I think it’s safe to say that most or all of you have never heard of this movie, neither had I. Instead of my typical synopsis and critique I will spare most of you the trouble, this movie is pretty weak, and if that isn’t enough for you, then continue reading too find out why.
Bunny Whipped is ultimately a romantic comedy with the look of a low budget TV movie from the early 90’s. There is no solid storyline and the editing consists of a bunch of randomly placed scenes that seem too follow some sort …f comic book formula.
Bob Whipple (Esteban Powell) is a middle aged sportswriter who doesn’t seem to have a solid grip on his own life. Through the inspirational words of a self loving reality TV show contestant Joe (Ike Barinholtz), and the death of a beloved white rap star, Bob decides to become a vigilante superhero – The Whip. He stops muggings, murders, thefts, etc and lets his identity be known to the world stating he thinks that evil is evil. When his high school girlfriend Anne (Joey Lauren Adams) enlists in his help to save rabbits from being killed in a shelter, the two re-kindle a relationship and everything is looking positive for Bob. This is until he his ex-girlfriend is kidnapped by the murdered of the aforementioned white rap star; his superhero stature is really put to the test.
I hope that synopsis sounded ridiculous, because that’s what this movie was. This movie was poorly made – it seemed like a 12 year old spliced it together – it had a really low budget look and feel too it. The sets were horrible, the acting was laughable, and that’s ultimately all the laughs I got out of this picture. That is aside from the only funny character in the movie that had a really small role, MAD TV’s Ike Barinholtz. The only reason I give this movie any rating is because of his very limited screen time. I strongly recommend that no one sees this movie as you would really be wasting your time with a poorly put together movie with a cast of nobody’s that justify their C List status with pictures like this.
Video
Presented in 1.33:1 full screen, Bunny Whipped truly looked disappointing. It was shot with a weird vibe of home video, and although it didn’t look absolutely horrible some scenes truly reminded me of the good old VHS days. Particularly night scenes looked very soft and extremely out of focus. Although the details are pretty good when there is little or no movement when the characters are in motion everything looks like a big blur, particularly in a scene where the characters are playing a game of basketball. The video quality closely mirrors the quality of movie, poor.
Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, Bunny Whipped sounded very average, at best. There is really nothing to boast about, I’ve heard a lot better sounding audio tracks and I’ve also heard worse. This picture in particular was very front heavy, the only scenes where the rear speakers and sub support came into the picture where during the mock rap videos, which happened several times but not enough to make up for the other audio issues. The characters were really soft spoken and there were some pretty severe balancing issues, the fact that there are no offered English subtitles made me really have to listen hard, so hard that I couldn’t find the humor in the two or three jokes this movie made.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary – Writer/director Rafael Riera and producer Ty Donaldson – Some pretty useless chatter with the odd insightful comments about a particularly dismal movie. A Spanish Commentary track is also offered featuring writer/director Rafael Riera and co-producer Julian Sanchez. If I spoke Spanish I would guess that this track was just as exciting as the English one, or lack thereof.
- Deleted Scenes – An impressive 17 minutes of deleted scenes, a nice little addition for fans of the movie. Unfortunately I am not a fan of the movie so it was just 17 more minutes of junk for me.
Final Thoughts
This movie was disappointing. Between the horrible acting and the weak humor, I can’t find anything to be complementary about. With sub-par video and average (at best) audio, I really have no fuel for suggesting anyone to check this out, not even renting it. In fact it’s probably best if you completely forget you even heard of this movie, because you aren’t missing anything.
Special Features List
- Audio Commentary
- Deleted Scenes
