Just finished watching the movie Drones on Netflix. I had been eagerly waiting to watch this since it first came was announced as being in production.
I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and I try to follow some of the alumni in their current work. Amber Benson, to me, is in the top five most successful people to come out of the show. She has written and directed two movies (Chance and Lovers, Liars & Lunatics) yet I've sadly only seen Chance (still hoping to be able to catch Lovers, Liars & Lunatics somehow, especially for James Leary (Clem on Buffy) and Michael Muhney (Sheriff Lamb on Veronica Mars). Chance was amazing, showing a different side to James Marsters (Spike on Buffy/Angel) than we've seen before. Amber Benson has also muddled her hands in the literary world, collaborating with Christopher Golden on Ghosts of Albion; yet to me, I love her Calliope Reaper-Jones novels. Four have been produced so far, one a year. I find her incredibly talent and from what I hear, very nice to fans.
While she didn't write Drones (that credit goes to Ben Acker and Ben Blacker) yet she does direct it along with fellow Buffy alumnus Adam Busch (Warren on Buffy). For some unknown reason there is not a Wikipedia page on the movie, yet there is one on IMDb.
The movie stars Jonathan M. Woodward (a three-time Joss Whedon almnus, having guest-roles in Firefly, Buffy, and Angel), Samm Levine (Neil Schweiber on Freaks and Geeks), Angela Bettis (May in the movie May), Tangi Miller (Elena Tyler from Felicity), and Dave "Gruber" Allen (Jeff Rosso on Freaks and Geeks). Great cast, in my opinion!
The movie revolves around Brian (Jonathan M. Woodward) as he encounters new and unexpected problems in the workplace. The whole film takes place in a small office but surprisingly it all works perfectly; there are no scenes that make you go, "hmmm, I really wish this would have taken place outside the office." Brian inadvertently finds out his best friend (Samm Levine portraying Clark), a fellow coworker, is an alien. Then, after starting an office relationship with Amy (Angela Bettis), she reveals to Brian that she is also an alien. We then find out that neither aliens are of the same species, with each species going towards a different goal: Clark's species wishes to just enslave humanity while Amy's species wishes to destroy Earth for fuel. Both act nonchalantly about it while telling Brian, who spends parts of the movie looking as if he had just been slapped across the face with a 2x4.
It was obviously a dark comedy with a dry sense of humor, how else could destruction and enslavement be thrown around in conversations as simply as what they planned for an evening at home. Clark even jokes, "eh, not much will change except I'll be your boss now." If you're looking for a slapstick comedy, you're going to have a bad time. While this isn't exactly a sophisticated comedy, you still laugh a lot throughout the movie if this humor is what you understand.
Overall I was very happy with the acting. Samm Levine was great as a "play it cool" type character, someone who can be annoying but not over the top annoying while still being slightly amusing without being over the top funny. Angela Bettis portrays an emotion-stunted character who has ups and downs while experiencing emotions for the first time. Dave "Gruber" Allen...well, he plays the same character as always which is a fantastic role that seemed to be written specifically for him. I will admit, while I do really like Jonathan M. Woodward, a few of his scenes just came across a bit stale. His acting was fine, it just felt when you compared his character to Samm Levine's and Angela Betttis' that his seems less human than their alien characters does. He over-exaggerates a few scenes, going more for dumbstruck than confused which is truly only a subtle different but one I did notice. He did great, don't get me wrong!
Overall I was very happy with the acting. Samm Levine was great as a "play it cool" type character, someone who can be annoying but not over the top annoying while still being slightly amusing without being over the top funny. Angela Bettis portrays an emotion-stunted character who has ups and downs while experiencing emotions for the first time. Dave "Gruber" Allen...well, he plays the same character as always which is a fantastic role that seemed to be written specifically for him. I will admit, while I do really like Jonathan M. Woodward, a few of his scenes just came across a bit stale. His acting was fine, it just felt when you compared his character to Samm Levine's and Angela Betttis' that his seems less human than their alien characters does. He over-exaggerates a few scenes, going more for dumbstruck than confused which is truly only a subtle different but one I did notice. He did great, don't get me wrong!
One final little bonus to the movie is finally getting to hear music from Common Rotation, which Adam Busch is a part of. I've heard all about the band but never actually got to hear any of their music. I was pleasantly surprised by the band, it wasn't what I was expecting yet that's not a bad thing. They're a folk rock band and very well done. I just found out the band's music is up on Spotify so I plan to start checking out more songs.
Ok, so I won't spoil anything else about the movie (and granted, those really aren't spoilers are they're discussed within the first 15 minutes of the movie). I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys crazy circumstances where the end of the world is casually discussed near the water cooler. The acting is superb, the writing is brilliant, and the directing was spot-on!
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