Review: Corpse Run (2008)

[Steve Rhodes]

CORPSE RUN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

CORPSE RUN is one of those uneven films that's likely to have many audience 
members scratching their heads wondering why it only seems to work in fits 
and spurts for them.  I, for one, was never quite sure if it was because I 
wasn't in the targeted demographics for the movie, which appears to be 
videogame playing twenty-somethings, or because the script just needed more 
work.

But don't get me wrong, CORPSE RUN isn't a bad film, since it contains 
several delightful and insightful moments with the best being sharply 
written jabs poking fun at videogamers and their disconnect with the real 
world.  One of the best of these moments occurs about ten minutes into the 
narrative, which, up until that time, was filled with the most mind-numbing 
and unintelligible gamer gibberish you've heard.  At this point, the action 
on the screen is frozen, and the narrator allows as how most of us probably 
haven't been able to understand anything that has been said up until then. 
(Boy, is he right!)

The narrator then goes on to note how most of us didn't understand what 
"googling" meant only five years ago, with the implication being that the 
geek-speak of the movie thus far will probably be entering the mainstream 
before we know it.

Although my almost 20-year-old son is a dedicated gamer, I kept wishing the 
movie had subtitles, which may be the point of the film's on-going joke with 
the audience.  "We all choose our lives," Nick (John-Michael Thomas, who 
also writes and directs the film) tells us.  "This is the one I choose --  
one of pixels."

The story follows Nick and his band of merry men -- as well as a single 
girl, Liberty (Brea Grant, the speedster from "Heroes") -- as they try to 
get to top place in a team-based on-line video game competition.

Along the way, Nick tells of the key events that shaped his life.  His 
second grade teacher told him that the explosion of the Challenger space 
craft would be the moment in time that they would remember forever, just 
like she remembers the Kennedy assassination.  But Nick disagrees, since he 
knows that the major moment of his childhood was the day that Nintendo 
released the "Nintendo Home Entertainment System."

Nick also blames his obsession with videogames on Nolan Bushnell, who 
invented the Atari 2600.  In a putdown, Nick notes that Bushnell also came 
up with Chuck E. Cheese.

The movie is filled with hip jargon, such as "WTF!!" which frequently isn't 
spoken but just printed next to the character.  Playing more like a series 
of vignettes than a full-length motion picture, the movie does have a story, 
which is roughly about the conflicts of love and life in the real world vs. 
the on-line world.  One of the guys, for example, met a girl briefly in the 
real world, but their relationship ever since then has been confined to 
interacting in the on-line world.

If you're a video gamer, you'll probably love CORPSE RUN from start to 
finish.  For others, it may be more of an acquired taste.  What is clear is 
that there is lot of potential on the screen.  Let's hope that the actors' 
next films have wider appeal.

CORPSE RUN runs 1:42.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25-March 8, 2009.

Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes at InternetReviews.com

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