in 96 and that was his start, and yes I know about the Specials but that was Indie)

Trey Parker and Matt Stones Oklahoma Cannibal The Musical was released by them but there careers took off because of south park not
Oklahoma Cannibal.
Again I love Troma but Bruno is right

 

[Kulee Baba]

Yup, the failure of the movie ruined him, it's honestly pretty damn tragic.

He was still putting out good content around 2011, 2012, when he first started work on the movie, but once that movie actually came out that was it, it's always felt flat out tired ever since with very rare exceptions that are now rare to the point of non-existent, the dude is clearly tired and I wouldn't blame him if he just packs it up for good one day soon.

What's also sad is how short lived his heyday really was, we're only talking about 5 years, from 2006 to 2011, maybe even less because you can make the argument his peak was already gone by 2011.

Meanwhile Red Letter Media, not even counting the Plinkett reviews and just starting with Half In The Bag, has put out an entire decade of great content and it of course goes back more than a decade counting the Plinkett reviews, that absolutely dwarfs James' peak.

It really is honestly sad, I'm sure it's not lost on James just how close he really came but he dropped the ball, I'm sure he knows as well as anyone else how shitty the movie was and that killed his enthusiasm for the whole thing.

But hey, it sure was fun while it lasted.

To play Devil's Advocate Red Letter Media has a much greater creative talent pool in the form of Mike, Jay, and Rich. They have a great understanding of what they're discussing since they have a background in filming weddings along with making their own B-Movies, never bothered watching Space Cop but "Feeding Frenzy" was actually a pretty enjoyable Gremlins knockoff. And they just have a near endless amount of material to lampoon as they have a giant library of shitty VHS tapes and by its very nature Hollywood will never stop making bad/interesting movies.

James on the other hand, it was pretty much destined that it would amount to this. He's not a hardcore gamer, he just loved the old games from his childhood. He understands retro games (albeit any gamer should) but he doesn't understand them at any expert capacity. Compare him to a modern "Angry Video Game Nerd" like Civvie11, Civvie11 deeply knows the games he makes content about. If Civvie doesn't have a background in video game development/programming then that's shocking to me as he discusses game design details in a way I would consider to be expert level. Civvie has way more freedom in making his content since his audience just wants him to give through well edited Let's Plays of video games generally ones made in the 90s and early 2000s. Civvie doesn't have to pretend to "hate" a particular game he just has to break it down and make the videos amusing.

Really the reality is James was good at mocking bad 80s video games, and there's only so many ways to skin a cat particularly in his casual style of critical conjecture. He tried to expand his focus by talking about great outsider games like Earthbound but if you watched that video you kinda knew that James doesn't have a great affinity for something like Earthbound which honestly has a limited appeal. And now you got so many other Youtubers who have a deeper love and understanding of games so James just feels dated.

There's so much overwhelming negativity on James now, people kinda want to just bash him like Nostalgia Critic/Doug Walker. I don't see him that way. Sometimes great entertainers can go strong for decades like Norm MacDonald or Rodney Dangerfield, nothing wrong with being an Andrew Dice Clay.

 

[Product Placement]

Full Moon makes higher-quality movies, lowbrow but many did get theatrical releases before the late 90s. The difference is Troma makes no effort to gussy up it's movies as anything but subversise z-grade shlock.

Kaufman is honest in his vision and operation of Troma, unlike Charles Band who thinks he's a genius and has scammed his customers many times because he needs money.

Yeah it's sad what happened to Full Moon, they had some alright movies like the ones by Stuart Gordon and even when they made shit like the Subspecies they at shot it on location and not just in a warehouse but now they just make the click bait versions of movies which mostly takes place in one set or location.


But I would say Troma has more standing in Hollywood, just because someone there seems to think people want a remake of the Toxic Avenger ,with Legendary Pictures (they did shit like the new Godzilla movies and the upcoming Dune) being behind it right now, Also Mother's Day got a remake which flopped and have been talks of a remake Class of Nuke 'Em High but nothing yet,
So less about respecting them, and more so they have some ips we could remake from the 80s that did well during that era,

 

[Dom Cruise]

To play Devil's Advocate Red Letter Media has a much greater creative talent pool in the form of Mike, Jay, and Rich. They have a great understanding of what they're discussing since they have a background in filming weddings along with making their own B-Movies, never bothered watching Space Cop but "Feeding Frenzy" was actually a pretty enjoyable Gremlins knockoff. And they just have a near endless amount of material to lampoon as they have a giant library of shitty VHS tapes and by its very nature Hollywood will never stop making bad/interesting movies.

James on the other hand, it was pretty much destined that it would amount to this. He's not a hardcore gamer, he just loved the old games from his childhood. He understands retro games (albeit any gamer should) but he doesn't understand them at any expert capacity. Compare him to a modern "Angry Video Game Nerd" like Civvie11, Civvie11 deeply knows the games he makes content about. If Civvie doesn't have a background in video game development/programming then that's shocking to me as he discusses game design details in a way I would consider to be expert level. Civvie has way more freedom in making his content since his audience just wants him to give through well edited Let's Plays of video games generally ones made in the 90s and early 2000s. Civvie doesn't have to pretend to "hate" a particular game he just has to break it down and make the videos amusing.

Really the reality is James was good at mocking bad 80s video games, and there's only so many ways to skin a cat particularly in his casual style of critical conjecture. He tried to expand his focus by talking about great outsider games like Earthbound but if you watched that video you kinda knew that James doesn't have a great affinity for something like Earthbound which honestly has a limited appeal. And now you got so many other Youtubers who have a deeper love and understanding of games so James just feels dated.

There's so much overwhelming negativity on James now, people kinda want to just bash him like Nostalgia Critic/Doug Walker. I don't see him that way. Sometimes great entertainers can go strong for decades like Norm MacDonald or Rodney Dangerfield, nothing wrong with being an Andrew Dice Clay.

That's very on point, but the thing about James is it's not just about AVGN, he did other good stuff too, stuff like Board James, which he abandoned entirely or Monster Madness which he also abandoned although I think he's talked about bringing it back.

Heck, even those videos where he talked about celebrity memoirs were good, the guy has a good voice and an overall very personable vibe, so if AVGN ran it's course he could have segued into something else, but now everything he does feels tired.

I really loved Board James and I don't get why he just stopped with that, although to be fair board games take up a hell of a lot of space, I speak from personal experience as someone who's into board games, so that may have had something to do with it.

Yeah it's sad what happened to Full Moon, they had some alright movies like the ones by Stuart Gordon and even when they made shit like the Subspecies they at shot it on location and not just in a warehouse but now they just make the click bait versions of movies which mostly takes place in one set or location.


But I would say Troma has more standing in Hollywood, just because someone there seems to think people want a remake of the Toxic Avenger ,with Legendary Pictures (they did shit like the new Godzilla movies and the upcoming Dune) being behind it right now, Also Mother's Day got a remake which flopped and have been talks of a remake Class of Nuke 'Em High but nothing yet,
So less about respecting them, and more so they have some ips we could remake from the 80s that did well during that era,

Stuart Gordon was such a great filmmaker and I'm very sad he passed away, Dolls is one of my favorite horror movies.

Troma movies can definitely be entertaining too but I prefer stuff that is actually trying to be a genuinely good movie like Re-Animator, From Beyond and Dolls.

 

[Product Placement]

That's very on point, but the thing about James is it's not just about AVGN, he did other good stuff too, stuff like Board James, which he abandoned entirely or Monster Madness which he also abandoned although I think he's talked about bringing it back.

Heck, even those videos where he talked about celebrity memoirs were good, the guy has a good voice and an overall very personable vibe, so if AVGN ran it's course he could have segued into something else, but now everything he does feels tired.

I really loved Board James and I don't get why he just stopped with that, although to be fair board games take up a hell of a lot of space, I speak from personal experience as someone who's into board games, so that may have had something to do with it.


Stuart Gordon was such a great filmmaker and I'm very sad he passed away, Dolls is one of my favorite horror movies.

Troma movies can definitely be entertaining too but I prefer stuff that is actually trying to be a genuinely good movie like Re-Animator, From Beyond and Dolls.

Well those movies you listed were by Empire International Pictures, his company before Fullmoon, when it came to Fullmoon, he did just have to cut budgets, but stuff like Castle Freak or Puppetmaster 3 which are Fullmoon movies are still enjoyable, and it was clearly he started to care less about quality even in his lower budget as time went on, and it's now about shitting out as many movies as he can with the lowest budget.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Well those movies you listed were by Empire International Pictures, his company before Fullmoon, when it came to Fullmoon, he did just have to cut budgets, but stuff like Castle Freak or Puppetmaster 3 which are Fullmoon movies are still enjoyable, and it was clearly he started to care less about quality even in his lower budget as time went on, and it's now about shitting out as many movies as he can with the lowest budget.

Yeah, that's right, those movies were Empire Pictures and not Full Moon, but we're still talking about Charles Band and even Full Moon had some good movies, one movie I saw as a kid and now keep in mind I haven't seen it since, but I liked the movie Beanstalk as a kid, I was surprised to later learn it was straight to video because it felt like a near theatrical quality movie.

But ol' Charlie Band did indeed later become a complete dipshit putting out nothing but garbage, which is too bad, why exactly did that happen? What the fuck is his problem? lol