Grapple Crap: Overtime (2012)

Yeah, it's about what I expected.  Today's film is Overtime, a Sci-Fi/Horror-Comedy from...two people I'm not familiar with.  What drew me in- Former WWE Superstar/Current TNA Agent Al Snow.  Oh yeah, it's one half of Head Cheese (look it up!).  As a bonus, the film's plot involves alien zombies.  That's...sure to be disappointing.  I go into most films with an open mind, but there's just no way that this thing can live up to expectations.  I will grant you that some films sound ridiculous, but turn out to be great.  Rubber should not work at all, but it does (unless you're Maynard).  Troll Hunter is a Found Footage film about people chasing giant monsters, but I love it.  The Frankenstein Theory is...well, that's just bad.  The exception is often the rule, after all.  The plot involves two killers (with a unique motive) running across the wrong place at the wrong time...even if they are supposed to be there at that time.  More importantly, Snow has to...get stuff for a Children's Party.  Yes, it's a plot point that his main interest is getting stuff for his son's birthday party and his *secondary* motive is to kill someone.  It's wacky!  It's possibly the best film that Troma didn't make- not that there is a high bar.  To find out if they're bad enough henchmen to save the World, read on...

Snow and his partner (John Wells) have a strange job: they kill people who they're high-priced Lawyer got off.

Yeah, this is a bit odd.  I guess it is faster than waiting for the death penalty...

On top of that, Snow has a wife and two kids.  The wife seems to know what he does, but not really.  It sure would have been nice to get a real explanation for this.

As it turns out, he forgot his Son's Birthday and the party is tonight.  She needs him to get...just about everything.  I really began to question how much work you did by the end, lady!

Snow and friend get a new assignment.  Actually, to be accurate, they get the second half of the same assignment.  How will he get a clown, a cake and a present in time after killing two more people?!?

After picking up a homeless guy (since they can't book a Clown last minute), they get to the Facility.  They run across this random guy and find weird alien-zombie things.

I won't fault them for the concept, but pretty much NOTHING is done with this twist on the trope.

Oh and the middle part of the film is 'run around warehouse, shoot zombie-alien things, run around warehouse, repeat' for a long, long time.

They try to mix it up by having the group find a random box of guns (still no sword bucket) and kill off the film's one black guy.  It does little.

I won't SPOIL this one completely.  I will say that Al Snow is involved in the big, final showdown...not that you didn't already guess that.

Will our heroes make it out of the building before the big finish?

Will they make it back to the Party (having done more than half of the work) in time to make things right?  Oh and he has to get the Y-Box 720, which totally won't date this film in about two years.  The End.

Eh, I can see what you were going for.  Overtime is not a bad movie really.  For me, it was very insistent.  It was never really all that funny.  It really thinks that it is, however, and feels like when a guy makes a bad joke, followed by them just staring at you until you laugh.  The ideas behind it are good.  The Acting is actually not bad.  It just fell apart for me in the execution.  The Characters feel one or maybe two-note at best.  The idea that Snow is a family man and contract killer- essentially- is barely-played with.  The idea that his wife runs the household on what's basically blood money is barely played with.  The idea that there are alien zombies also gets very little play.  The most that is done with the concept is writing a way to reuse their small pool of zombie extras.  If this story was done by different Writers and Directors, it could be really interesting.  I should note that the Directors are also the Writers, Editors, Cinematographer and many more.  Yeah, that's what happens when you aim for so low a budget, I guess.  I won't fault them for trying to make two out-there premises at one time.  I will, however, fault them for making a film that really isn't that funny, scary or all that interesting.  As a bonus, enjoy their lovely continuity when it comes the blood spatter on this lady's face...

Next up, I take a look at a low-budget film from someone who I usually watch *review* movies.  No, Maynard hasn't made a movie (yet).  Stay tuned...