As a fan of Mr Breen's ouvre, I had high hopes for this "masterclass." My 5 out of 10 star review has nothing to do with the numerous technical flaws in the camerawork, sound, and lighting -- if you appreciate Neil Breen, you overlook any of this. Put simply, this is about 30 minutes of interesting information which gets repeated over and over, padding out to five and a half hours. It's a bit of a chore, even for Breen fans and completists. If you find a highlight reel on YouTube or elsewhere, you can save yourself a lot of time.
3 Reviews
A masterclass from the Master himself
radsnail15 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This retrospective is Neil Breen's masterclass on filmmaking. I shudder to imagine the person who thinks that he is the blueprint to follow when making a film, but Neil himself certainly does, and this is very obvious. If you have seen his videos on his personal Youtube channel where he waxes poetic about the process of making his films, you have an idea of what this 5 Film Retrospective will be like. It does include more editing than those: pictures, video, and clips from the films are interspersed here and there, sometimes for very long sections.
The experience of watching this is not optimal, mostly because it is quite obvious that it doesn't have to be six hours long. It would be extremely tedious for anyone who doesn't already appreciate his movies to sit through, and you may find it tedious even if you do like what he does. However, since I knew going in that it was going to be way too long, as an ardent fan, I still appreciated the glimpse into Neil's process. It perfectly portrays the duality of Neil. On the one hand, he seems like an alien trying to make movies about what he thinks the human experience is. His films are self-aggrandizing, over the top, meandering, and baffling. On the other hand, he is extremely serious about his craft, and undeniably has a passion for what he does. I'm not a filmmaker myself, but some of his advice seems like it could be genuinely helpful. It is impossible not to admire him for his determination to make his films happen. As much as people may mock him, he has now made six more films than most of us ever will, and has another one in the making as I write this. A few revelations in the film that you might find intriguing: It seems that Neil Breen used the word "Metaverse" in Twisted Pair before Mark Zuckerberg swooped in and took it. Somebody owes Neil some royalties for that one.
The hospital scene from Fateful Findings was indeed filmed in a bedroom in Neil's house. This shouldn't really come as a shock to anyone, but it's funny that he actually said it.
There is an entire section of the movie (on the second disc) where Neil shows off a selection of the props he made himself for each of the movies, which I find very wholesome and endearing. However, this part is marred slightly by the fact that he fails to mention what happened to all the laptops! You're holding out on us, Neil. I wanted to know exactly which Circuit City bargain bin they came from.
Neil openly admitted that he has never washed the denim shirt he wore in Pass Thru, even stating that it is "stiff with sweat".
He does not read reviews. I say, good for him. He has earned his audience, and I look forward to his next film, whatever it may be.
The experience of watching this is not optimal, mostly because it is quite obvious that it doesn't have to be six hours long. It would be extremely tedious for anyone who doesn't already appreciate his movies to sit through, and you may find it tedious even if you do like what he does. However, since I knew going in that it was going to be way too long, as an ardent fan, I still appreciated the glimpse into Neil's process. It perfectly portrays the duality of Neil. On the one hand, he seems like an alien trying to make movies about what he thinks the human experience is. His films are self-aggrandizing, over the top, meandering, and baffling. On the other hand, he is extremely serious about his craft, and undeniably has a passion for what he does. I'm not a filmmaker myself, but some of his advice seems like it could be genuinely helpful. It is impossible not to admire him for his determination to make his films happen. As much as people may mock him, he has now made six more films than most of us ever will, and has another one in the making as I write this. A few revelations in the film that you might find intriguing: It seems that Neil Breen used the word "Metaverse" in Twisted Pair before Mark Zuckerberg swooped in and took it. Somebody owes Neil some royalties for that one.
The hospital scene from Fateful Findings was indeed filmed in a bedroom in Neil's house. This shouldn't really come as a shock to anyone, but it's funny that he actually said it.
There is an entire section of the movie (on the second disc) where Neil shows off a selection of the props he made himself for each of the movies, which I find very wholesome and endearing. However, this part is marred slightly by the fact that he fails to mention what happened to all the laptops! You're holding out on us, Neil. I wanted to know exactly which Circuit City bargain bin they came from.
Neil openly admitted that he has never washed the denim shirt he wore in Pass Thru, even stating that it is "stiff with sweat".
He does not read reviews. I say, good for him. He has earned his audience, and I look forward to his next film, whatever it may be.
5 hours lol
s_simov7 February 2024
Decided to watch this movie just to see if he know what he creates or he's as "grand"as his character, and to see how such low budget things work on such low and personal level. Well now, i skipped a lot, pointless repetitive scenes with bad narative (and many without any).
5 hours where you listen to repeating sentences, repeating of the same few scenes and few "backstage" shots. Idk what is worse - him believing he did outstanding job (while the results are worse than a 6th grade school project we've seen so many on youtube), the fact that he really seems to have spend so much money on these expensive cameras where even entry level ones will give exactly the same result, or the fact that him talking in this documentary is so poorly edited - added extra words afterwards for correction, badly stitched scenes where you have few frames with zero sound.
I decided to watch his movies after seeing the hilarious explosions in his 5th movie , and i thought it was just a fan personal project where the person is down on Earth and knowing he's done poor job. Definitely doesnt' seem the case here lol.
When you hear him saying that he likes to challenge himself, and to make the every next movie bigger and better, yet his acting didnt change at all in the first 4 movies (havent seen the 5th yet), the script changed to zero plot to barely any plot, and the CGI effects he's using don't change much - that slow ghost-disapearing is something we see in every movie, so no upgrade here.
I like bad movies (like Troma), but Troma seems miles ahead of that. I don't trash talk (or at least dont trash review) on bad movies and fan-made movies, when it's obvious the people are just messing around and knowing it's total BS. But when you have serious 5-hour explanation how he did amazing job... lol well then.
P.s. I looove how he's that all-powerful being in every movie, Chuck Noris has someone superior to him.
5 hours where you listen to repeating sentences, repeating of the same few scenes and few "backstage" shots. Idk what is worse - him believing he did outstanding job (while the results are worse than a 6th grade school project we've seen so many on youtube), the fact that he really seems to have spend so much money on these expensive cameras where even entry level ones will give exactly the same result, or the fact that him talking in this documentary is so poorly edited - added extra words afterwards for correction, badly stitched scenes where you have few frames with zero sound.
I decided to watch his movies after seeing the hilarious explosions in his 5th movie , and i thought it was just a fan personal project where the person is down on Earth and knowing he's done poor job. Definitely doesnt' seem the case here lol.
When you hear him saying that he likes to challenge himself, and to make the every next movie bigger and better, yet his acting didnt change at all in the first 4 movies (havent seen the 5th yet), the script changed to zero plot to barely any plot, and the CGI effects he's using don't change much - that slow ghost-disapearing is something we see in every movie, so no upgrade here.
I like bad movies (like Troma), but Troma seems miles ahead of that. I don't trash talk (or at least dont trash review) on bad movies and fan-made movies, when it's obvious the people are just messing around and knowing it's total BS. But when you have serious 5-hour explanation how he did amazing job... lol well then.
P.s. I looove how he's that all-powerful being in every movie, Chuck Noris has someone superior to him.
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