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Released by: Unearthed Films
Released on: August 9th, 2022.
Director: Oskar Lehemaa, Mikk Mägi
Cast: Märt Avandi, Reio Blond, Merilyn Elge, Johan Järviste, Mia Järviste
Year: 2019
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The Old Man Movie – Movie Review:
This stop motion animation featurette, co-directed by Estonian filmmakers Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Mägi and released in 2019, takes places in a small Estonian village more or less in the middle of nowhere. Here an old man lives with his grouchy wife, operating a dairy farm and tending to his beloved, but very much put open, prized cow.
One summer, the old man’s three grandchildren - Mart, Priidik, and Naim - are driven out from the city to spend their vacation at his farm. More interested in their phones than anything else, the three kids soon let loose the cow in question, unaware that if it isn’t milked soon, her utters will blow up and unleash upon this small, unsuspecting town, a literal “milkpocalypse.” Making matters worse, another farmer in the town is Hell-bent on getting to the missing cow first so that he can do away with it, permanently… because he’s been through this before and knows, first hand, what will happen if the milkpocalypse is unleashed!
The Old Man Movie is a decidedly silly endeavor, but is not without its charm. There’s a good bit of crass humor here – milk jokes aplenty, odd heavy metal references, plenty of drinking, a good bit of cow manure, a bovine-inspired Kaiju creature and even a weird sex tree are all part of the bizarre world that Oskar Lehemaa and Mikk Mägi have created using fairly detailed stop motion technology. Not quite the kids movie that some of the kinder, gentler visuals might lead you to believe it is (it’s hard not to watch this and think of something like Shaun The Sheep!), The Old Man Movie is nevertheless quite creative and often times very funny.
Based on the series of short films that the directing team made prior to the feature (included in the extra features section on this Blu-ray release), The Old Man Movie strange, unique and irreverent from start to finish. There are some unexpected tonal shifts (it gets quite violent in spots!) that might not sit well with some viewers but for those who can appreciate absurdist humor, crazy characters, crass humor and creative animation stylings, this should prove to be a pretty entertaining watch!
The Old Man Movie – Blu-ray Review:
The Old Man Movie arrives on Region A Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation framed at 2.35.1 widescreen with the feature taking up 20GBs of space on the 25GB disc. Picture quality is pretty strong here. There’s very nice detail present throughout the presentation and the colors look excellent. There aren’t any issues with noticeable compression artifacts and we get a surprising amount of depth and texture in pretty much every frame.
Original Estonian language options are offered up in 16-bit DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Stereo, while English language options are offered up in 16-bit DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Stereo. Optional subtitles are provided that transfer the Estonian tracks into English. The film plays better in Estonian but for those with an aversion to subtitles, the English tracks are perfectly fine substitutes. If you’ve got a surround sound system, the 5.1 mixes are a bit more fun, they spread the effects around quite nicely. No problems to note with any hiss or distortion here, everything sounds quite good.
The main extras come in the form of a few ‘Old Man Shorts’: The Taste Of Cow, I Went To Sauna With Grandchildren, My Cow Gave Birth, The Old Man Is Tired and The Old Hag Had Me Put An Implant. These run between two and three minutes each and are done in the same animation style as the feature. They also use the same kind of weird, twisted humor as the feature and, as such, are definitely worth checking out.
Finishing up the extras are English and Estonian language trailers for The Old Man Movie and bonus trailers for Premutos, Ascetic, Untold story, Evil Dead Trap and Hanger as well as menus and chapter selection options. Unearthed Films also includes a slipcover with this release.
The Old Man Movie - The Final Word:
The Old Man Movie is as unique and creative as it is unabashedly silly and absurd. Unearthed Films has done a really nice job bringing this quirky Estonian import to Blu-ray with a great presentation and the shorts that inspired the feature included as the main extras on the disc.