It wasn't even their first movie though.
That's what's even sadder: Even if all their previous movies hadn't been shitty, they still knew better - yet
apparently threw caution to the wind once their fame from pretending they could do better than George Lucas allowed them to secure financing when they didn't even know what they were going to do.
Mike's movies with the oranges are more competent than Space Cop; because logistics forced him and Rich to storyboard everything, figure out how each shot could be executed with in-camera practical effects, build miniature sets rigged to accommodate four arms puppeteering and actuating whichever props were required for the scene's effects, draw every face they knew would be needed for the scene on fruit sourced recently enough prior to scheduled filming that they wouldn't be rotting, and then get the day's portion of shit done and in the can as efficiently as possible. The logistics of the films forced them to be disciplined; because it was the only way the project could have been done. I never want to watch those orange movies again - But damned if they aren't charming; because you can see the effort that went into every shot.
I've watched a decent amount of their previous movies, with and without commentary, and have also checked out whatever supplementary materials documenting production they thought to put out there. The BTS materials for Space Cop is chock full of amateur hour shit giving the impression every step of production was disorganized and haphazardly thrown together to be figured out during shooting, then abandoned until the next sporadic bit of filming weeks or months later.
Feeding Frenzy is mediocre, too - But it at least gives you the sense that people who knew what they were doing were attempting to pay tribute to a particular subgenre of 1980s movies within budgetary constraints and with whichever local actors had nothing better to do. Space Cop is just people throwing shit at the wall until it's covered in shit. Though it's been a while since I watched it, I remember a few funny moments:
1. Space Cop's car launching into space (thanks to Colin).
2.
Some beats of Patton Oswalt's cameo ("He is fuckin' standing there").
3. Space Cop killing everyone in the house and throwing the baby in boiling water.
4. The shot of Space Cop blowing up the child that grows up to kill his wife.
5. Len Kabasiznsnski being Rich's stunt double, and Rich throwing the alien dummy headfirst through the wall.
The rest of the jokes are just cringe filler courtesy of Like Like Stoklasa. I wish Rich getting a bunch of '00s Internet popups in his HUD and falling into garbage cans was funnier - But it never lands, and goes on for too long. The gag with Rich flatly framed inputting a sixty digit code to unlock his refrigerator seemed like something the Family Guy writers' room would throw away. Isn't there also a joke where Mike or Rich just farts for a long time while looking at the camera?
