The Amazing Bulk (2010)

How do you review a movie like The Amazing Bulk? I mean, it's not a normal movie by any means, it's a highly special movie on every detail. A while ago I watched and was entertained by Aliens vs. Avatars, an ultra-cheap semi-spoof on... yeah, mostly Avatar - but kinda backwards, because it's the aliens who take the form of humans - probably for budgetary reasons. Director Lewis Schoenbrun is a veteran editor and assistant editor on countless of movies, most of them typical DTV flicks but also some bigger projects like Drop Zone and Mystic Pizza. As a director he's done some obscurities called Dr. Chopper, Slaughterhouse Phi: Death Sisters, Queen Cobra and of course the far-out oddity The Amazing Bulk.  Obviously made big a big dose of humour and an even bigger tongue-in-cheek, this is a production hard to forget... and hard to describe.

Hank Howard (Jordan Lawson) is a young and ambitious scientist who struggles to find a cure for famine. He's been developing a serum that will make plants come alive again and be able to survive in hostile environments of extreme dryness. Soon he decides to test it on himself and to his shock he transforms into THE AMAZING BULK, a purple (fat) giant who starts roaming the streets. His girlfriend Hannah (Shevaun Kastl) is of course worried about his experiments, but her father sees a completely different use for him: as a weapon to destroy the mad genius Dr. Werner Von Kantlove (Randal Malone) who threatens to destroy the world in order to get world domination... or something! The adventure begins!

So, nothing special with the story, eh? The normal monster vs. crazy scientist. Seen it before, but never like this. Imagine Sin City, but with something that looks like very early computer graphics and actors doing their best to just chew the whole digital scenery. It's clearly everything is on purpose, even the acting - and they're doing a good job adding more cheese to the biggest cheesecake ever made. This is like with Aliens vs. Avatars, the quality and comedy is on the same level all the time and therefore it works. The Amazing Bulk never strays from the quality set from the beginning. It never tries to be better - or worse - it's instead an orgy in very simple computer animated imagery and actors doing their best to walk around without moving around in front of a huge green screen. The bar is set and that's why its easy to accept.

The one thing The Amazing Bulk does is to slowly raise the absurdity of the story. At the end there's a full-on orgy of stock animations making guest appearances, from flying dogs, Robin Hood, a gecko lizard using computer, a super hero flying by, cute animals at a playground, a monkey manoeuvring a moon rocket, Hercules (I think) throwing lightning) and I don't know what. It's turning into a rollercoaster following the Bulk running (or actually more like jogging casually) through a low quality digital landscape. The Bulk himself is a fun (and ugly mf) creature with even an ounce being convincing or scary. In a few short shots they use rubber hands doing the job for the Bulk and at one time even a half-naked man with his skin turned into purple colour standing in when the Bulk needs to crush a helicopter. The finale looks like deleted scenes from Super Mario Bros 64, complete with a castle, some traps and the green, green grass of home in the background.

It might take a person like me to enjoy a movie like The Amazing Bulk to the fullest, but I'm not ashamed of that. It's a silly, goofy, spoof on Hollywood movies made for a dime or two and in all its cheesiness it manages to be quite entertaining. If this movie found me, I'm pretty sure it will find some of you sooner or later.

Watch out for an exclusive interview with director Lewis Schoenbrun and actor JordanLawson!