Comedy Archives | Otaku No Culture

A Filthy Lot, From Startup to Vancouver’s Variety Channel for Gamers and Nerds Alike

Gemma knows that A Filthy Lot is walking into this with their eyes wide open. “You hope for big success out of the gate–of course you do–but, I know it’s going to take five years,” he realistically said.

(Top to Bottom): Nadav Sacha-Santo, Trevor Gemma, Billie Taylor and Chris Livingston.

2023 Update: This company has rebranded post-pandemic to QuestCoast Studios

A Filthy Lot Entertainment is a relatively new North Vancouver based company who encourages content creators to just do it. A Filthy Questline is one of their three channels (the others are the main, an anything goes, and comedy channel) where talents can show off their love for pop culture. Whether that’d be with comic book movies, board games, video games or role-playing, there’s a lot more to this company than meets the eye.

Christopher Livingston is the CEO and Trevor Gemma is the CCO of this company. Before creating this company, they both had careers in the local film/television scene. The former was a lighting technician but he wanted to produce. Part of his credits include The Killing, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and Pirates of the Caribbean 5. The latter was an actor with the desire to craft his own productions. From a local cult hit Gutterballs to The Little Mermaid, a horror film, to Riese the Series (web) his success was as varied as the wind that guides him. The two met during production of Riese.

“It was a magical little web series everyone became friends on, which doesn’t happen very often in the film. I’ve made a lot of long-term friends there, including Chris, Nadav, and Mischa, who were with us when we started the company,” said Gemma.

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When Home Sweet Home Alone is Managed Under Disney

This film isn’t ultimately bad, it just needs to be properly understood so those fans of the Home Alone franchise won’t scream it sucks because Disney now manages this property instead of 20th Century Entertainment that they now own.

Available on Disney Plus
Spoiler Alert

Some movie franchises should never be rebooted, or continued after a prolonged absence on the big screen. Home Alone and its sequel are still enjoyable to this day and doesn’t need any continuation. Macaulay Culkin has a charm, innocence and mischievousness to make those films hits and I’d be more excited had it continued with him as an adult dealing with his own kids, and accidentally leaving one behind.

Home Alone 3 brought in a new lead who didn’t exude those traits and because of that, never succeeded. The fourth film tried to get back to basics, and return to look at the life of the McCallisters. But due to the years gone by, the original actor is much older and another child actor, Mike Weinberg, was put into the role and studio producers hoped nobody would care. Everybody did and this film was universally panned.

Home Sweet Home Alone is the latest entry that introduces a new family, and does something different with the formula. Like the McCallisters, The Mercer family are preparing to enjoy the holidays abroad instead of staying home. Bits of dialogue and a lot of the humour get recycled. The family problems Max (Archie Yates of Jo Jo Rabbit fame) faces are similar. Though this young actor isn’t chummy enough to carry the film, his nemesis, Rob Delaney (Deadpool 2) surprisingly is. This veteran of comedy saves it. The story is more about him, as Jeff McKenzie, who is forced to sell the home. Luxury comes at a cost, and little does he realize that a family heirloom can save them.

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Some Bite, but It’s Light in Clifford the Big Red Dog

As for whether more films will come for Clifford the Big Red Dog, I’m sure the book publisher Scholastic and film studio Paramount have plans

Coming to Theatres Nov 11, 2021
Spoiler Alert

Clifford the Big Red Dog joins a long line of illustrative products turned to film. For this particular IP created by Norman Bridwell, it’s also been a long running television series. There’s been many adaptations throughout the decades, ranging from Garfield to Marmaduke to Paddington, and as for why they’re beloved lies with what the animal’s relationship is with the human. They often help a troubled individual understand the world.

Older fans will notice references to the original publications. The story about Emily (Darby Camp) is not fitting in at school isn’t too new. She’s more socially awkward than anything else. The older students are bullying her, and by helping the dog out, she’s helping herself. It’s a good story.

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Perfection in Ron’s Gone Wrong Message!

I appreciate the subtle criticism that Ron’s Gone Wrong makes about social media and technology.

Spoiler Alert

It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Big Hero 6 in Ron’s Gone Wrong. The title character, a B-Bot, is a pill-shaped version of Baymax. This replacement is sleek and stylish and sometimes behaves like a Minion. In this film, no bot is alike because each robot is customized by its owner.

In a world where kids are very glued to social media, owning one of these mechanical wonders to stay ahead is a must. Nearly every child has one, except for Barney (Jack Dylan Grazer). His family can barely make ends meet and he’s a social outcast. This boy had the neighbourhood gang to hang out with before going to the local school became part of the complex equation. As they entered those formative tween years, they drifted apart because everyone has found a clique to belong to. Only his eccentric grandmother notices, and she tries her best to help.

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Frank and Zed are Alive! A Conversation with Jesse Blanchard

One of the biggest inspirations for Frank and Zed is in how it draws from traditional Romanian folklore.

Frank and Zed is one of those perfect Halloween styled movies as it gets into the darker aspects for gorehounds to appreciate. The bloodshed is incredible, and despite the adult styled destruction, there’s love for the two characters who get caught up in this massacre. And thankfully, there is more story to tell according to creator Jesse Blanchard of Puppetcore Studios. He’s still writing it and preparing for his next film.

Parts of this graphic novel can be found online, on Instagram, and the talent pool involved behind it are vast! He said, “There’ll be three different stories about Frank. And I’m exploring some other monsters that are in the same universe.”

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Autumn’s Not the Right Time for The Addams Family 2

The Addams Family 2 doesn’t key into what made the first film fun to watch.

Spoiler Alert

The sequel to the animated 2019 Addams Family reboot will not click with everyone. It has the feel of not adhering to the style and satire Charles Addams crafted. Instead of focussing on the ooky, it’s more like a regular teen angst drama where Wednesday (Chloë Grace Moretz) is more of the star than ever. She believes she isn’t a genuine Addams. This has Gomez (Oscar Isaac) fearing she wants nothing to do with her kin anymore. He hatches a plan to take the entire family on a summer vacation!

When considering this movie is one of many works with a rescheduled release date, it suffers from the dilemma of when it can be released in countries attempting to restart within a pandemic. I would’ve been okay for an even longer wait to maximize interest, and perhaps changing up the focus on who the stars are.

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