The 25
th
Holy Time-Travelling-Spider-Robot-Nazis!
T
he reason we like a good bad movie on
occasion is because taking everything
(including ourselves) so seriously all the
time is tiring and boring and makes us tiring
and boring people if we do it for too long.
The beauty of the kind of bad movie we actually
enjoy watching is that it knows it’s bad and that a
bunch of us brave movie viewers don’t have quite the
discerning taste that we claim to have on Facebook
or a first date. The best kind of bad movie is one that
looked at its budget and had an honest conversation
with itself about just how good it could realistically
be, considering the no-name brand actors and first
year film-studies crew it could afford. This selfawareness is why movies like The 25th Reich work.
First of all, it’s worth noting that this movie is set
in Australia and is about time-travelling Nazis but
there are no Aussie or German accents. We have
the gruff, I-was-born-in-a-bar-and-whisky-was-myamniotic-fluid voice, the gringe-worthy essentialised
Italian-American accent, the white-bread American
moustachioso type and a couple others of a similar
ilk; but, not a single non-Yank voice can be heard.
Why this is actually a good thing is because there are
few things worse than bad accents in films. Unless
you’re a Bond villain, or you’re purposefully entering
the parody space, just don’t do the accents.
The 25th Reich isn’t concerned with getting
things right or wrong so much as leaving
any thoughts of accuracy so far behind that
ridiculousness is all that’s left. There’s a radio
transmitter that’s actually - gasp - “a time
machine!” (picture extreme close-up of flared
nostrils and fearfully twitching moustache here).
There are also hilariously CG-ed “marsupial lions”,
gigantic bug things, classically shaped UFOs,
mysterious plinths of mystery, flying swastikas
and then there’s the pièce de résistance: giant,
spider-robot Nazi rapist villains.
The most surprising aspect of this film is the
obscenely obvious sexual and gender humour.
Not that the humour is there, but the fact that it
may be there because they’re actually trying to
make some sort of social commentary through
these lewd and entirely politically incorrect oneliners, in a positive and thoughtful way. Weirder
still – it may have actually succeeded. The topic
of homosexuality in the military is not really
something you often see in C-Grade adventure/
sci-fi/alt history/fantasy/horror/war movies.
The cast and crew are about as famous as your
gran after her retirement home’s talent show, but I
suspect that one or two of them may actually have
a modicum of skill. I was not so surprised to see
that the director, Stephen Amis is Australian. It’s
all about throwing another celluloid shrimp on the
silver-screened barbie. That being said, there are
a couple of other (read: better) Australasian titles
you might want to check out that sneak out of the
bad movie zone and onto the passably-produced
platform. The Loved Ones is a surprisingly
excellent backwater Australia horror about a
creepy father-daughter duo. The twist is genuinely
unexpected and the acting is pretty darn superb.
Black Sheep is a New Zealander movie about
zombie sheep and somehow manages to be a good
watch. Australasia – carry on freaking us out with
your flat-voweled selves.
- WATCH THIS IF You are not easily offended and you have no serious
attachment to historical or scientific accuracy.
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