One Star

This one slapped from start to finish.
Good pace, strong visual storytelling, and solid performances!

With some ambition, this team could annihilate!

This probably had the best reactions from the crowd in the Thursday heats and deservedly so! I was skeptical at first judging based on the thumbnail itself, worried it was going to be filled with brain rot, but it actually delivered one of the funniest and entertaining film of the heats. I know the team had fun making this.

On a one star scale, with one start being the highest, this would get my highest rating yet, One entire star! SO. MUCH. FUN!!! Fucking awesome use of driving shots with the rotating lighting (I was watching that, WISHING we had done a sequence like that!) Killing the dog was INSPIRED!! I don't know ANY other teams that would have the balls to do that! The slow motion sword slice may just be my favourite use of slow motion in the city! THE DOUBLE HANDBRAKE TURN!! THE DRONE!!! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE??!! Would love to work together on some shit. Hit me up. Amazing work team, no critiques here!

People at the screening were lapping up the cheeky and outrageous antics of the Uber Eats driver. However, the home audience were not impressed - “creepy”, “unpleasant” were some of the words bandied about. So viewer: beware of this controversial figure.

Well this was clearly a crowd favourite.

Some highlights: The girlfriend's echoing accent. The sunglasses. The unexpected punctuality of the delivery driver. The tongue. The mini car chase. The emotional turmoil of the doggo's demise. The fruit ninja antics. The twists at the end.

Most 48 hour films have 1 or 2 great moments and this has like 8. A riot of a film from start to finish which works well in every department. All round amazing film from an all round amazing team.

What got my attention:
Football commentary from a Manchester City game! Hate them! I guess you can use that? Horrible girlfriend – ditch her! Manic performance from the UberEats driver. Great action, driving sequence. It’s all well shot and edited.

Take it or Leave it:
Man, that’s some OTT on the steering wheel – very Sin City. As mentioned, manic performance from the UberEats driver. What’s his motivation though? Was the ending his plan along? And why? I didn’t care for the miniature cars – good for a laugh but kind of takes you out of it, but each to their own. Killing the dog – funny. The extended burial scene, again funny - but really felt shoehorned in for just a laugh, and to restart the chase. The time shift that happens here is confusing – it’s suddenly day? How much time has passed or was had they ordered breakfast? The phone said 11:17pm. I don’t know – there’s just no story here and no one to care about. The girlfriend is a bitch; the driver a douchebag and our hero a complete putz. And the dog is dead and buried.

Final thoughts:
That said, this is a fun film even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense at any point. A guaranteed crowd pleaser that obviously won over the judges – so well done!

What a crowd pleaser! Huge congrats to you guys on your finals slot.

There are some real standout moments in this film - particularly the driving scene, which was really well constructed and one of the best technical moments we saw this year. Some great gags throughout too: love a bit of fruit ninja in the morning, and your antagonist’s iconic tongue waggle - there were audience members mimicking that to us after the heats haha

Now, this is gonna sound a bit backhanded - but in a year where the judges were pretty hardcore on story structure, character motivation, and genre usage, this one we feel slipped by a number of those criticisms - which we’re actually quite happy about. But we can’t let you escape that so easily! So here’s the main note…

The motivations of the characters are suuuuper messy. Uber drivers have a job to do! And he was on his way! Slow, sure, but like your lead says, he’ll be there! Chasing him down saves you what, a couple of minutes? Your guy has to drive back still hahaha. And then the shift from night to day throws a lot of the initial setup out as well. Wasn’t the whole point of chasing this guy to get the food faster?? Why is this antagonist so adamant about being a total pest? What’s going onnnn. We’lll give you this though, great to see the cat loose, even if it made no sense, it was true to the genre on that front.

THE BEST THING: An action-comedy hit that delivers gag after gag, all with confidence and technical style.

THE NEXT THING: Story is king! Keep all the madness, but anchor it with a clearer arc so we’ve got someone to root for amid the chaos. That way you keep the laughs, keep the gasps, but also give the judges something to chew on beyond “this was fun.” Bring all this together, and you guys will be guaranteed a top spot next year! And we’ll be rooting for you!