Punitive Action - Kayl's review of Pamela

This review contains spoilers.

Punitive Action

Slick, funny and devastatingly stylish, Pamela is told with rarely seen flair and panache.

I was wary about downloading Pamela. On the one hand, it was getting top ratings, was done in a style not often seen in 3DMM and was directed by Aaron Haynes. On the other, it was getting top ratings, was done in a style not often seen in 3DMM and was directed by Aaron Haynes. Oh, and I’m a lazy tit.
My problem was that too often have I downloaded films lauded by the community, only to find myself closing the window a third of the way through out of sheer boredom. A 3DMM film noir did not seem particularly promising in the excitement department. Add to this the fact that it was directed by someone whose work I had seen rock all of - except Redux, which I adore for the sheer eye-candy factor but the story of which goes completely above my head – and you will start to follow the reasoning behind my apprehension.
You will have understood, no doubt by having flipped down to the bottom and seen what rating I will have worked out upon finishing this review, that ‘pleasantly surprised’ is not quite an adequate summary of my feelings towards this film.

Those of you who’ve read my review and subsequent remarks on Satanik, will now no doubt notice that I am once again jumping to the conclusion that the film was not intended to be taken seriously. This time, however, I will go one further and define Pamela as excellent piss-take. If it isn’t, I should seriously start wondering about my completed secondary education.
The film pastiches beautifully the genre, with Haynes’ storytelling ability shining through the on-screen murk. Well paced, well timed and well told, the story presented has all the elements needed to entertain the viewer. We are given a simple P.I. plot that is used as a springboard for send-up. The whole production oozes style; from the beginning to the unexpected end, the director asserts his confidence all over. He knows that it will work and boy does it work.
The comic element of the film is well-carried across, with the right amount of cynicism and actual wit, rather than just ‘funny bits’. We are not told to laugh sporadically and moronically, but rather invited to have a continuous giggle as the director shares a particular good in-joke with us. Slap-stick still features, but the jokes are made actually funny by bringing more levels into them than the usual 3DMM ‘comedy’.
The actual film noire element also works well – Haynes knows that to be funny about your subject, you can’t let yourself trip up on being ignorant about it.

Most of the film features the protagonist’s obligatory hard-boiled monologue which, while weak and clumsy or in need of some fine-tuning in parts, is overall fairly well carried-off. The temptation in this film is to add more parts, more characters, but Haynes sticks to the occasional extra line here and there for a much more effective presentation. Impressively, he carries it on through the end scenes without breaking his character’s persona. Thinking about it now, it seems that no matter what had been shown on-screen, if that voice-over had been present it would have worked. This, of course, adds to Haynes’ apparent grip of the workings of comedy.

Pamela unfortunately lost out slightly on the vocals. This wasn’t due to Jon’s acting ability or mike quality, merely to do with the fact that his accent unfortunately slipped more and more throughout the film. While not hampering it much, with such a well-crafted film it unfortunately stuck out. The other voices were not particularly embarrassing, despite the distinct maleness of the woman’s voice.
However, what little may have been lost vocally was more than made up for in the score – well-fitted, -timed and chosen, this reviewer must beg the question of are these tracks available on easy upload or do I have to go and download them myself?

Surprisingly for a film that had been only a month in the working, Pamela was a visual treat. Beautifully built scenes coincided with interesting camera angles and all sorts of distractions from Gustave’s inane permanent grin. The eye-patch trick was a particular favourite of mine, although I did wonder about the size of the client’s chair. Unfortunately 3DMM managed to impair my watching slightly by not having more variety in the scene transitions. The searching scene was a good laugh, but the screen ‘fuzzifier’ did get annoying after a couple of times.

I’m not much of a person to comment on animations, but these weren’t distracting, nor were they anything to crow about. Luckily, that’s just what was needed – rotating walls and trees are not quite in tune with the genre. As far as animation should be judged, it should be judged on how fitting it was – at least in the opinion of a person who can’t animate to save his life – and the muted, ‘unshow-offy’ style fitted perfectly.

Now if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to watch it again.

Scores out of 20, based on my old school system of a 6/10 (12/20 being a pass).
Plot: 18
Writing:17
Audio:18
Imagery: 17
Animation: 20

Overall: 90%

[Andres]

panache is the kind of word kayl would use

[Jazzie J]

I know dis is pretty old and when ne1 read dis ur gonna be like "wow" or wat ever, But Pamela is like one of my favorite movies but, call me stupid, but I still dont get what P.A.M means...seriously wat does it mean....

[Bown]

Pointless Action Movie.

Also, does the "J" in your name stand for "Jeff"?

[Tuna Hematoma]

dis
ne1
"wat ever"
wat



Never say any of that, ever again.

[Jazzie J]

Naw it stands for Jade...n dats da way I type Tuna its called slang (no offense)

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by Andres

panache is the kind of word kayl would use

I kind of like panache too :/