Jim McGraff - Episode 1

I'm going to begin this review by talking about the Q&A, because as entertaining and fun as Jim McGraff - Episode 1 is, the best version of this idea is yet to be done, and as a result the Q&A included with the movie is absolutely essential. Dan's run-through is entertaining and surprisingly well-written, and addresses each criticism with exactly the right tone and answer. This is a mixed blessing, because if the movie had been just a little bit more cohesive, the Q&A would've been just a bonus, and not a necessity, but where we should have been picking up on the joke intuitively, we're instead wondering why he's bothering to buy a coffin if the car that has the body in it has already been destroyed, among other weird lapses in logic and pacing. Done right, the joke needs no explanation, but Episode 1 just barely misses the mark, existing somewhere in the space between PAMs and the kinds of movies that need explanations for stuff like this. Which is territory Dan has found himself stuck in many times.

To the movie itself: As I've said in every review of his films I've done, in some phrasing or another, Dan brings a maniacal energy to 3DMM action that no one else has quite managed. He lacks Maltby's finesse, but checks and raises him for pure animation horsepower. At the expense of pacing, timing, or often any kind of overall vision, he absolutely nails the little moments that makes your eyes light up. Jim McGraff is another movie about nothing, but it's more like The Sniper @ 3DMM BB than JDR Revival. Dan has started to mellow out a little bit; he may not have an overall plan, but it doesn't feel as much like he's starting one movie and finishing another, as it has in the past. This one is about as character-driven as he'll probably ever go, but only insofar as he's finally found a character that stands out as more than a perpetrator of the movie's various action sequences.

Who is Jim McGraff? There is a long answer, but you probably don't care and don't especially need to know. As Jon Barton expressed in the release thread, the knowledge that there is kind of an in-joke depth to several scenes has a tendency to make outsiders out of the audience. Dan, Orcus, and Jpro enjoy this character as a punchline, and at times we're left out of the loop as he drawls on and on about coffins and tour groups, but it's basically a coin flip whether or not this will bother you any more than the eccentric characters of other PAMs. If you're the kind of person who gets annoyed at other people enjoying an inside joke, this movie will drive you crazy. For the rest of us, Jim McGraff is just another in a long line of bizarre action heroes with exaggerated voices who say and do violent, stupid, funny things. And while I wouldn't go so far as to say McGraff is two-dimensional, he's more interesting than the heroes of, say, Texan Silly Boys 2, and has something that might be mistaken for character development. As Episode 1 begins, we know that McGraff is awesome, and the main thing the movie concerns itself with is his (and our) gradual discovery of the ways in which he is awesome. For all intents and purposes, this is his origin story.

The movie bounces back and forth between the music-driven chase scenes Dan is so fond of and quieter sections punctuated by dead air, weird dialogue, and short bursts of action. Dan's movies have a tendency to give you whiplash at times: he's a great director of individually brilliant moments, but he has no idea how to stage a quieter scene, or how to make events from one moment matter in the next one. At one point, a car chase just stops, with McGraff entering a woman's house, watching what he has just done on the news, being held up at gunpoint by her, having sex with her, and borrowing her car to continue the chase scene. This is a fine enough idea, but the momentum of the previous scene completely dies the moment he knocks on the door, there are long pauses between their lines, the camera angles are dead-on with no reaction shots or closeups, they almost never look at each other, and the whole sequence just feels very stilted and awkward. Instead of being a continuation of McGraff discovering how awesome he is and in what ways, I was left thinking "what the hell was that all about?" It's obvious what it's supposed to be about, but it was glacially slow and poorly paced and framed, and being bookended by two insane action sequences, gives the movie a lurching stop-and-start quality. The Billy Shrine stuff at the end goes on a bit too long as well, slowing way down and taking up almost a sixth of the movie.

In all, Episode 1 is a series of hits and misses, stops and starts, entertaining and awesome moments and oddly placed weird ones. It does its job well enough, but doesn't quite come out the other side as intact as Jim McGraff landing flat on his feet after his car takes a minute-long tumble down a mountain. It has the same quality I thought I saw in JDR Revival, of a movie both indulging in a stupid idea and winking at us about how stupid an idea it is at the same time, and like Revival, it isn't sure how best to manage that balance to let us in on the fun.

Here's the basic idea for this movie, as far as I can see it: Jim McGraff is a phenomenon for no other reason than we're told he is. He's introduced at the beginning as a 3DMM Legend, as "THE ONE AND ONLY". The movie is about two things, him being awesome, and the ways in which he is awesome. My point is that it could have gone farther, felt less like a PAM, and been more about (and more coherently about) the idea of this guy as a legend. Most of the elements for this are already built in, with his ability to cause (or solve) any problem by kicking, the Augustin police character who gets more and more pissed about him being so awesome he can do things that make no sense, his ability to survive any situation and do extremely cool things at the same time. It's already several steps in the right direction, with the right energy and over-the-top moments (the "WOAH!!! YEAH!!!" bit as the best moment in the film), but with just a little bit more planning and wit in the early sections of the movie, a bit more of a consistent vision, and it could have been the ultimate sendup of what all PAMs try to do seriously.

In its current state, it is a little too disconnected and dips into that pool of lazy randomness a little too often, and as a result, the Q&A is really what takes it to that next level. But it's peppered with a lot of really funny moments, secondary sight gags that enhance the action sequences (the bank robber falling into the cop car, going along for the ride, and starting to get into it after a while is a favorite of mine), and the unbelievable kinetic energy of the animation push it beyond what it would have been in anyone else's hands. With just a little bit more fine-tuning in other areas, it might have lived up to the impossibly, stupidly awesome height of the legend himself, but instead resides somewhere between that and an above-average PAM. Maybe Episode 2 could take the next critical step.

Critical Score: 81/100.
Personal Score: 79/100.

[Dominator Dan]

haha THANKSSSSS
i agree with pretty much everything there
although there wasn't THAT many injokes D:

[Aaron Haynes]

I know, but it feels like there are when outsiders watch it.

Are you going to continue this series?

[Fredrick]

I agree with this review on most parts, except that the Billy Prison shrine was one of my favorite bits. The injokes did not bother me as much either.

[Aaron Haynes]

They didn't bother me much, either, I was just observing that they could push some people outside of the movie's world when they don't get something.

I liked the Billy shrine too, I was just constantly aware of where several seconds could be shaved off here or there to better pace things.

[Dominator Dan]

Originally Posted by Aaron Haynes

Are you going to continue this series?

I tend to try my best to do 3dmm stuff over the holidays
but i have OTHER PLANS for easter, so it's likely i'll start production in the summer! Although this COLLEGEyear finishes in like may, so i'll have plenty of time for maybe another FILM FEST RELEASE

[Orcus]

Jim Mcgraff goes to the Post Office, fucker. It'll take you like half a day to make.