What We Had To Watch
is a video review series written by and starring Garrett Snook, aka Il Neige (formerly DJ Il Neige), who reviews
mediocre movies of the last ten years.
Citing influences from
That Guy With The Glasses, Il Neige takes them down with a good sense of humor and dry commentary along the way. He's also a member of the
Reviewtopia crew.
His
YouTube page, containing mirror uploads of many of his older reviews, as well as a few Vlog videos, can be found
here. You can also watch his work on
Geekvision.
This series provides examples of:
- Acting for Two: In some cases.
- Actually Pretty Funny: His opinion of Jim Carrey as The Grinch in the film adaptation.
- Adorkable: Oh yes.
- Affectionate Parody: The April Fool's Day video is one for Film Brain.
- Berserk Button: Loud, obnoxious and overall useless characters that function solely as lame comic relief, especially Goon from Titan A.E., Mole from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Snails from Dungeons & Dragons, Louis from Kangaroo Jack, and BEN from Treasure Planet.
- Bilingual Bonus: Though the name isn't really related to his review style or content, "il neige" is French for "it snows".
- The Cameo: He did one in the crossover of The Rap Critic and Marc Mues.
- The Cast Showoff: Averted. Garrett himself actually sings and plays guitar in a small band called Emrus but never actually performs songs in his videos, unless they're meant to be intentionally bad joke songs.
- Caustic Critic: Mostly subverted. While he is quick to point out flaws in a movie and tear them a new one, he is willing to acknowledge when they might get something right.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Dull Surprise: In his own review of the Dungeons & Dragons movie, he points out that even the bad acting from high guardswoman with the "armor nipples of doom" can't top Thora Birch as the Empress.
- Follow the Leader: Very obviously inspired by the reviewers of That Guy With The Glasses. He even applied to join TGWTG, but was rejected.
- Later pariodied in his April Fool's Day video, where the character goes through an identity crisis and a split personality tries to give Il Neige a Hannibal Lecture about his "lack of originality," but thankfully, Il Neige does snap out of his Heroic BSOD.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: It gets broken very easily, and Il Neige is constantly in danger from explosions, fires and other weapons that come out the screen.
- Hair of Gold: Il Neige himself possesses this.
- Mauve Shirt: Points out how this wasn't handled well in Atlantis: The Lost Empire in the scene when the other characters just sum up their life stories immediately after the big action scene without giving the audience a chance to attach themselves to the characters first.
Il Neige: "Honestly, the leviathan could've killed off any one of these characters, and I wouldn't miss any of them because I didn't know anything about them."
- Money, Dear Boy: Theorizes that this is the reason why many good actors took on the bad roles in their films.
Il Neige: (concerining Jeremy Iron's
over-the-top performance in
Dungeons & Dragons): "Okay,
no joke I think he (Jeremy Irons) was just wasted. I do. I think at this point in production, Irons was so fed up that he just got progressively more drunk while he waited for his paycheck."
- My God, What Have I Done?: During the Monster House review.
Il Niege: *In regards to Mr. Nebercracker* Just die already! Just die just die just die!
*Nebercracker apparently dies*
Il Niege: Oh god what have I done.
- Nostalgia Filter: Somewhat subverted in the Treasure Planet review - the things he liked as a kid, he started to take issue with as an adult, and vice versa.
- Obviously Evil: Literally points this out with Commander Rourke in Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
- One of Us: He knows about this page.
- Pet Peeve Trope: In-Universe examples and he has a good number of these...
- Running Gag: Cheesecake, usage of Star Fox 64 quotes ("Do a barrel roll!") and his fourth wall barrier getting broken.
- Another in his Dungeons & Dragons review of not even bothering to get The Dragon's name correct, from calling him Didgeridoo, Daisy Dukes and Dance Dance Revolution.
- Anytime the characters pull off some crazy stunt he yells "EXTREME!!!" to a guitar riff.
- Shameless Self Promotion: His review of The Sage Of Darkness may have been motivated by the fact that it was made by his friends, and he has a bit part in it. Nonetheless, he claims to have been impartial.
- Shirtless Scene: In Rap Critic and Marc Mues' first crossover.
- Shown Their Work: Especially in the Top 10 Fictional Bands list.
- Something Only They Would Say: Spazz says this when he's about to beat the British out of Il Neige. His answer Oh come on!
- Unusual Euphemism: Cheesecake for anytime the male and female leads in a film have any kind of romantic or sexual tension.
- Viewers Are Morons: He especially hates it when works aimed at kids talk down to their audience and/or are condenscending in manner (such as the musical segments being mediocre to bad just because they're aimed at children).
- What Could Have Been: He originally called himself DJ Il Neige and initially planned to solely focus on and review musical movies, but scrapped the idea after feeling he might not have enough material to work with.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Whenever his fourth wall gets broken.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Invoked. Points this out whenever a movie that's supposed to be aimed at children has either copious amounts of Family Unfriendly Violence, vulgar jokes, or both.
(after a crude joke was made) Il Neige: "
Kangaroo Jack - a comedy for the whole family!"
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