review: 305

Allumination Filmworks  //  Buy from Amazon.com After 300 There Were 5. This is the not so legendary tale of the five somewhat brave Spartans who didn't go to Thermopylae but instead were assigned to guard the secret goat path and ran away at the first sign of trouble. They were the laughing stock of the entire Spartan army. All they had to do was guard a lousy goat path. And they failed. Claudius Darryl Demetrius the Blind Shazaam and Testicleese must embark on a hero's journey to redeem themselves and become true warriors armed with only a sharpened carrot a rolling pin and an incredible sense of guilt. Smartly funny and based entirely on historical fact (allegedly) 305 proves that even the biggest losers get lucky sometimes. It's interesting to compare "305" to "Meet the Spartans" - the latter is a truly unfunny, painful attempt to be funny, while the former is actually quite inspired, damn funny and a solid piece of entertainment. Apparently based on a short film posted to YouTube shortly after "300" hit theaters (click here to view), the indie filmmaking twins got some money thrown their way to turn their short into a feature length film, the result being this very DVD that I'm reviewing! I have to say: this is a really funny movie. More often than not, truly independent comedies aren't altogether that funny, but are more admirable in their attempts to be humorous than actually being drop-dead funny. Not the case with this one - it delivers the goods and will have you laughing throughout. Plus, I have to say, this is some impressive filmmaking, with green screen special effects that literally (and surprisingly) rival those in "300" itself. Damn impressive. Well worth your time, seek this one out - you won't be disappointed. Video A solid 16x9 anamorphic widescreen transfer delivers the film in all its stylized color palette glory... Audio The included Dolby 2.0 stereo mix is decent, but not fantastic. A bit of distortion, a bit of out-of-syncness, but overall okay. Extras 2 audio commentaries: filmmakers & actors deleted scenes making-of featurette original short that inspired the feature-length film interviews w/ cast (in character) behind-the-scenes footage of actors on the green screen "on the road" featurette visual effects featurette Closing Thoughts Hilarious indie gem + loads of extras = excellent comedic viewing!