The Weathered Underground (2010)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I just watched the entire four and half hours (I think I saw all the plots!) of various stories and so I feel that I have a better understanding of this picture than some of the reviews I have read both on here and online in general.I can see how people would be polarized over this little indie flick. When you play the instructions, it warns you that the choices that you make will effect the genre and the character. And it is true.As the film allowed me to choose what happens next, I noticed that at first I wanted to play it conservative, as I figured going the "safe" route would be more interesting. I did in fact, get a rather traditional story that hid behind a weird animated style (only about 30 minutes of the disc had this style, btw).Some parts I liked, others I wasn't as into. Then I hit the "back button" and started seeing what happened if I had chosen the other option instead. This is when it threw me for a loop. THE ENTIRE GENRE CHANGED! The writing the style, the acting style, even the visual style.The instructions didn't lie. When I made choices that were selfish, the lead character acted like a total moron. I hated him! I had no empathy for him! I wanted him to die! He turn into a real douche to be honest. And when I made choices that were wiser, he came off as more level headed and charming. I figured out after about an hour and a half that I wasn't just choosing what happened. I was choosing who this guy was. And that's when I started to realize that there was more than meets the eye going on here.The downside is, I didn't like every plot that I chose. Some of them, quite honestly angered me. But others were really smart and funny.I have read young bloggers tromp this as brilliant, which I think is a stretch. I have read old grouchy critics write that this is terrible. Yet the plots that they bring up and mention show that they didn't play through more that a couple times and that they hadn't really figured out what was going on with this.I read one review online that said it was a "moraless film that cheer leads destructive behavior" and another that said the film was "preachy and played like a just say no video". Obviously, they didn't use the back button to see that one choice lead the character to behave like a psycho and the other choice made him get on his moral high horse. Essentially, the lazy viewers missed the joke.You don't have to watch all of the plots to enjoy the movie. After about an hour I found myself pretty much addicted, once I figured out what the filmmakers were actually up to.For example at the beginning (this isn't much of a spoiler) you choose between work and club. If he goes to work, he rambles about how empowered we are in making our own decisions. If he goes to club, he rambles about how we are just a product of our environments and don't choose anything.He justifies every one of the viewers decisions in the same way humans do! It takes awhile to catch onto this, but once you do, it become pretty hilarious to see how the filmmakers are revealing the way humans tend to be able to justify anything they do. Pretty cleaver once you figure out what's happening.I would not go as far to say that The Weathered Underground is a work of genius like some have written. But I will say that it is VERY funny the more you dig in.This is the first I've seen by Donahue (the director) and I have a feeling that he probably will end up turning into a fascinating filmmaker that some may get, and some won't.Don't expect The Weathered Underground to win awards. As a matter of fact, I might expect the opposite from the older and dimmer peeps out there. But do expect, that the kids are going to eat this up.

I can only assume the 13 ratings posted thus far are from people involved in the production. I hosted a movie night at my house last night. When we saw The Weathered Underground at the movie store, it sounded like a really fun choice for the evening. I pulled it up on IMDb, saw an extremely high 13 ratings with a few really rave reviews, and decided we'd take the chance. Bad call. Never trust high ratings with such a low count.Where to begin...the production values are abysmal, the writing is awful and preachy, the plot is unnatural, the acting is sub-par, and the "choices" are ridiculous and poorly set up. There's an extremely unpleasant and distracting visual effect applied to the movie. It looks grainy at times and washed out at others. I'm really not sure where they were going with it; perhaps they were trying for a "comic book" feel. Or maybe they just wanted to mask the fake-looking choices of location by making it so difficult to actually make out any details in the scene that you can't tell where they are. I can only speculate. Worst of all, it's really boring. The characters drone on and on as though they were carrying on a dull conversation in real-life between people without much to talk about. We found ourselves selecting choices based on which one would "mix it up" the most, because of just how dull the current scene was.I don't often stop watching a movie I've paid to watch, but after about 30 minutes of this we couldn't take any more. Luckily we picked up a backup to fall back on. I can appreciate the "so-bad-it's-good" movies from time to time, but with this one you'll just find yourself bored and upset by all the terrible choices. This would be a decent submission for a film class, which film students would have every right to be proud of. But beyond that, as a serious movie you pay money for, it's pretty darn bad. Don't waste your time on this one.

"Fun and entertaining choose-your-own-adventure movie from the writer of "Parzania." I was skeptical about this DVD, and was ultimately surprised by how much fun I had. It's about time somebody did something like this. It's a nightlife adventure, full of unexpected twists and turns. I can imagine having a lot of fun in a group setting, even by myself I was shouting out my choices.The myriad stories all hold together surprisingly well. The controls are all easy to use. I highly recommend The Weathered Undergournd, it's a lot of fun."

I just got this disc in netflix after seeing a trailer on youtube. I thought it would be cool and was always hoping someone would make a choose your own adventure type film, because I was obsessed with the books. But The Weathered Underground is more than a just an interactive film. It's a really, really funny interactive film. We were addicted. It just gets funnier and funnier the further you watch. What surprised me most about this movie though, was that it actually has a lot of depth to it.The voice overs aren't just hilarious, but very honest and true statements about the world that we live in. There's a lot of warmth and humanity that runs through out all of the dark and jaded short stories that make up The Weathered Underground. After seeing the trailer I figured it would probably be fun. After watching the DVD, I'm convinced that these guys are geniuses.