The Office Rock Jocks are 21 & Over —
Rock Jocks is once again, another exciting and superb example of how entertaining Indie films have been lately. So many skilled, ambitious, first time writer/directors are getting the chance to realize their untapped potential. They are successfully delivering their visions, not only opening doors for their future, but showing to potential investors that great films can be produced with smaller budgets, lesser known casts and of course unknown writer/ directors at the helm. Here Paul V. Seetachitt has his virgin outing, taking a film that could have ended in disaster and using the low budget sets and peculiar atmosphere to his advantage. The cast, despite the budget, is largely filled with well known faces with the likes of Justin Chon 21 & Over and Hang Loose, Gerry Bednob known for his uniquely comedic presence dating back to the times of “Encino Man”, Felicia Day Red: Werewolf Hunter, Andrew Bowen, Conjuror and Kevin Wu who is new to the scene. In Wu’s second film Hang Loose , he again stars opposite of Justin Chon.
- Rock Jocks
- Director
Paul V. Seetachitt - Cast
Andrew Bowen, Felicia Day, Gerry Bednob, Justin Chon - Release Date
13 August, 2013 - Influx Grade: B
The story is based on a mix of somewhat dysfunctional government employees working in a top secret government facility responsible for shooting down or averting the course of asteroids headed for earth. The employees consist of Seth (J.Chon), a video game competition winner hired more for his quick fingers than his brains. Then comes Danny (Keven Wu) the neatly dressed, serious young man who is trying to get out from under the shadow of his legendary father, known for his heroic actions at the very same facility many years earlier. Allison (Felicia Day) is the only woman at the base and has constantly been passed over for promotion. Leaving John (Andrew Bowen) as the teams leader; using the term leader very loosely. Then there is Tom, the elder of the group, a quite funny employee who lapses into sporadic coma like states when he isn’t sexually harassing Allison and drinking on the job.
The film takes place entirely in the space of one shift at the base, the overbearing government interviewer Austin (Mark Woolley), who seems determined to shut the entire place down, leaving everything to be controlled by the newly added supercomputer, aptly named SKYNET. The films shifts between office like dialog between the group and a practical joke or two as Austin takes them back to be interviewed one by one, in more of an interrogation than an interview format. He’s set on firing them all and replacing them with his new cutting edge, fully automated computer. I almost forgot to mention, the resident alien, yes alien, who goes by the name Smoking Jesus. He lives at the base and hangs out with the group from time to time, apparently content living out his life at the base as long as he’s supplied with an endless supply of Cig’s.
[widgets_on_pages id=”AdSenseArticleBanner”]
I believe there will be a couple of things in the film, such as the very low brow, needlessly lewd dialog that may put some viewers off, especially so early in the film as that’s when most of it occurs. The film does seem to start off a bit rough, but with the great actors involved, it isn’t long before you actually start to dig the prehistoric set, (which originally was kind of a put-off) and become engrossed into this quirky little comedy. It seemed as though there was just enough budget left over after paying the cast to actually make a pretty cool looking film. It brought back fond memories from the 80’s and countless hours I spent playing the Atari game Asteroids. The actual effects seemed to pay a homage to the actual arcade & Atari version of the game. While it took well over an hour to get into the full action stage, is was indeed worth the wait. It is a film worth checking out especially if you happen to be a fan of “21 & Over” or “The Office” as the comedy seemed to be in the same line of them.
Review by Jim Davis, special to Influx Magazine
Get in the conversation. Visit the Influx Forum.
