Fried Barry [Blu-Ray]

Director: Ryan Kruger

Cast: Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager

Release Date: October 5, 2021

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

Barry is a drug-addled degenerate who, after yet another bender, gets abducted by aliens. Barry takes a backseat as his alien visitor assumes control of his body and takes it for a joyride through Cape Town. What follows is an onslaught of drugs, sex and violence as Barry’s alien tourist enters the weird and wonderful world of humankind.

Please Note: RLJE Films provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

‘Fried Barry’ tells the bizarre and out of this world tale of an unmemorable drug addict and lowlife named Barry who is randomly abducted by aliens one night. As Barry is pushed aside, one of his alien abductors inhabits Barry’s body and takes him back to earth for a wild ride through the high, low and even lower ends of Cape Town where he confronts a variety of individuals, some better than others. As the newly overtaken Barry makes his way from one place to another exploring the unfamiliar terrain, it leads to a night of sex, violence and chaos among humankind as this strange visitor explores our world through new eyes.

Written and directed by Ryan Kruger who makes his feature length directorial debut with ‘Fried Barry’ and does a great job guiding along the crazy, drug-fueled ride with a unique approach and style. The film’s cast includes Gary Green (TV’s The Looming Tower) and Chanelle de Jager (TV’s The Widow) along with more, the majority offering mostly capable, if not at least fitting performances for the most part in each of their respective roles, particularly Green who truly nails the lead role and really helps this one to work as smoothly as it does.

‘Fried Barry’ is a wild, weird and refreshingly unique drug trip of a film that’s like nothing you’ve experienced before. Filmed with an in-your-face style that wonderfully captures the chain of events from the perspective of our lead and filled with plenty of twists, turns and strange events that will keep you from ever being able to predict just where this bizarre little film might take us next. Showcasing this visitor’s experience with humankind, it delves into a grimy, darkly comedic and often strangely endearing ride through town that is never quite what you’d expect. While also raising some curious questions about humanity, especially when some of the alien’s actions are kinder than those of the human he inhabits. It occasionally goes quite over the top and even graphic with its approach (though never in a negative way), but never veers away from what it sets out to do. The incredibly original story and style earn huge points for the film and its clearly talented writer and director Ryan Kruger who makes a notable feature length directorial debut. His work is only greatly complimented by lead actor Gary Green who embodies the role(s) of Barry (and not-Barry) with an off-beat and strangely fitting aura that helps to make this one work as well as it does. If you’re a fan of weird, wild and underappreciated films that aren’t afraid to take chances and deliver something special, then I would strongly encourage giving ‘Fried Barry’ a whirl when you have the chance.

Overall, ‘Fried Barry’ is a fresh, bizarre and brain warping ride that never settles into one genre or approach and manages to delight throughout with its wacky story, approach and guidance. Continually finding clever and unexpected ways to take the story and providing a delightfully strange take on an alien abduction tale that will keep you guessing throughout. ‘Fried Barry’ is definitely recommended for anyone who appreciates an off-beat and original acid-trip ride of a film that isn’t afraid to get weird, wild and even quite bloody at times. Refreshingly original in almost every way and benefitting from by its willingness to just go nuts and never play to the more standard film tropes, this one is well worth taking the time to give a chance if you’re seeking something different and unexpected to just let go with one uneventful evening.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Fried Barry’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty great as a whole and provides a sharp, vibrantly colored and nicely detailed presentation from start to finish with no unexpected problems to be uncovered along the way. It holds up smoothly even during the darkly lit, fast moving and heavily populated moments throughout and never allows anything that’s occurring onscreen to become problematic or negatively affected. Overall, this is a solid high definition video presentation that should please newcomers to the film as well as fans.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack makes a great compliment to the onscreen craziness and fun, delivering a clean, crisp and at times quite aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, crowd chatter and various audio effects along with more throughout the various speakers at every logical opportunity and never results in any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously becoming distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this is a pretty great 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that does its job nicely and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Fried Barry’ includes a number of solid extras that fans of the film should enjoy. Included on the release is an ‘Audio Commentary with Writer/Director/Producer Ryan Kruger, Producer James C. Williamson and Director of Photography Gareth Place’, in addition to a collection of ‘Deleted and Extended Scenes’ from the film (running approximately 6 minutes in length altogether) and some ‘Outtakes’ (running approximately 4 more minutes). We are also treated to the Behind the Scenes Featurette ‘The Making of Fried Barry’ (running approximately 15 minutes in length), plus ‘Fried Barry Behind the Scenes’ (approximately 4 minutes) and the ‘Fried Barry Short Film’ (4 minutes). The release also features some fun videos and film related promos such as ‘Barry Advertisements’ (approximately 2 minutes altogether) and ‘”How To” with Barry’ segments (4 minutes combined). An ‘Alternate Trailer’ (1 minute) for the film is also included.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

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‘Fried Barry’ Arrives on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital on October 5, 2021 from SHUDDER – RLJE Films

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