THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE (2019)

Directed By: Danishka Esterhazy Written By: Jed Blinoff & Scott Thomas  Cinematography: Trevor Calverlay  Editor: Michael P. Mason 

Cast: Dani Kind, Steve Lund, Celina Martin, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, Sara Canning, Romeo Carrere, Maria Nash, Naledi Majola 

A family attends a live taping of The Banana Splits television series, but are forced to survive as soon as the characters go haywire and start a killing spree around the studio.

You know what you are going to get from this type of film. Then again you might not of expecting this to be an exact big-screen version of the television show. Anyone going into this film can’t complain too much. As for how good or bad quality did you really think it would be?

As this is more a kind of reinvention. we have the characters more or less going on a murder spree. This is explained but seems a rather thin reason.

At first, the characters who are killed are generally unlikeable so you pretty much know they are going to be victims and the film doesn’t try to hide that fact, but then some rather likable and innocent characters start to get off.

The most enjoyable aspect of this film is the kills. The violence which like the show is very over the top and impressive in a ridiculous way. Keep in mind this Film was made to premiere in the Syfy network. Though bathes itself in gore.

The film plays like a dark comedy the only problem is that it really has no style. It just leaves the audience waiting for the kills. Then at first seems like a more demanding black comedy that at first is a revenge movie of sorts. Then just becomes a horror film. That flirts with killing children but then backs away from the edge that it tries to push us over.

There is an interesting part of the movie when a character cracks and becomes a totally different type. One that actually might relegate a sequel.

Though the film ends up being pretty predictable and comes off as a rushed Canadian horror feature. That is generic except for its pop-culture tie-in. That seems the best way to use the characters as we have already had a kind of animatronic live-action feature film in WILLY'S WONDERLAND

It doesn’t seem anyone including a studio was interested in trying to update it into a Family Comedy. So this seems an inventive way to go or at least a way to make a quick dollar for the franchise and bring them up to date maybe even be slightly subversive.

GRADE: D