NOTE: Sorry for delaying Part 2 of my Toy Story retrospective for so long. I've been really lazy as of late and real life was really killing me. I'll finish the retrospective after I've done this article.
Nostalgia Critic's review of Pink Floyd's The Wall has to be the worst movie review I have ever seen. And it's not just my opinion. Shortly after the video was uploaded, many people have criticized the video for being the dumpster fire it really is. I used to be an NC fan for like a few years, then I lost interest in his stuff in 2012. Then when the Change The Channel scandal was confirmed, I hated his content even more. Still, I was a bit curious of the video after seeing JAR Media's take on it. I should have listened to them, because this is one of the worst videos I have ever watched. Everything about it pissed me off, and keeps finding ways to give me diarrhea. Let's take a look on how much of a stinker this turd is!
Mini Review Of The Wall
But first, my thoughts on the movie. Pink Floyd's The Wall is a 1982 film adaptation of the album of the same name, loosely based on the experiences of both Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. The film follows a man named Pink, a rock star who has a troubled life and feels discontent with those surrounding him. Metaphorically speaking, he creates a wall to separate himself from his fans, friends, and family. I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it told a compelling and personal story with great music and brilliant animated segments from illustrator Gerald Scarfe. It's a wild ride and I recommend it! But because NC is a hack, of course he has to make a review of it. And this time, he really outdid himself with his idiocy!
What's Wrong With The Video?
I should start off by telling you that calling it a "review" is a real stretch. It's basically a recreation of specific scenes from the movie, which would be fine if there's any effort put into the parody and critical analysis, but there isn't any effort at all! For starters, it's obvious that Doug Walker (NC's creator) failed to do any research on Roger Waters' life, and instead focuses on mocking the songs for the sake of doing so. For those unfamiliar with the life of Roger Waters, he had a troubled life. His father was killed in battle during WWII, he suffered corporal punishment when he was at school, and he isolated himself from his peers during his success with Pink Floyd. What NC did however is criticize the songs for being pretentious without any reason, which is ironic because the video itself is pretentious.
The video is also unclear on what it wants to satirize and, again, takes the film's themes completely out of context. Doug's (sigh) "spoof" of "Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2" inexplicably mocks the American educational system, which has nothing to do with the actual context of the song, which was based on the corporal punishment Waters, went through. In general, corporal punishment was common practice in schools back in the 1950's. So this "song" is very insulting to people who were victimized by this kind of child abuse and is therefore not funny. It also doesn't help that the special effects are very sloppy. To quote the late Gene Siskel's controversial review of Poltergeist, "anyone can do special effects." Now what Siskel said in his review of that movie was disrespectful to the people who worked on it. But compared to what I saw, I think he might actually be "right". The CGI and green screen were atrocious and the compositing is lazy.
Later on in the video, it for some reason turns into a ham-fisted and on-the-nose satire about social media culture when it "parodies" scenes involving Pink's dictatorship. The audience members are depicted as blind fanboys/fangirls who blindly agree with everything their leader says and they "salute" him by saying "Hashtag". What's weird is that the audience members are not seen sitting down in benches. Instead, they are seen on video screens placed on these bleachers. Oops, I forgot to mention on how it doesn't know how to parody the character of Pink. Corey Taylor (from Slipknot) and his teenage son make cameos in the video as younger and older selves of the supposed main character, but when he becomes a dictator, he's somehow played by Doug Walker. So Doug can't even make up his mind on how to parody Pink. Also, make a note that he wrote "Person You Hate" on his forehead, making it clear that Doug never took any criticism for his work and for his actions. The parodies of the other songs are equally insulting to the ones I pointed out for obvious reasons. But to make matters worse, Doug himself actually advertises a parody album in the middle of the video and calls it a "love letter" to Pink Floyd, when it's really disrespectful to their work. In response to Doug's disgusting ad, here's my promotion of something I personally consider a love letter.
Roger Ebert is my favorite film critic of all time. Even though I don't always agree with his reviews, his love and passion for movies has been clear to me and I'm always interested in what he has to say. In 1996, he began writing essays on what he considers "Great Movies". I think Ebert really topped himself with these essays because this is such a love letter to the art of film and film history and you can read them either in book form or on his website. If you're new to Ebert or already a fan, I highly recommend checking out these essays. It's Roger Ebert in top form.
Other love letters to film I also recommend are Cinemassacre's Monster Madness, or Oliver Harper's Retrospectives and reviews. In fact, get your film education from a variety of sources instead of The Nostalgia Critic. Speaking of which...
Back To The Video (May God Forgive Me)
Towards the end of the video, we get an animated segment that unsuccessfully satirizes "The Trail" segment from the end of the movie. This is surprisingly good animation from YouTube artist FENNAH, but you can't top the legendary artwork from Gerald Scarfe, who poured his heart and soul into making those animated segments, so FENNAH's work is in the wrong video.
After the song if finally over, NC completely contradicts himself by telling Corey Taylor that he liked the movie for it's "good music and imagination". Are you serious? You actually go from unfairly trashing the songs for being "full of itself", then later contradicting yourself by saying that you liked the film? What kind a review is this?
But I saved the worst for last. The video ends with, I'm not making this up, Corey Taylor doing a pointless cover of the Spongebob Squarepants theme song and NC and his cronies are singing along. What does Spongebob have to do with Pink Floyd? In fact, I have a better question. WHY IS THIS VIDEO EVEN MADE?
In Conclusion
Just to sum up the obvious, Nostalgia Critic's review of Pink Floyd's The Wall is an unfunny, lazy, ham-fisted, on-the-nose, dim witted, pretentious, boring, and downright disrespectful to film criticism, to Pink Floyd, and to it's audience. It's perfect example on why you shouldn't be watching The Nostalgia Critic and his work should be avoided at all costs. It truly is the worst film review I have even seen, and one of the worst videos ever made.
I pretty much agree. I tried watching the video and stopped around the 10-minute mark. Nostalgia Critic is pretty much a tired and outdated figure nowadays.
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