This was one of our favourite films of the competition this year. Great performances, awesome make-up and some genuine laugh out loud moments.

Im in two minds about this film. On the one hand it told a simple and effective story.
On the other hand the storyline and twist was very familiar and during our watch party someone picked the twist within the first couple interaction.
That said the cinematography complimented the films mood perfectly and it was concise and easy to follow.
Congrats on the win:)

Opening with a Brian De Palma inspired split screen revelation that a best friend has passed away, this deadpan investigation into the suspicious death of a close friend had one of the best uses of invisibility I saw in NZ this year.

The script also had some standout moments in terms of dialogue, but technically this was pretty raw. For example said initial split screen shot had one half of the screen out of focus, whilst fuzz on the audio track did occur on multiple occassions and the volume peaked and dipped significantly throughout. Some excellent music choices at times, though.

Whilst I strongly disliked the stabby ending, this covered ground about how jealous we get and how rife tall poppy syndrome is in New Zealand to this very day. Performances were pretty solid across the board.

I liked the attempt to subvert the genre, but for me it missed the mark because when I'm thinking about a film I've watched in 48 Hours I personally feel that another genre (here, Crime) shouldn't be the thing that I think of first and foremost and then get a shock when I'm reminded that the required genre was something else.

Story: 2/5
Technical: 1/5
Elements: 4/5
Overall: 2/5

Went places I really did not expect it to, as a convenience store crush first of all starts very cutesy with the girl giving extremely heavy hints to the point of even directly asking the guy she likes out to the new local pizza place, only he has plans with someone you would very much not expect him to.

I love that you pulled the rug from under the carpet for us as viewers on more than one occassion. First of all with the shocking relevation of his nightly plans, and then showing how people can love anyone or anything ala JUMBO, only this time much smaller in scale, and more full of ink.

The fact that you were fully and I do mean fully committed to selling where you went is to be applauded.

A huge huge thing for me in 48 Hours is playing by the rules though, and whilst stock footage is ok if you have the rights, footage from one of the Lego Games/Movies as per 3m37-3m40 and 3m44-3m48 into the film most definitely would not have been. A real shame as it's personally a big downer to see that happen. Just be careful next time to make sure you have the rights to all the footage in your film.

But I don't want to end the review on a downer. Your performances were fantastic and comedy was gold. Well done.

Story: 3.5/5
Technical: 3/5
Elements: 3/5
Overall: 3/5

A mum gets up whilst the dad lies in bed, picks her baby up out of the crib, takes the baby down the hallway and makes herself a cup of coffee and 'wakes up'. I've called out other teams this year but boy oh boy, taking the first 58 seconds to get to that point was just painfully slow. It's just a personal bugbear of mine after many years of watching this comp to see teams wasting time on waking up, getting ready for the day etc.

Things did pick up from there with an adorable bubba then immediately lighting up the frame with a wonderful smile and giggles, offering a strong contrast with the large amounts of dead flowers on the table which gave a pretty obvious foreshadow for the shape of things to come, but was shot beautifully. Did the team need to spend so much time on the initial setup? Maybe. But even if plot essential it doesn't change the pace of the film.

Definitely some strong universal themes covered here. Most of us want a nuclear family to work, as raising a newborn is incredibly tough. The performances were also very good at conveying the weight of exhaustion that the young parents must be feeling. The team also played this very seriously which is rare in 48Hours.

Film looked really nice, and for once shooting in a house made sense. The grade was on point witht the slight blue tint of sadness.

For me this was a good film, not a great one, and the main reason was that there just wasn't enough meat on the bones of the story to elevate it. I might get shade thrown at me here but parenting is tough, and solo parenting is arguably tougher. Also for me the twist was obvious and I want original engaging stories from this comp not just those that are well shot and performed covering home truths.

Having said that, congrats on your win in BOP.

Story: 2.5/5
Technical: 3.5/5
Elements: 3.5/5
Overall: 3/5

One of my favourites this year. I really enjoyed your film and the laugh out loud /mic drop moments. The cinematography is top class and the editing blows my mind. You have put together a really clever and professional film here. I did have to watch it twice to fully get the storyline - not criticism to the strength of the film, just my brain needed a little time to adjust to it going in reverse.
Set production was top notch too. A great film team - well done!

Detective Mallory and big mouthed Detective Inspector Munro head out to the farm to investigate a sinister crime after a kid gets knobbled, with the burnt banana and coffee smell of the 'tropics' immediately setting the scene as they drive in. Cue hysterical grieving mother and red herrings before we get to the scene of the crime.

I'm a bit torn on this one because I'm genuinely not sure if the team was trying to play things seriously, or as a deliberate Z-grade black comedy. I have to assume the latter given the constant whistling motif every time the very obvious killer said something. But here's the thing...if you're going for something to be a deliberate black comedy it only really works if there are humorous elements that come to light when the material is delivered directy.

...So maybe the team was playing it seriously? In which case in my personal opinion the film had significant shortcomings because there was practically no tonal differentiation in any of the line deliveries. Everything being talked about so flatly made it hard to resonate with any of the characters. When we finally get some emotion it's just before that mean spirited ending of "yes I'm the killer you will be my 15th victim!" which was just absolutely woeful in my book. The comedic relief of a gunshot that goes nowhere near the attacker also missed the mark, no pun intended.

On the positive side there were some really nicely framed shots, but unfortunately this got nullified by the handful of fuzzy out of focus shots that were peppered throughout.

Story: 1/5
Technical: 2/5
Elements: 2/5
Overall: 1/5

Black and white narrated crime film starring an ex-homicide P.I. is typically actually a recipe for absolute disaster in 48 Hours. The reason being is that you kind of need to produce something absolutely extraordinary to stand above other teams who make film noirs along this line each and every year without fail. So how did Rein Ici do? Not quite a spectacular failure due to them understanding the tropes of the genre so well, but this was quite a generic murder investigation I have to say.

Firstly, the elephant in the room of going black and white...why? I'm genuinely not trying to be mean here but if you did that because you think you needed to I suggest taking a look at how neo noir films gave the genre a modern take (POINT BLANK, DIRTY HARRY, CHINATOWN for starters) decades ago. If you've going to strip your film of colour and follow a noir blueprint this closely then for me that contrast needs to be way up, those shadows need to be mysterious and saturation from the absence of colour needs to go way up as well. The costuming worked I must admit, but it felt like you clicked the footage into black and white in your editing software and called it a day.

The investigation did go down an interesting rabbit hole, and the characters performed their lines well. Also whilst visually I had major issues I must admit the edit was strong, and camera angles themselves at times really stood out plus the sound and soundtrack was very well done. I just wish that the film hadn't been so generic.

Story: 1.5/5
Technical: 2/5
Elements: 2/5
Overall: 1.5/5

I only just read the review by steelpotato (about 6 months late, I know) and just wanted to say that the Lego animation was made by Jackson Pool, the actor playing the protagonist of the film, and is not part of any Lego movies or video games. Maybe still legally dubious since we didn't make the actual bricks ourselves, but definitely not straight up stealing footage from the Lego Movie.

Heavily doubt steelpotato is ever going to read this, but if you do, hope this resolves your major issue with our film.

-Luka Tomic, the writer, director and editor of Oh, Brother!