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Max Reload and the Nether Blasters

Released Aug 7, 2020 1h 41m Fantasy Adventure TRAILER for List
85% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 61% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Fantasy collides with reality when a video-game store clerk accidentally unleashes an ancient malevolent force.
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Max Reload and the Nether Blasters

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Richard Whittaker Austin Chronicle Max Reload isn't for everyone, but it's not trying to be. It's a pizza-and-soda Saturday night gamer film for serious gamers - not the kind that just grind through bug releases, but can name a developer other than Hideo Kojima. Rated: 2/5 Jul 30, 2020 Full Review Alix Turner 25YL (25 Years Later) The kind of story that might feature in Stranger Things, if it were set in a nostalgic present day, Max Reload and the Nether Blasters combines geeky gamer affection with generation gap digs and demon-fighting adventure. Rated: 3.5/5 Jun 21, 2021 Full Review Anton Bitel VODzilla.co It may be glitchily rough around the edges, but Conditt and Tremp's film also knows exactly what it is, and affectionately revives a 1980s sense of adolescent adventure for the networked era. It even has a bloopers reel at the end... May 31, 2021 Full Review Tom Jolliffe Flickering Myth It's not ground breaking, but it is enjoyable, and gamers, retro gaming enthusiasts and nostalgia hounds will find plenty to enjoy here. Aug 26, 2020 Full Review Matt Conway Battle Royale With Cheese Max Reload and the Nether Blasters' good-hearted nature can't equate to a satisfying lo-fi 80s homage. Aug 20, 2020 Full Review Adam Mock Film Inquiry A mild recommendation is given for tolerant fans of B-movies and gamers, but don't expect to play Max Reload more than once. Aug 20, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (28) audience reviews
Zyleth B Better than megamind 2. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/12/24 Full Review David W Enjoyed this nerdy, affectionately goofy, little romp a lot more than I was expecting to. It doesn't hurt that I'm a die hard retro gamer and lover of fantasy in general, so it was right in my wheelhouse thematically. It's obviously not had an AAA budget lavished on it but its much more enjoyable, on its own terms, than many big budget movies I've seen recently. The talented cast all do well in their roles and there's a feeling of genuine affection towards the subject matter. It's currently showing for free on Pluto, so it would be daft not to give it a watch to see what you think. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/09/24 Full Review Anthony S I saw this movie a while back and wanted to show it to my young son. I couldn't remember the title correctly and kept searching for Max Hardcore and The Finger Blasters. Needless to say, I kept getting results for films not intended for children. This is a much better movie than the name implies and is one of the best video game movies I've ever seen. If you're looking for a light-hearted, fun, sci-fi flick, give this one a shot. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Shaheed B This isn't a big budget blockbuster movie, it's a low budget movie and you can see it's a low budget movie, and if you're into anything like video games, Funko pops, computers or anything like that, this movie is a blast to watch, not just about the story, but just seeing all the cool stuff in this movie you'll get excited, and for the budget of this movie I'm actually surprised at what a fun time I had watching this. The story was actually quite fun to watch, they could have made it a simple movie where all they had to do; was defeat the bad guys, but they added more about the characters which added some dept to the characters, like how Max could have gone to college or university but he can't afford it, and his relationship between him and his friends. There was quite a few actors in it that I didn't expect like Kevin Smith, Martin Cove and Lin Shaye, but the question is...did you see Wil Wheaton? The main character played by Tom Plumley actually fit the character perfectly, I have to be honest, the other two characters that played his friends was actually a downer because the one never really had much personality and other one mostly criticised him and disagreed with him throughout the movie so the main character really added some fun and excitement to the screen with his enthusiasm. Inbetween the movie I really like the animated scenes which they added, for me, it made the movie feel more like it's about video games, and was it only me that was expecting the game to have more graphics, I mean they have been raving about that game, so when he finally played it; it wasn't what I was expecting, I guess the movie made me raise my expectations a little too high. I think it was actually a great idea to limit it's CGI of all the bad guys to glowing eyes rather than having full CGI characters, because considering the budget of this movie it actually made it very watchable having the least amount of CGI, and that zap of light from the blasters was actually not bad, I didn't mind the CGI at all, I didn't cringe at all during this movie. Making the entire ending about a video game was true to its story and it's characters, but what I didn't expect, was for them to be dressed like the actual video game characters and I wasn't hating it at all, and all of them coming together atleast added character development to Max's relationship between him and his friends. Before I complete my review on this movie, Can I just say something about Kevin Smith's character, wouldn't it have been really cool of he had no idea what was going to at all and at the end after all that excitement the three of them finally stood back in the gameshop and with a sigh of relief after beeing though all and then Kevin Smith comes out and says "what's up loosers! I bet you never experienced something like that in your life!" And they all just look at each other laugh and then it cuts to the end credits, and then maybe after the end credits there's an extra scene where he goes back to his office and sees a box on his table, he opens it, and then the camera only shoes his reaction with a very big surprised expression on his face but the cameras doesn't show what's in the box so we have to wait for a sequel to see what it is. Or what would be really cool is to see a Netflix series where in each episode; they have to stop different characters coming to life from different games, and they have to stop them with their Netherblasters and send them back to the NetherRealm. So my review on this movie is based solely on comparison between other movies that is based on video games and the gaming world, and I have to say this movie doesn't disappoint at all, and for a low budget movie it's actually quite surprising. The cinematography wasn't like a big budget movie but it was clear, the colours want washed out at all and the CGI actually blended in, okay I have to be honest here I like that they used some retro music in some scenes but when you watch a low budget movie, the sound also makes it feel like a low budget movie and I think this is where they failed at, there should have been really deep bass sounds that makes the bass from my subwoofer rattle things around it, when you watch other big movies; the sound just makes everything epic and makes it feel larger than life, that is why sound is very important to movies, unfortunately this movie actually lacked of immersive sound effects, they could have had really loud bass when they used the blasters to make you feel the impact of it, they could have had added more sound effects when they were playing the games to make it feel more immersive between the real world and the video game, if you want to experience something like that watch the illusion scene with Mysterio and Spiderman in Spiderman Far from home. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/31/22 Full Review jamie m Its good I liked it! The story was good but kinda poorly writen out is my only dislike! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member I went in to watching the movie hoping for a campy, nerdy, comedy that would be easy to watch; I had high hopes that if Kevin Smith was in it, it would be good. It had none of what I had hoped for. The acting was terrible, and definitely not in a campy way; none of the actors were believable in their roles, the character development was terrible, the dialog was hard to even listen to, and none of the characters had remotely realistic personalities. The story was terrible; there was no commitment to a style or genre, the settings were bad, there was no real flow or progression to the story, and the action and dialog throughout the movie never really contributed to the actual story. Even though it was released in 2020 it felt like they were trying to give the movie a late 90's early 2000's vibe and emulate what made movies from that era fun and great, but they failed miserably at that. The jokes didn't land, the relationships didn't hit, and what was meant to seem campy and fun came off as bad acting. The movie overall seemed to have very little substance to cling to and it was a struggle to sit through the entire thing, although I wouldn't tell people to never watch it I would tell them to be prepared to regret watching it at the end. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Max Reload and the Nether Blasters

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Fantasy collides with reality when a video-game store clerk accidentally unleashes an ancient malevolent force.
Director
Scott Conditt, Jeremy Tremp
Producer
Scott Conditt, Rob Edwards, Greg Grunberg, Jesse Lobell, Jeremy Tremp
Screenwriter
Scott Conditt, Jeremy Tremp
Distributor
MVD Entertainment Group
Production Co
CineForge Media
Genre
Fantasy, Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 7, 2020, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 11, 2020
Runtime
1h 41m
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