More outrageous than it has any right to be. I came to support Mark Hamill, but I came out with a little bit more.

Bert Kreischer’s newest film “The Machine,” is based on the iconic & viral comedic skit of him talking about the time he visited Russia and they make it into a full-length feature! I am not much into stand-up comedy, but seeing the addition like Mark Hamill definitely peaked my interest as him joining indicated that he joined for good reason, and he certainly did.

The film starts off quite rocky. The script is perhaps the film’s weakest point. The beginning, which involves a birthday party, felt like the very first scene they shot. Characters felt awkward, having no motive other than to fulfill what the script said. It was rather difficult to really get into this story with characters that didn’t feel committed. I was even ready to check out at this point.

Once things locate over to Russia is where the film really does get better, in my opinion. Things become outrageous and deliver some of the film’s biggest and best laughs. There is enough shock value in these scenes that kept me entertained for the most part. The choreography of the action is also done quite well, which brings out some of the better elements of the film: the editing & cinematography.

From a technical perspective, I was quite impressed with what I saw. The editing is some of the best that I have seen from a comedy in a while. The cinematography coincides with the editing to deliver seamless cuts as the narrative cuts in and out of time, which brings me to one of the more negative aspects of this film: the runtime.

At 113 minutes, this film is quite frankly way too long. We get needless scenes that offer no development, such as the plane ride to Russia or even the wife & kids not worrying why they haven’t seen or heard from their dad in a few days. Instead we get needless exposition going back in time to further explain the events, even though it is clearly understood. It makes the movie much longer than needed and a good 20 minutes could have been cut.

Overall, this was a good surprise that I think I might even bump up in the future. More of these type of concepts please.

VERDICT: 3/5 (Good)

Between seeing Ric Roman Waugh’s 2020 feature, Greenland, and Gerard Butler’s improvement in involved projects, I was intrigued in seeing this. What is the greatest phenomenon is that it acts like Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant 2.0 without delivering on much other than its action – an aspect I am beginning to see it Waugh’s greatest strength as a director.

At 2 hours, the latter half of this movie works better than the first half. The first half throws you into a weird point where you have to catch up with knowing who is who. A good handful of them do absolutely nothing to push this film forward. Luckily, I was the only person sitting in the backrow of the theater so I could look at the synopsis on my phone again, because I was not understanding where this film was going. The exposition is confusing & goes by way too fast to even care enough with these characters.

As mentioned, the latter half is better to a certain extent, but it still has its issues. I was pleasantly surprised when things picked up. The pacing felt more in line with the type of story it wanted to tell. There was even an unique point using night-vision goggles. The problem here continues to be pointless, little moments to add to the drama. The main villain blows up cars for no reason, we get countless scenes of the villain riding his bike in the desert (because its cool), and while there are some cool shots here and there, I know they have been ripped off from other movies who have done it better.

And where I will leave the rest of my issues with this film is how it does not, any way, understand how to balance its characters. Characters come and go and are never introduced again, but the end has to remind us of what happened to give some sort of clarity. It also cuts back to shots of scenes we literally just saw. There is even one good moments where it attempts to develop the interpreter, but it is resolved almost instantaneously.

Overall, I think it is worth watching for the action alone, but just know, you are going to have to commit to an hour of exposition that feels like is going nowhere.

VERDICT: 2.5/5 (Okay)