The greatest movie ever made..!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I was completely fascinated with LARPers after seeing the excellent Darkon. Once I learned that there was another documentary about the subject, I wasted no time tracking it down and watching it. Unfortunately, Monster Camp is inferior to Darkon in every way. Even hardcore fans of documentaries may choose to skip this one.A documentary is only as good as its subject matter, and Monster Camp simply fails in this regard. I'm not a judgmental person. I liked all the colorful people that Darkon focused on. There lives were interesting for the most part, and I empathized or identified to a degree with all of them. For the most part they were normal people. Monster Camp, on the other hand...I hate to say this, but there was very little to like about the participants of Nero Seattle. They weren't endearing or quirky. Mostly, they were just plain weird. The movie makers made no attempt to portray them as three-dimensional individuals. They all came off as losers or super-geeks who had nothing in their lives except their monthly hobby. And I hate to see people depicted in such a negative way. There's no incentive to get emotionally involved in Monster Camp. Darkon was so well made, that everything that was important to its subjects soon became important to the viewer. All I feel after watching Monster Camp is that most of those people would benefit from focusing more of their attention on the real world.In a nutshell, I recommend Darkon to everyone and Monster Camp to no one.

First, I was a member of NERO Seattle when this film was shot. While it took quite a while for me to actually see the finished product, I can only say this: I was deeply disappointed. Both in the scope of the film, and the ultimate, overall focus.To me, they focused on the "worst" of us, on those who did not truly reflect the game, its players, or what is most important--there was too much focus on the negative.The gentleman who are featured on the photo--in green lizard-like costumes--no longer even play. In fact, they stopped playing shortly after they wrapped up shooting, and it angers me that they tried to represent those two as the "norm" in terms of those who actually play the game.I'm sorry that I participated. I'm sorry that I was excited when I heard about this project. But most of all, I'm sorry for all of the players and owners who were so grossly misrepresented.

Director Cullen Hoback dives into the world of live-action roleplaying.In Seattle, a group of young men and women gather every year to live out their fantasy-based fantasies. They dress up as warriors and monsters and re-enact battles based on World of Warcraft.The group, known as NERO (New England Roleplaying Organization), follows the rules outlined in their 184-page rulebook. Throwing packets of birdseed (which they use as spells to cast) and hitting one another with padded swords, the players spend 48 consecutive hours as their characters.Hoback's film does a wonderful job of being informative about the NERO culture, while at the same time, telling the stories of quite a large amount of participants.An important note: the film does not make fun of these people. While it might have been easy to make a film at their expense, Hoback does not do this. The themes of this film are companionship, escapism, and most importantly, imagination.Monster Camp is extremely entertaining. If you get a chance to watch it, do yourself the favor and get some friends together one night and check it out.

Last nite at San Jose Cinequest. A very interesting film about folks in Live Action RolePlaying and how the hobby has defined or even taken over their life. The film covers the romantic angle too, with couples both meeting and breaking up over "in game" issues. Altho the film is about "L.A.R.P." is could well be about SCA, Renfaire, D&D or even Massive Multiplayer Online games. It touches a bit on that last, with a couple of the guys in the film admitting they spend over 40 hours a week playing WOW. Of course a film about slackers playing computer games would be a tad boring.What I particularly like is the balance shown by the film-makers. They show the good and the bad, with no apparent bias. Intelligent and thought-provoking, with a number of very funny moments and a few poignant ones too.