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Mondo Schlocko! (2011)



mondo schlocko

Mondo Schlocko!

 

Mondo Schlocko is a campy, politically incorrect, 25-minute comedy short written and directed by David Gibson.  The twisted plot follows the tale of a devilish dude looking for love-by-the-hour and the repercussions faced by the lucky lady after their crude coupling.   The film is reminiscent of the Troma movies from the late 80s and early 90s in many ways.  The story, dialog and acting in Mondo Schlocko are all very much in the vein of the Troma classics.  In fact, considering this looks like it was shot for pretty much no money, I suspect that the actors are probably some of Mr. Gibson's friends or maybe people he found online.  I would imagine that no one involved had much acting experience.  If that's the case, they all did a good job.  Additionally, the story is clever and the dialog is better than most movies of this kind.  Overall, Mr. Gibson is off to a good start!


The two biggest problems with Mondo Schlocko are the audio and the editing.    Honestly, I've heard worse audio.  It mostly just sounds like the camera microphone was the only microphone used, but that's not really the problem.  I understand not everyone has the money to buy equipment, so I don't expect perfect audio.  However, the volume goes up and down based on distance from the cameraman.  It wouldn't cost anything to adjust the audio levels in post, so I see this as something that could have been improved rather easily.

The editing is really the biggest problem.  I've seen a lot of Troma movies and I've seen a lot of no budget films.  Even by those standards, the editing here is pretty bad.  Although this is only a 25-minute short, it could have easily been cut by at least five minutes and maybe as much as ten minutes.  The establishing shots at the beginning of the film showing a guy driving around the suburbs go on for almost five minutes before anything happens.  This alone could have been cut in half.  There is a scene with the female protagonist walking through an alley that also could have been cut in half.  On the other extreme, there are several spots where the shot is cut before a line of dialog is completed and one shot of a sign that's too short to catch the text on the sign.  

At the end of the film, there is a notice that a feature-length version of the movie is in the works.  I'm not sure how that's coming along or if it has already been released, but if a feature-length version is in the works, I hope that there is enough story to justify that much length.  All too often, I watch feature length films that would have been much better as shorts!  

Despite the audio and editing issues, Mondo Schocklo is actually a pretty fun little film.  It has apparently screened as several film festivals and conventions.  I couldn't find a website for the movie, but I did see that it is available for sale through filmbaby.com: 

www.filmbaby.com


Gore-o-meter rating: 2.5 out of 5
(There's a good bit of gore, especially for this budget)

Skin-o-meter: 1 out of 5 (There's no female nudity, but more than enough plastic dick!)