Relaxer's first half is a mostly pointless one-room comedy with an alright setup (A challenge to beat level 256 of Pac-Man without leaving a couch). There's a few decent era-specific jokes, and some mostly forgettable character acting. However, it was mostly enjoyable.
The second half, however, continues escalating this premise, and eventually becomes an entirely different movie, delving into absurd situations that really didn't work for me, especially in this setting with this plot. Multiple times throughout the movie, I told myself, "yeah, I would have gotten off the couch by now," but our protagonist, Abbie, refuses to give up and continues sitting there, even to the detriment of his own health and personal well-being. All to beat level 256 of Pac-Man. It's stupid.
This challenge, mind you, is posed to him by his abusive (Older brother? Roommate?) who he doesn't even like. I can suspend my disbelief so far, but this just doesn't make any sense... he should have no motivation to continue on with the challenge and yet he does. And with that being the entire focus of the movie, it really failed to capture my interest in the second half.
If this had been a short film and it had ended shortly after the couch had been moved (revealing a specific fantastic piece of Bart Simpson graffiti, by the way). If our protagonist, Abbie, had thrown in the towel there and got up off the couch, it would have been a much more enjoyable experience. Everything after that point was seriously to the film's detriment, and makes me unsure if I'd even consider recommending this to anyone.
I will say, however, Joshua Burge reminded me of a young Steve Buscemi, and his performance is certainly the highlight of the film. I'd be interested to see him in more stuff... preferably not by this director.
Review by VigorousJammerVIP 3BlockedParent2022-09-18T22:22:23Z
Relaxer's first half is a mostly pointless one-room comedy with an alright setup (A challenge to beat level 256 of Pac-Man without leaving a couch). There's a few decent era-specific jokes, and some mostly forgettable character acting. However, it was mostly enjoyable.
The second half, however, continues escalating this premise, and eventually becomes an entirely different movie, delving into absurd situations that really didn't work for me, especially in this setting with this plot. Multiple times throughout the movie, I told myself, "yeah, I would have gotten off the couch by now," but our protagonist, Abbie, refuses to give up and continues sitting there, even to the detriment of his own health and personal well-being. All to beat level 256 of Pac-Man. It's stupid.
This challenge, mind you, is posed to him by his abusive (Older brother? Roommate?) who he doesn't even like. I can suspend my disbelief so far, but this just doesn't make any sense... he should have no motivation to continue on with the challenge and yet he does. And with that being the entire focus of the movie, it really failed to capture my interest in the second half.
If this had been a short film and it had ended shortly after the couch had been moved (revealing a specific fantastic piece of Bart Simpson graffiti, by the way). If our protagonist, Abbie, had thrown in the towel there and got up off the couch, it would have been a much more enjoyable experience. Everything after that point was seriously to the film's detriment, and makes me unsure if I'd even consider recommending this to anyone.
I will say, however, Joshua Burge reminded me of a young Steve Buscemi, and his performance is certainly the highlight of the film. I'd be interested to see him in more stuff... preferably not by this director.