{"id":3686,"date":"2008-06-07T03:47:34","date_gmt":"2008-06-07T07:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=3686"},"modified":"2008-06-07T03:47:34","modified_gmt":"2008-06-07T07:47:34","slug":"sidekick-2005-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/07\/sidekick-2005-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidekick (2005) (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Blake Van de graaf\u2019s superhero opus is a cult film sadly without a cult, and that\u2019s a pure crime of cosmic proportions. While his movie is very critically acclaimed, Van de graaf\u2019s entry just doesn\u2019t get enough love. Or more so, the love I think it warrants. Perhaps it\u2019s just that audiences are burned out on superhero epics, but \u201cSidekick\u201d really isn\u2019t one of them. Most people will be quick to judge this movie on the cover, a one sheet that makes this look like a superhero comedy about a geek dressing in costumes to fight crime.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not true. As it stands, \u201cSidekick\u201d is a dark, violent, menacing, brutal, and awfully thrilling story, and it\u2019s still one of the best superhero movies I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s on my personal top ten without a doubt, up there with the likes of \u201cUnbreakable\u201d and \u201cSuperman II.\u201d That\u2019s because while this is a comic geek\u2019s movie, it\u2019s also more of an anti-superhero movie with a tale that begins as the molding of a great hero that then transforms into\u2026 well, let me put it this way: You\u2019ve seen a lot of superhero movies where we learn about our masked avenger, but how many times do we learn the origin of a great villain?<\/p>\n

Even more Van de graaf\u2019s story is absolutely brilliant in that it only tells one side of the story. Do you know how in superhero movies when a villain is born, on the other side of the world their very nemesis fighting for good is born? Well, Van de graaf tells the villain\u2019s story and leaves it up to us to decide if the character focused on in \u201cSidekick\u201d will continue his reign of terror, or is waiting to be confronted by a powerful individual fighting for good. Van de graaf\u2019s superhero film is quite excellent and avoids any of the superhero movie doldrums at every turn. The clich\u00e9s are minimal, the acting is top notch, and the finale leaves so much on the table, that you\u2019ll be mesmerized. What\u2019s it about? You can just find out for yourself, because my words do it no justice. Van de graaf\u2019s film needs-a-cult-audience, damn it!<\/p>\n

Finally on an official DVD release, you have the chance to view his movie, along with a slew of extras. First and foremost there\u2019s the commentary track with director Van de graaf, Writer\/Producer Michael Sparaga, and most of the cast whom all deliver an energetic and fast paced audio commentary with some great interplay between the individuals on mic. Sparaga and Van de graaf often make the other cast members laugh, and Van de graaf is a very fast talking individual who speaks a mile a minute with Sparaga, and while it can tend to be chaotic at times, it\u2019s a lot better than all of the other commentaries out there.<\/p>\n

The cast and crew are very enthusiastic about their project and seem to revel in the task they\u2019ve pulled off, and who can blame them, really? Writer Sparaga and Van de graaf take up most of the commentary trading stories and admiring the coincidences that contributed to the film\u2019s quality, and thankfully what they say is very interesting and a strong glimpse at the ins and outs of independent filmmaking. There\u2019s a quite funny two minute outtakes reel, and a ten minute deleted scenes feature where we watch alternate sequences for the opening establishing both characters.<\/p>\n

As well, there\u2019s also the cast interviews which is more of an interview with the respective stars who explain the experience working with Daniel Baldwin, being recognized by people after making the movie, and how they approached adding a different twist to the comic book movie. There\u2019s also the original theatrical trailer, which is a hoot and works on the actual premise. Hell, anyone can watch a superhero movie, but how often can you watch something that takes the typical mold and completely turns it on its neck? \u201cSidekick\u201d is that movie that flips the comic book origin story and is finally given a great DVD treatment. Seek it out, watch it, and thank me later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blake Van de graaf\u2019s superhero opus is a cult film sadly without a cult, and that\u2019s a pure crime of cosmic proportions. While his movie is very critically acclaimed, Van de graaf\u2019s entry just doesn\u2019t get enough love. Or more so, the love I think it warrants. Perhaps it\u2019s just that audiences are burned out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[302,349,874,885,906,1013,1087],"class_list":["post-3686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-indie","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-fantasy","tag-romance","tag-s","tag-science-fiction","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}