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Orcs! (2010)

  Tags: action, Adam Johnson, adventure, Anne K. Black, Brad Johnson, Camera 40 Productions, comedic, forest, James MacPherson, Jason Faller, Justin Partridge, Kynan Griffin, Maclain Nelson, medieval, Orcs, Orcs!, Orcs! Orcs! Orcs!, park, park rangers, Renny Richmond, survival


3
Your rating: None Average: 3 (5 votes)
Reviewer Rating: 
5

orcsposter.jpg
Rating #: 
5/10
Director: 
James MacPherson
Runtime: 
80 minutes
Cast: 
Adam Johnson, Brad Johnson, Maclain Nelson, Renny Richmond

Obviously inspired by Lord of the Rings, Orcs! is a adventure fantasy comedy that offers some chuckles and decent make-up effects, but unfortunately not much else. The story is pretty simple, as it follows a couple bumbling park rangers, who find themselves the only ones left to thwart an Orc invasion in their dwindling national park.

The film is a missed opportunity at being something really fun and highly entertaining, but unfortunately it didn't go the route I was hoping it would -- the splatter route. I suppose it may be due to budget restraints, but the film offers very little blood and gore; only giving us a scene where loads of blood spills over one characters face, and aside from a couple post-death corpses, we get a decent decapitation towards the end.

Other than that, the only thing left the movie has to offer is the comedy, which works surprisingly well at times. I'll admit I had some nice chuckles here and there. The film is obviously not to be taken seriously, and the cheesy dialogue and dubious acting works in its favor. The Orcs don't show themselves until around the 35-minute mark, which is where the action finally picks up and our leads spend the remainder of the flick trying to find ways to fend against them.

The make-up and overall look of the Orcs weren't bad, but they were mostly sporting medieval armor, so we got very few clear looks at the Orcs themselves. It seemed as though the numerous writers had trouble finding a way to end the flick properly since the last 30-minutes pretty much just takes place in the ranger station, as our survivors barricade themselves against an onslaught of Orcs.

Lots of repeat footage is used here to detail how they won't stop coming for our leads, but the problem with this sequence is how very little variety is used in the attack and it just appeared to drag on much longer than it should have. For 20-or-so minutes it's just a repeat of the Orcs running towards the ranger station with spears and swords and getting shot down by the survivors, and that's pretty much it until the final moments of the film.

Orcs! is a missed opportunity at being a highly entertaining pic, had it simply gone more towards a splatter flick route, like I was hoping it would. Apart from that, If you look passed the plot-holes and accept it as a decent little low-budget comedy with an inane storyline and silly dialogue and characters, then you may enjoy it to some extent. However, expecting to get much more than a few chuckles here and there will leave you disappointed, as the film doesn't have much else to offer.

Posted on April 26, 2011 - 4:09pm | FrighT MasteR

Rastergamer's picture
OfflineUser offline. Last seen 38 weeks 1 day ago.

I haven't heard of anybody doing a full movie satire of the Lord of the Rings(outside of South Park), which lets face it is just BEGGING for one. There is a video game called Overlord which puts you in the shoes of the bad guy and you spend your time wiping out the good guys. If Mel Brooks was 30 instead of 85 he would be TEARING IT DOWN right now, like he did to westerns with Blazing Saddles. I wish that someone out there would pick up on the idea of this movie. Start with Dark Lord Ronny (Richard Moll from Night Court) and him talking straight at the audience about the little human creep who stole his ding-a-ling. The one ding-a-ling to rule them all. Put in some nobody plays with my ding-a-ling jokes. Instead of Orcs you can have Bjork the singer and her million clones, instead of goblins, gremlins from the 80's movie, and of course the Nine African American Riders, all played by rap stars on midget ponies. Then go on from there. Call it RONNY THE DARK LORD. I'd watch that.


     

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