BRAINS AND STEEL
Web site

review written 2/24/2003

I wonder if it might have been fairer to write this review having not seen The Princess Bride? But you can't unlearn what you have learned. So, yes, I get that this is a remake of a scene in Rob Reiner's movie.

This is actually more of a The Princess Bride film than it is a Star Wars fan film. (Which is fine.)

We begin with nice typography—simple, straightforward, nice. Then a panning shot along the beach, not too fast, not too slow. Hey, some more good shots, actually—one after another. The narrator sounds a little flat, but at least we can hear her above the music.

There's an Onion headline that's something along the lines of "Rapper P. Diddy Samples 'Billie Jean' in its Entirety, Adds Nothing". That's what Brains and Steel feels like.

It's very well-done throughout. The acting is a little flat but still better than many fan films. The shots are good, the costumes are good. The credits sequence (while a bit long, and unfortunately misspelling Morgenstern) is nicely crafted.

But there's just nothing driving the film. It reads more like an exercise for a film class than a movie. It doesn't have a sixth finger on its left hand—but it also just doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Still, as Admiral Thrawn might say, "it was so artistically done..."