Series 7 - The Contenders
This follows the Blair Witch tradition of mock reality but don’t let that put you off. This one succeeds where many other wannabes failed, by taking it all that step further. The Contenders is the ultimate reality show, where the prize is your life. You don’t apply to be a Contender; you’re chosen, like the draft or something. This adds a whole other dimension to the characters we meet.
The production values are a little dodgy in places, as I recall (this is part of my end of year skipped reviews catch-up and I watched this back in January) but this is one of the most unique low-budget independent movies of the last decade.
February 7th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
[...] My first instinct is to not bother saying the first thing that comes into my head about this one – a fake reality show, are you kidding me? Like as if I was expecting some kind of scathing satire on modern mass media culture from the Olsen Twins. Then I realised, no, the criticism still kind of stands. No, of course I don’t expect high art from the Olsen Twins, I’m not dumb. But y’know, considering reality shows are the ultimate fakery to begin with, I don’t care who is involved, a movie that is basically nothing more than a 90 minute fake reality show is still a monumentally insulting waste of time and resources – behind the camera, in front of the camera, and in front of the TV screen. I’d say, oh well, the twins are cute and the soundtrack’s pretty good, but they don’t begin to make up for the awfulness here. Do yourself a big favour and get Series 7 – The Contenders instead. It’s not perfect, but at least it tries. [...]