Part two of my 2025 Seattle International Film Festival capsule review series takes a leap into the wilder and wackier side of the selection of movies that are available as the festivities unfold. This, of course, has lead to some truly jaw dropping, "WTF" type moments over the years but there's also a real danger of films falling flat or not meeting overhyped expectations. With that in mind, I definitely had some thoughts about the three films listed below.
Capsule Reviews:
- Spermageddon
- New Jack Fury
- Time Travel is Dangerous
Spermageddon
Director: Tommy Wirkola and Rasmus A. Sivertsen
Cast: Aksel Hennie, Mathilde Storm, Christian Mikkelsen, Nasrin Khusravi, Christian Rubeck, Bjørn Sundquist
Review:
This movie is an animated musical comedy from Norway about the lives of sperm as they prepare for their big launch, so to speak. Yes, you read that right. As you can imagine, there is a ton of bathroom humor although it wasn't nearly as vulgar as I was expecting. I wouldn't say this movie is kid friendly in any way, but it's also pretty harmless in the grand scheme of things. The comedy relies on the single premise of the explosive nature of sex, as it were and while amusing, it did end up feeling a little limp.
New Jack Fury
Director: Lanfia Wal
Cast: Andre Hall, Page Kennedy, Dean "Michael Trapson" Morrow, Ally Renee, Paul Wheeler
Review:
When you think of Blaxploitation, you think of movies like Shaft and Dolemite and Foxy Brown (not the rapper) and there is a very specific style and attitude that comes from the genre. This is what makes watching those films so great along with the sense of nostalgia that they bring up as well. While I can see what first time feature director Lanfia Wal was going for by creating a parody of these types of films and TV shows, it just didn't work for me. I had a very hard time getting through scenes that drove their jokes into the ground and lasted way too long. Maybe a re-edit would give a better result.
Time Travel is Dangerous
Director: Chris Reading
Cast: Ruth Syratt, Megan Stevenson, Johnny Vegas, Stephen Fry (narr.), Jane Horrocks, Sophie Thompson, Tom Lenk
Review:
I absolutely love the first act of this movie. The idea of these two women casually strolling through different eras of time simply to collect artifacts to sell in their shop and never realizing the enormity of what they are doing is such a fun and unique concept. Unfortunately, that fun gets quickly lost in a story that stumbles trough the remainder of the movie and never has a chance to recover. Still, I felt like it was worth watching just for all the super fun moments that do take place.
Visit the official SIFF How to Fest web page for detailed info on how to make the most of your festival experience and to keep track of all my SIFF reviews and festival coverage please go to: TheTwoOhSix at SIFF 2025.
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