Synopsis
Take a Trip Behind the Mask
Follows two years in the life of Greg Sommer, aka Skull Man, as he builds the Canadian chapter of Box Wars, an international underground movement of cardboard-based combat.
2013 Directed by Justin McConnell
Follows two years in the life of Greg Sommer, aka Skull Man, as he builds the Canadian chapter of Box Wars, an international underground movement of cardboard-based combat.
amazing insight into the the life of canadians from 1990-2010, Greg "i've always believed in insurance" Sommer has a cute accent, hes a cartoon character come to life, this type of honest and earnest person living so freely doesn't exist anymore. Those around him knew he was a one of a kind spirit. I don't know why this was on my watchlist or why I watched it. lmfaoing at the guy with a mayhem patch who also participates cardboard box wars. I shit you not they do a ayahuasca ritual about an hour into the movie. tool patches/posters and autobot stickers everywhere, Greg Sommer is the child of Timothy Treadwell and Optimus Prime.
A fun look at the box wars phenomenon and the charismatic alter ego known as Skull Man. I never really gravitated towards something like LARP, but this is something I would be more at home with simply because it's more metal. Funny and intriguing to say the least.
Pure cardboard creativity. Skull man is the dominant creative force. Only fringes on the story of the man behind the mask, from which beyond the cardboard carnage is what the film is lacking.
A fun look at a devil horn throwing party boy and his friends as they partake, organise and live for Box Wars- an organised fight between groups of cardboard clad warriors. I’m sold. Sign me up.
The documentary itself could have done with a little discipline when it comes to the edit. Definitely overlong and lacking a little structure. Still the creativity on screen is enough the stay till the end. Paired with ‘Dave Made A Maze’, it would make for an obvious yet perfect double feature.
For those not familiar with the concept of Box Wars it was the creation of three design students in Australia whose idea of building weapons and armour out of cardboard and staging epic battle quickly caught on with Greg Sommer better known as Skull Man bringing the DIY chaos to Canada when he formed the first Canadian chapter for the sport while looking for a follow up for his own Cardboard box destruction derby event.
Following Sommer over a two year period director Justin McConnell whose own indie film making journey was recently the subject of his documentary Clapboard Junction. McConnell embedded himself with Sommer and his fellow box war enthusiasts to try and discover what the appeal of dressing…
this dude is kind of a dipshit but how earnest he is in all his dipshittery makes it impossible for me to hate him. the doc itself could have benefitted from a wider view of the box wars movement instead of this one guy, since there really isn't much to him that isn't covered in the first 20.
There are warriors among us. Working mundane jobs by day, by night they prepare for battle. Their weapons: cardboard. Their arena: Boxwars. Their champion: SKULL MAN!
Skull World may not be a horror documentary, but fans of horror and more importantly metal and DIY art are going to rock large to director Justin McConnell's (The Collapsed) fascinating look into the epic world of cardboard carnage that is Boxwars. At the forefront of Skull World is the Skull Man himself (Greg Sommer), a wildly creative metal fan behind a skull mask and the champion of the Canadian chapter of Boxwars, an international underground movement of cardboard-based combat.
For Boxwars, which began in Australia, participants construct elaborate cardboard weapons, armor, and even…
What zero pussy does to an mf: the movie. It's nice to be reminded ever so often that other countries have failsons as well and this doc is full of them from the Canadian and Australian chapters. There's not really any arc here, by the end our "hero," a man whose brain has not aged past sixteen years old, is just as lonely and depressing yet oddly hopeful as he was in the beginning. There are much better dipshit documentaries out there.
I kept forgetting that this was a documentary about Greg Sommer, aka Skull Man, and not specifically about Box Wars because Box Wars is truly fascinating. It's like something that would be included in Obscure Sports Quarterly between Quidditch and Cheese Rolling. An hour long doc specifically about cardboard combat would have been interesting and entertaining but what we have here is 1 hour and 40 minutes that's about 75% box wars and 25% 30 something butt rock fan, excuse me he calls it metal, who lives in his mom's basement getting high and looking for aliens.
Wow. It's been a long time since I've been this surprised on how good a movie was. I had to rent this obscure documentary from Itunes to even get a copy and I hope the money does reach the filmmaker because it was money well spent. It is a bizarre topic for a documentary and looking at it at first glance I thought it was going to be a bunch of people LARPing and shit with nerdy guys in there mothers basement and feeling shitty. I'm glad the thing I got most right about my assumptions was living in their mother's basement. The fast pace of the documentary kept Bhakti and me enthralled throughout the runtime. Skull man is such…
Close your eyes. Imagine what would happen if you mixed LARPinG with GWAR and then filtered that through a genuinely affable Canadian metal head. What you are seeing is Skull World.
A bit long but main subject is so entertaining that it gets a pass. The Compassionate Canadian Hesher is a new character type to me.