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.

[MaltVinegarRespecter]

But at least he delivered, unlike Spoony.

 

[lindsayfan]

Jack had a pretty good assessment of the movie.

I consider the AVGN movie to be the worst movie I've ever seen because it's the only movie where it left me genuinely pissed off for wasting my time.

i started watching it and didn't get past the long intro where an endless parade of visually unappealing people i don't know about or care about praise AVGN while trying to be funny. i watch a lot of absolute garbage but that was more than i could stand.

obviously i'm an avgn fan generally, i would be curious if other feel it's worth a hatewatch. maybe if it had a rifftrax-type optional audio track...

 

[Sicko Hunter]

I'm going to be the odd man out on this but I don't think the AVGN movie is nearly as bad as people say it is. It's worst sin is being uninteresting and overly long. For a movie that was crowdfunded and directed by a Youtuber on a tiny budget of 300k I thought it was just mediocre. I think James was genuinely passionate about making it but ultimately lacked the experience. To me it's not even interesting enough of a film to hate. If I had to grade it I'd probably give it a C- maybe a D+.

 

[p1138]

I'm going to be the odd man out on this but I don't think the AVGN movie is nearly as bad as people say it is. It's worst sin is being uninteresting and overly long. For a movie that was crowdfunded and directed by a Youtuber on a tiny budget of 300k I thought it was just mediocre. I think James was genuinely passionate about making it but ultimately lacked the experience. To me it's not even interesting enough of a film to hate. If I had to grade it I'd probably give it a C- maybe a D+.

It's a weird mediocre thing for fans, which is basically what the people who crowdfunded it likely wanted. Same could be said for the movie Ashens did. Unlike say... the trash that channel awesome kept doing for their anniversary garbage that even with zero budget didn't have an excuse to be as bad as it was.

 

[mlanguishi]

I think the AVGN movie is one of the worst ever made, but the Walker big 3 were objectively worse. I literally can't watch those more than 5 minutes and then skip around and it's all them just yelling at each in green screens and hotel rooms.

 

[Sicko Hunter]

It's a medicore indie film made by a guy who had never directed a real movie in his life made on a shoestring budget it's retarded to call it one of the worst movies ever made. The Doug Walker home movies don't even qualify as movies in my eyes they are just autistic kids pretending to make a movie.

 

[Pissmaster]

in my eyes they are just autistic kids pretending to make a movie

Good assessment. That's also pretty damn close to how I was thinking about describing the AVGN movie, only it was one severely autistic guy with way too much money, who liked the idea of being known as a famous filmmaker more than actually doing the work to make a film.

Its been a very long time since I watched the AVGN movie, but I remember, like, a scene where some military general guy's head is attached to a tank, and he's screaming, I think? And it just came off like James thought about it while sitting around drinking beer, and he told his buddies "Wouldn't it be cool if-", and nobody questioned him because he's the big star.

 

[Thumb Butler]

The AVGN movie is a masterpiece compared to Linkara's Atop the Fourth Wall.

 

[Rekeita's Kidneys]

James is probably one of the very few "old guard" of YouTube that's a genuinely decent fucking dude, kinda mad how literally everyone around him has self destructed yet he's just living a normal ass humble life. That dragon video he made also made me genuinely tear up which takes a LOT to do.

 

[The handsome tard]

I'm going to be the odd man out on this but I don't think the AVGN movie is nearly as bad as people say it is. It's worst sin is being uninteresting and overly long. For a movie that was crowdfunded and directed by a Youtuber on a tiny budget of 300k I thought it was just mediocre. I think James was genuinely passionate about making it but ultimately lacked the experience. To me it's not even interesting enough of a film to hate. If I had to grade it I'd probably give it a C- maybe a D+.

I think the issue is that people had higher expectations based on the fact James is a cinephile and he always demonstrated intense passion and knowledge on the process of film making. Said knowledge allowed for AVGN to remain highly popular in an era everyone was trying to copy his show, not understanding production values go a long way.

Now, yes, I do know that knowledge doesnt always translate into practice but James did extremely rookie mistakes that even people here that dont know the first thing about movie making would never do, like filming in L.A. There is a goddamn reason why movies almost never shoot on location but rather somewhere cheaper and just pretend that its "X" location in the story, that is because of budget and location expenses. There are many many books out there by famous directors that talk about the film making experience and what you should avoid and James just seemed to ignore the advices of giants.

Ultimately he went overbudget because of poor film making decisions and because he wanted to tell this grand scale story when something smaller would have been more beneficial and maybe keep the bigger stuff for a sequel maybe. Also his side kick should have been Mike instead of generic black sidekick number 634.

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

i dont get the "its better than channel awesome efforts" defense

it should be on the basis of having 100x the budget those chucklefucks have.

 

[p1138]

i dont get the "its better than channel awesome efforts" defense

it should be on the basis of having 100x the budget those chucklefucks have.

It's not a defense. It's just that it isn't the worst thing out there(even without a budget, CA doesn't have an excuse for how awful their shit was, some problems just aren't budget related).

I think the issue is that people had higher expectations based on the fact James is a cinephile and he always demonstrated intense passion and knowledge on the process of film making. Said knowledge allowed for AVGN to remain highly popular in an era everyone was trying to copy his show, not understanding production values go a long way.

Now, yes, I do know that knowledge doesnt always translate into practice but James did extremely rookie mistakes that even people here that dont know the first thing about movie making would never do, like filming in L.A. There is a goddamn reason why movies almost never shoot on location but rather somewhere cheaper and just pretend that its "X" location in the story, that is because of budget and location expenses. There are many many books out there by famous directors that talk about the film making experience and what you should avoid and James just seemed to ignore the advices of giants.

Ultimately he went overbudget because of poor film making decisions and because he wanted to tell this grand scale story when something smaller would have been more beneficial and maybe keep the bigger stuff for a sequel maybe. Also his side kick should have been Mike instead of generic black sidekick number 634.

James is a cinephile, but only in the sense of watching movies. RLM would be a much better comparison. Those guys actually have(and discuss movies in this sense on a regular basis and it probably helps that they apparently have some experience filming as an actual business, commercials if I remember right) a far better understanding of actually filming anything. Space Cop was actually done with things intentionally goofy and on a low budget, but ends up better than the AVGN movie. I mentioned Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild already, I forgot he was actually able to do the Ashens and the Polybius Heist later both of which actually had a proper crew and jokes in the movies aside actually come off like proper attempts at producing a movie because they got people involved who actually knew what they were doing.

James on the other hand still can't handle filming his own web show in a way that doesn't suck after over a decade. Meanwhile Ashens is a guy who films literal garbage with a backdrop of a ratty piece of a sectional sofa, but he went to people who knew wtf they were doing.

 

[AlmightyMagichan]

Ultimately he went overbudget because of poor film making decisions and because he wanted to tell this grand scale story when something smaller would have been more beneficial and maybe keep the bigger stuff for a sequel maybe. Also his side kick should have been Mike instead of generic black sidekick number 634.

Using Mike in the movie probably wouldn't have worked. He was received so badly when he ran the site during the film, making him a major character in a movie doesn't sound promising. Has Mike ever said anything about the movie?

Hindsight is 20/20 so we know it would have been a better idea to keep things on a small scale. But I'm wondering, how does one go about making an AVGN movie, even if it's just 'made for TV' so to speak. Should it be one big review, a bunch of reviews, revisiting old games, should it be about the Nerd himself and the weird world he lives in?

 

[Clarence Big Boss]

Also his side kick should have been Mike instead of generic black sidekick number 634.

Why is it always a black guy as the main character's "best friend" or "sidekick" Like its usually some nerd or dorky white kid who has a black friend and maybe a white girl/love interest. Feel like the AVGN movie could have worked without those 2 characters since they didnt do anything towards the plot.

 

[mlanguishi]

Why is it always a black guy as the main character's "best friend" or "sidekick" Like its usually some nerd or dorky white kid who has a black friend and maybe a white girl/love interest. Feel like the AVGN movie could have worked without those 2 characters since they didnt do anything towards the plot.

It sure would've helped if the black guy and that girl sidekick were better actors. I can't remember if Doug went with Malcolm before or after the AVGN movie,. Doug also has Tamara. At least to me, Mike usually doesn't make me want to just turn it off.

 

[The handsome tard]

Hindsight is 20/20 so we know it would have been a better idea to keep things on a small scale. But I'm wondering, how does one go about making an AVGN movie, even if it's just 'made for TV' so to speak. Should it be one big review, a bunch of reviews, revisiting old games, should it be about the Nerd himself and the weird world he lives in?

I always said that an AVGN movie should have been a self aware take on The Nerd character, showing him from the perspective of a fan who had no idea it wasnt a character, or just do a Peewee's Big Adventure sort of thing where it clearly doesnt take place in our world and in a more out there one, maybe with The Nerd chasing an extremely rare game and all the shenanigans that'd follow.

Why is it always a black guy as the main character's "best friend" or "sidekick" Like its usually some nerd or dorky white kid who has a black friend and maybe a white girl/love interest. Feel like the AVGN movie could have worked without those 2 characters since they didnt do anything towards the plot.

They just didnt fit The Nerd in any way and its not like The Nerd would even like to have them around. He has been shown to be very anti-social with outsiders and he only tolerated the guitarist behind the couch. The only times he is "polite" is when he is getting something from it.

The Nerd as a movie character should embrace he is an anti social drunken grump and have fun around that.

 

[Pissmaster]

Using Mike in the movie probably wouldn't have worked. He was received so badly when he ran the site during the film, making him a major character in a movie doesn't sound promising.

My first complaint about the movie was that it eschewed Mike in favor of that black kid. James has shown himself to have great chemistry with Mike plenty of times, but he had negative chemistry with the negro.

just do a Peewee's Big Adventure sort of thing where it clearly doesnt take place in our world and in a more out there one, maybe with The Nerd chasing an extremely rare game and all the shenanigans that'd follow.

That is exactly what I thought the movie should have been. I dunno, make it so that the landfill is actually in a temple and he needs to go get the Swordquest prizes from Jack Tramiel's tomb in order to open the temple and then fight like three other Youtubers who are after the game. Who went into the tomb looking for it themselves but didn't have the equipment so they got turned into zombie slave guardian things. The Nerd has to decapitate Pat the NES Punk and it's very funny.

 

[Space Pope]

James did extremely rookie mistakes that even people here that dont know the first thing about movie making would never do, like filming in L.A.

In James' mind this wasn't a mistake. He knew exactly what he was doing and the costs, monetary or otherwise, involved. James believed that if he went and spent his budget on unions, licenses, travel cross country and on every other thing the people in Hollywood sold him on, he would then be seen as a real movie maker. And if he was seen as a real film maker, he could stop doing his YouTube stuff which he already had grown to hate. From childhood, his autistic mind was set on there being 1 way to make a "real" movie and he was and is too stubborn to be told anything otherwise.

I can't edit in the quote directly, but I see I'm basically saying what @Pissmaster said above.

That's also pretty damn close to how I was thinking about describing the AVGN movie, only it was one severely autistic guy with way too much money, who liked the idea of being known as a famous filmmaker more than actually doing the work to make a film.

 

[The handsome tard]

That is exactly what I thought the movie should have been. I dunno, make it so that the landfill is actually in a temple and he needs to go get the Swordquest prizes from Jack Tramiel's tomb in order to open the temple and then fight like three other Youtubers who are after the game. Who went into the tomb looking for it themselves but didn't have the equipment so they got turned into zombie slave guardian things. The Nerd has to decapitate Pat the NES Punk and it's very funny.

The youtubers would be too distracting but an exaggerated tale about a nerd partaking in some unlikely hero's journey as he learns that maybe there is more to life than shitty games (more than once he was told in the show how he only has himself to blame for playing so much shitty games, nothing prevents him from just sticking with the good stuff and even when he does play good games, he grows bored as there isnt anything major to complain about and just returns back to shit).

The Nerd doesnt have to go through some amazing change by the end, just show he is willing to share his passion for video games with others and there is more to life than just games.

Deconstruct the nerd but in a way it doesnt destroy the character but humanizes him to us.

Wayne's World is also about nerds having their show stolen and being forced to confront the real world to save it (even then, the real world is also kind of cooky in its own way).

Or hell, have The Nerd be misunderstood by an alien race that he is some great hero and they need his help to stop some sort of evil Skynet Mastermind Computer sort of villain. Sure, it has some elements of Last of the Starfighters but an AVGN movie should celebrate 80/90's classics.

 

[Perverted Monk]

His notion that a movie has to be filmed in Hollywood to be seen as a "real" movie is even more stupid when one of his all-time favorites Rocky was shot almost entirely in his own city of Philadelphia.