‘WinniethePooh: Blood And Honey Review: An UnBearAble Horror Cheapie
British author AA Milne's most famous works were completed last year and opened to the public – or perhaps condemned. The first (and hopefully the worst) installment in this development is Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, an ugly movie that doesn't live up to even the most basic expectations of its conceptual gimmick.
However, this tactic, combined with some early footage and clips, has caused ITN Studios' latest big and micro-budget project to go viral and lead to its first theatrical release in over 700 titles in 32 years. . Fathom Events is releasing in the US, with other territories at the same time or soon (Mexico is already opening), with the in-house format on hold until this limited supply runs out. A sequel is already in the works. But while it would be nice if the film's windfall improved the quality of its producers' future projects, this accidental pop culture awareness is unlikely to be repeated, especially among moviegoers who would always be embarrassed to pay real money to see it. Movie. This movie is for amateurs.
The characters and subtle quirks of Milne's Hundred Acre Wood are so familiar to many generations that one can forget anything that came out of the two books Winnie the Pooh (1926) and The House on Pooh's Corner (1928). plus a few verses. Of course, this (and the visual model provided by the designs of illustrator EH Shepard) greatly increased the popularity of other media, especially after Disney acquired the rights to it in the early 1960s.
In all incarnations there is a relative fidelity to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original stories reflecting their problem-solving, yet compelling tenor that preschooler Christopher Robin presents his balmy animalistic inner life . There's an undeniably subversive appeal to the idea of this twisted soft, self-contained world for the audacious purpose of the adult genre.
But Blood and Honey's biggest disappointment (though not the only one) is that it does next to nothing to improve on, let alone challenge, the conventions of the Pooh universe. All we get is one person in a Halloween bear mask (Craig David Dowsett) and one in a pig mask (Chris Cordell) - it's hard to tell who was who at first - stream everywhere to kill people. This movie can also be called Unstoppable Killing Machine à la Michael Myers and his friend who looks more like Texas with a chainsaw. The only reason we associate it with Milne's universe is that the film tells us about it orally.
In fact, the narrator begins by explaining that as a boy, young Christopher Robin befriended a group of "half-breeds, abominations" (as opposed to children's toys), keeping them tame and feeding them of the family kitchen. However, while he was in college, they raged and devoured poor Eeyore through a long and brutal winter. They then swore revenge on their destroyed protectors as well as all of humanity.
These backgrounds come with very simple line animations that aren't impressive but turn out to be the best that Blood and Honey has to offer. Next, we have a grown-up, feisty Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) who returns to the woods to introduce his old friend to his wife (Paula Koise). The meeting did not go well.
Next, we meet Maria (Maria Taylor), who suffers from PTSD after being stalked by a creepy suitor. On the advice of a psychotherapist, he seeks tranquility by renting a suburban property with five friends for the weekend. They didn't even get to the cabin; others never developed a personality other than Bitchy Blonde, Shows, Lesbian Couple, etc. Eventually, additional characters appear just to increase the body count.
Too bad the film lacks the wit to poke fun at the source of its inspiration. But oddly, he didn't even call the Ripper, despite lacking the skills to take them seriously. For 84 long minutes, the landscape stretches, distorted, separated by a blackout. It seems most of the speeches are improvised by unskilled actors, so we have countless variations of "Oh my God" and "Why is this happening?"
The gaps in logic are sloppy even by the very generous standards you apply to a movie called Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Something like this is made for laughs (and sold too), whether intentional or not - when all else fails, let the drunken games begin with the audience. But writer/director/producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield makes it hard to enjoy, no matter how light your desire to sink.
In an age when technology makes even many simple functions crisp enough, this one deserves some credit for its craftsmanship. It includes the soundtrack by Andrew Scott Bell and some widescreen photography by Vince Knight. When the audio mix is often so bad that the dialogue is hidden in the music, this can work in favor of the dialogue. And while the image is often backlit, it seems to hide bleed and glitches that don't lend themselves to a sharper view.
You can't blame the artist for the overall poor result - he clearly lacked the materials or instructions to improve it. Since Blood and Honey is guaranteed to generate significant returns on its small investment, one can only hope that Freke-Waterfield and his team will use this good fortune to put a stop to it. As a producer, he made 14 feature films last year alone; The four, which he himself revealed, had been together for four months. There's no fine line between running a lean business and turning trash into trash.
With Bambi and Peter Pan (and Pooh, too) rumored to be on his list, making a little effort doesn't seem like too much to ask – if only on behalf of a beloved deceased author who never asked for a such a gift. Even viewers who are only looking for jerks deserve more than this level of slobbery slobber.
