Noobz (2013)

Very disappointing...

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

How sad is this?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

As I've grown older I'm certainly spending more of it at my home computer doing things like writing this review. But it's a changing world when so many younger than I spend hours devoted to playing video games. As many don't ever meet in real life you can choose some real interesting cyber monikers for yourself betraying your own fantasies.Noobz concerns for such who've formed a team of sorts Richard Speight, Matt Shively, Jason Mewes. and young Moises Arias who are on a road trip to Las Vegas to win the gaming championship and it's $100,000.00 grand prize. And since this Las Vegas we're going to have a great old time doing it.I guess I'm not into computer games so the whole world escapes me. When at one point one of these characters says that they are the new athletes of the 21st century I'm stunned. Just think how someone like Michael Jordan or Cal Ripken feels.Casper Van Dien was one of the producers and wrote himself into the film as himself. Casper, you should have done another sequel of Starship Troopers.

I decided to check this one out thinking it can be the next "grandma's Boy" but it turned out to be a dull movie. It really does show it's effort with the very small production value, but it's just not all that creative or funny. The story is about 4 gamers going on a road trip to enter a "Gears of War" competition. There is some weird and love interest scenarios, but it has all been done before and better. Most of the humor come from the 4 guys constantly making random dumb remarks and it's just not funny. Even when it comes to the competition, nothing made it immersive or entertaining to watch. It just constantly just shows the competitors reactions while not even showing what strategy or tactics they use to beat each other. This is a pass even for audiences that are gamers.2.5/10

First things first; the greatest bit in the entire movie centers not on a main character's awakening, an incredible bit of timing for a classic joke or a tongue-in-cheek gamer orientated joke. In fact, none of three happen within the 90 minute time frame that Noobz 'gifts' to the viewer. The incredible bit is a young girl with amazingly impressive dialogue and even more amazing acting. The bit itself happens within 20 minutes of the movie's inception and hits home to one of the character who in the opening of the movie got fired and then split from his wife who seems attractive without real reason, even wearing a low cut shirt as if to point this out. Pointless. However, despite the rawness from this girl, the character himself still spends the majority- no sorry - the whole movie moping and whining about everything. This is the writer/director Blake Freeman and his acting comes off as stiff at the best of times and his character, despite being flawed in his own right, makes no effort to climb from his hole. In fact, all of the characters have their own quirks and failures but none of them transcend these barriers that they've made themselves. Not one character is likable at all with perhaps the exclusion of 'Armgreggon', a veteran of con-op games, ala Billy Mitchell who is going for the Frogger championship. This subplot seems sloppy and way too much scene time focuses on Armagreggon which, as the movie nears to the end; feel tired and tacked on for the sake of stretching the already tired and clichéd plot. It could be called unfair to have a problem with the characters since this is an indie movie aimed at gamers and gaming culture itself but in reality, most movies have a 'lesson learned' or characters discover something about themselves and Noobz could have easily put these in and tie the movie up tightly, rather than leaving it open ended and annoyingly clichéd. The gaming culture itself in the movie makes no sense. I say this as a person who games every so often and while I do not game that much, I understand the culture and friends who are more into it than me. This is cringe-worthy if Freeman thinks the movie is catering to us. Jason Mewes' character is loud, abrasive (made more so by his voice) and repeats himself that often it borders on being ridiculous. The slang is equally silly and unnecessary with 'good calls' being rewarded with fist bumps and cheers. Too many times I found myself saying 'what' in exclamation. I couldn't understand this humour and why it was funny. Some might find it funny, amusing on a slapstick and silly level but the movie is almost poking fun, making the gap between gamers and non-gamers even wide, rather than thinning the gap that it tries to achieve. In interviews before the movie's release, Freeman spoke about the movie being a positive movie with gamers but he would have to be mistaken; the movie, while it had potential, leaked everywhere without considerable end or means. The movie started nicely and Freeman's directing isn't that bad, but towards the end the movie took a dive. The Gears of War battles were short with split screens and went too quick to even have any real meaning or feeling like a real victory. The groups competing were also clichéd and rather boring. One group is a muscle bound gang, another is made up of only attractive girls. Discussing Gears of War, it should be pointed out; that if you're like me - a Gears enthusiast and are watching the movie to see Gears of War in a movie then you're going to be let down. Aside from posters of the game and Jason Mewes' character wearing Gears clothing there isn't much else to see. These 'best of the best' players at Gears of War are to put it plainly, poor. They single-handedly mess with the mechanics of the game, the screens show players standing in the open firing and taking damage and getting angry when they die. The final shot of the tournament is an insult to Gears players because it doesn't take the game into consideration at all. If this was a cross promotion movie, I would have thought they'd put more effort into it. All of this is nitpicking however, the movie itself is just not enough to make this seem like nothing. Whole scenes occur without substance, jokes are toilet based, clichéd and unfunny. Characters are stiff, dialogue is 'bro-this' and 'bro-that' with homophobic remarks, vagina jokes, fat stripper jokes and there's even a huge plot twist that's not actually a twist at all that involves a new relationship but this doesn't develop or even have any real meaning. The end of the movie has the classic picture of each character and a paragraph of text to show what happened after the movie. This bit is not funny, maybe to an untrained brained but it literally makes little to no sense. Particularly since one obliterates a sub-plot evident in the movie which makes it not only redundant but the ending of the movie even more so. There is no happy ending which I found incredibly frustrating, why would you create a movie designed for gamers and then still paint them as losers without any sort of transition? Why doesn't Cody who got divorced wake up to himself? Unfortunately there are more questions to be asked and little answers to be had. Noobz is a movie that tries too hard for humour and falls drastically short. I would not recommend this movie to anyone. It falls flat in every regard. Avoid. If someone recommends this to you or gives it to you as a gift then they're trying to tell you something.

I loved this film! I saw it at the world premiere of the film at E3 in June and frankly wasn't expecting much. I thought it would be another lame gaming movie. But I was blown away by how funny it was and how I could relate to the humor as an avid gamer. I highly recommend the movie to all gamers, and to anyone in general who like a good buddy comedy flick. Think of it as a "Road Trip" type movie about gamers. Blake Freeman is going to be a breakout star, and I love Jason Mewes, who is at his "Jay and Silent Bob" like best. Casper Van Dien also has a nice cameo in the film and Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin Williams) is very convincing as a sexy female gamer. In summary, if you'd like a good laugh, this is a great film to rent or VOD, but if you are an avid gamer - this is a must own!