Wave Twisters Movie Review

Wave Twisters, the brainchild of a foursome of turntable DJs, is practically a 45-minute animated music video wherein DJ QBert's spins and samples are given Technicolor life. There's a story of sorts inside the movie -- though the dialogue is, as near as I can tell, all sampled from TV commercials and old sitcoms. For those who insist on playing along, it's a sci-fi-ish tale a la Star Wars, wherein the animated Inner Space Dental Commander must use his own brand of "force" (aka spinning records) to wage battle against the villainous DJs (who play themselves in live footage among the animation, Roger Rabbit style).

Full of pop culture references -- villains with Palm Pilots, Macs that ask you about alcoholism, robots that need to be reset with a paperclip -- Wave Twisters is reasonably fun; it's just not what I'd call great cinema. Rather, it's something that would probably play better projected on the wall at a rave instead of in a dark and quiet movie theater. (No doubt, most people who see Wave Twisters will do so standing up.)

Alas, I never got the "All your base are belong to us" payoff I was hoping for in the movie, but I guess Wave Twisters was created a tad too early for that craze. But what do I know? The film tied for best "midnight film" at this year's SXSW film festival. Here's to the hip kids.

Twist and tag.