arizona u.s. 2004 1 founder mike stoklasa headquarters milwaukee wisconsin united states area served worldwide key people mike stoklasa jay bauman rich evans jack packard josh davis jessi nakles products film reviews short films web series website redlettermedia.com red letter media stylized as redlettermedia is a film video production company operated by independent filmmakers mike stoklasa previously of gmp pictures 2 and jay bauman formerly of blanc screen cinema . the company was formed by stoklasa in 2004 while living in scottsdale arizona but is now based in milwaukee county wisconsin . stoklasa himself attracted significant attention in 2009 through a 70 minute video review of the 1999 film star wars episode i the phantom menace . the review was posted in seven parts on youtube and presented by his character harry s. plinkett . while stoklasa had published other video reviews for the star trek films in the next generation series prior to this the phantom menace and subsequent star wars prequel reviews were praised for both content and presentation . stoklasa has produced other works under the redlettermedia banner including short comedies and web series the grabowskis ; several review based web series including half in the bag best of the worst and review ; and concert wedding and corporate videos . his low budget features have been largely horror and comedy and have included feeding frenzy the recovered oranges revenge of the eggplant and space cop . bauman who had directed stoklasa in several low budget features under the blanc screen cinema banner has been a director and producer working with him on most of his projects . in addition stoklasa has employed colleague rich evans to be a full time actor and stagehand for their projects . contents 1 mr. plinkett character 2 films 3 plinkett reviews 3.1 the phantom menace review 3.2 attack of the clones review 3.3 revenge of the sith review 3.4 the force awakens review 3.5 reception 4 half in the bag 5 best of the worst 6 re view 7 other projects 8 references 9 external links mr. plinkett character edit stoklasa created his first video review for star trek generations after watching the film again some time in 2008 . he noted that he thought it was a shitty movie and completely messed up the transition to the big screen from what was a really great tv show inspiring him to share this view with others . stoklasa found his own voice to be too boring for the review and adopted the persona of harry s. plinkett a character he had previously used in several short films originally played by rich evans and since further developed within the reviews . 3 mr. plinkett has been described as cranky a schizophrenic and psychotic 4 5 whose voice has been characterized as a cross between dan aykroyd in the blues brothers and the silence of the lambs buffalo bill . 4 6 the character has also been described as illiterate . he mispronounces words like protagonist and brags that he has never read a book and has no intention of doing so . he also displays ignorance of history as when he confuses the cuban missile crisis with world war i and the nazi invasion of france with the french revolution . through side comments in narration flashes of disturbing images and cuts to live scenes filmed by redlettermedia mr. plinkett is implied to have murdered his various ex wives . glimpses of human remains and hostages seen in his basement indicate he may be a serial killer . 3 5 he claims to have had a disappointing son who hanged himself in a gas station bathroom and an adopted son he kidnapped from a grocery store parking lot . mr. plinkett also has a fondness for totino s pizza rolls and he encourages feedback by promising to mail one to viewers who leave comments on his webzone . however while seeming oafish and moronic the plinkett character appears to demonstrate an astute understanding of film history and criticism referencing numerous other films as examples to demonstrate his viewpoints . his voice and other traits were intended to incorporate a sense of humor to avoid making the reviewer sound too much like a nerd or armchair critic . 3 the character seems to live or at least have lived in teaneck new jersey having made references to its police department in his star trek review and the cedar lanes cinema in his revenge of the sith review . furthering the new jersey connection he also has a fondness for gambling in atlantic city as some reviews give his mailing address as a slot machine at a casino in atlantic city . plinkett first appeared in you re invited the olsen twins movie a short film that incorporates clips from the film the adventures of mary kate & ashley in which the olsen twins accept a phone call from a man named mr. plinkett . 7 there are two different versions of the harry s. plinkett character . while plinkett was originally portrayed on screen by rich evans the character is voiced by mike stoklasa in the various film critiques commonly referred to as the plinkett reviews . this has given rise to a number of continuity conflicts which redlettermedia has sometimes addressed via self aware humor in its videos . for example in the trailer announcing the release of plinkett s review of indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull when asked by emperor palpatine when is your next review coming out evans plinkett appears confused and says he doesn t do film reviews . the action then cuts to stoklasa s plinkett always seen from first person perspective and thus never appearing on camera watching a stripper . the trailer concludes with palpatine using force lightning on evans plinkett and exclaiming die fake plinkett however in the revenge of nadine short film evans plinkett and stoklasa s plinkett are implied to be one and the same with evans plinkett adopting the psychotic and murderous attitudes of stoklasa s version of the character . however this may simply have been done because it would have been too awkward to not show plinkett s body in the film . films edit among the low budget features produced and directed by mike stoklasa and jay bauman through redlettermedia include the talking fruit action film oranges revenge of the eggplant made in 2005 and available on netflix 8 currently only available for dvd rental not for streaming ; the recovered a horror thriller starring tina krause ; and more recently in 2010 feeding frenzy a genre spoof of puppet monster movies like gremlins . feeding frenzy featured rich evans as mr. plinkett ; evans originated the character in short films and this feature was filmed before the popularity of the phantom menace review . 9 mike stoklasa s short films are usually dark comedies . the mr. plinkett character then played by rich evans appeared in several of the short films starting with you re invited and including the cleaning lady . mike stoklasa created and starred in five seasons of the web sitcom the grabowskis opposite dixie jacobs about an exaggeratedly trashy and unpleasant sitcom family . early installments of the series were only a few seconds long but grew to full episode length over time . plinkett reviews edit the star trek generations review was met with many favorable comments inspiring stoklasa to continue to review the other three star trek the next generation films first contact 1996 insurrection 1998 and nemesis 2002 . 3 inspired by these stoklasa proceeded to create his review for star wars episode i the phantom menace citing his dislike of the prequel trilogy and how it influenced a trend of films characterized by cgi spectacle in lieu of the live action stunts and meticulously crafted sets that characterized films of earlier decades . 4 stoklasa does not believe that lucas ruined his childhood but instead disappointed his adulthood through lucas direction of the prequel trilogy ; stoklasa comments that lucas did not have the same amount of control during the filming of the original trilogy that he had during the prequel trilogy ultimately resulting in more memorable movies . 10 he believes that lucas continues to devolve the star wars franchise to target specifically younger audiences instead of the wide range of appeal that the original trilogy had . 11 while contradictions in continuity are to be expected in science fiction and fantasy franchises with long established histories like star trek stoklasa has stated that it is virtually impossible for writers working in those franchises to write viable stories that avoid such contradictions entirely and while he does focus on such gaffes for material in his reviews he states that what truly irritates him is sloppy writing in particular writing that exhibits traits such as poor character motivation lapses in common sense or questionable logic in order to advance the film s plot . touching upon the star wars prequels as an example stoklasa says 3 the star wars prequels are the best examples of this where you re mesmerized by all the visuals and excitement on screen but if you really stop and listen you ll realize that almost every line and every action makes no sense and is just there to get to the next special effects scene . mike stoklasa 3 stoklasa has since created reviews for the james cameron films avatar 12 and titanic star wars episode ii attack of the clones 13 star wars episode iii revenge of the sith 14 baby s day out 15 which was referenced at the end of the attack of the clones review the children s movie cop dog originally mentioned in a short update video indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull 16 and star wars the force awakens . 17 he also created a satirical short film review of j. j. abrams star trek 18 and later followed it up with a full length review . 19 stoklasa has released audio commentary tracks done in the plinkett character for star wars star wars episode i the phantom menace 20 and star trek v the final frontier 21 which are available for download . he has also created two brief video reviews based on the first two teaser trailers for star wars the force awakens episode vii which he notes builds on a previous comment about having abrams direct a star wars film from his earlier star trek commentary . 22 in an interview stoklasa stated that in creating a review he and a friend would watch the film only once while taking notes and frequently pausing the film to discuss scenes . after that he would write a 20 30 page script for it in the plinkett character voice it and edit it together along with some improvisations . 9 the phantom menace review edit stoklasa s review of the phantom menace was published to youtube on december 10 2009 and quickly became popular receiving over 5 million views since its release . 3 the video was widely linked to by many people across the internet including celebrities such as damon lindelof and simon pegg . 3 6 in comparison to his earlier star trek movie reviews which lasted 30 to 40 minutes the phantom menace review had a total run time of approximately 70 minutes . 6 the review took between seven and ten days to complete . 8 the review contains several elements that have been considered insightful . stoklasa points out that the film has no real protagonist or strong characters in general . he demonstrates this by asking his friends to describe characters from the original trilogy and phantom menace without referring to the characters physical appearances or occupations . juxtaposed with the archetype and personality descriptions they give for the characters han solo and c