Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tom's Revenge

I wanted to post one of my films on my blog. Kos also wrote and starred in the film, winning best screenplay at the festival.

Tom's Revenge (2005) was made in 24 hours for The Shootout Boulder 2005. It was shot in-sequence and was not allowed to be edited.

Also, the festival had a list of 12 objects/locations/lines that we received at the beginning of the 24 hours. We had to feature five of them -- our choice as to which -- in the movie. The five we chose were a rubber ducky, a Shoot Out Boulder poster, a mosaic park bench, "You're a good man Charlie Brown," and a pumpkin.

Winner of Best Comedy, Best Screenplay and Best Director for the festival.


Machete RULES!!!

Check out this mock poster for the "film" Machete, which was one of the trailers in Grindhouse (2007)Maybe Tarantino or Rodriguez will make it for us!

Spiderman 3

I'm not going to make this very long because this film does not deserve any more time than the 2.5 hours it took to watch this mess. Everyone I talk to agrees that Spider-Man 3 (2007) tries to do way too much. Too many villains. Too many story lines. Too much camp. Too little character development. Too long. And in the end, too lame. (picture a full 5 minute sequence of the Evil Parker strutting and pointing at women as he struts like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (1977). Not funny)

In the previous installments, effects were used as a way to help tell the story and allow the super hero and his super villains come to life. In 3, the effects are there to make us go 'oooohhhh', which does nothing for the story. I don't give a shit if the Sandman's effects took two years to complete.

I actually felt like I was watching the result of a first time director getting his shot in Hollywood and is trying to please everyone. What was up with the crowd watching the final fight scene at the end? Why would we need to see reaction shot after reaction shot of the crowd? Why would the crowd be watching in the first place? I would run like hell if I saw a giant sand dude trying to crush a building, not sit there and argue over the price of a camera with Sam Rami's daughter.

One of the only good things about the film is Bruce Campbell. The chin strikes again and is awesome in his third cameo as a different character in each of the films. The guy deserves more credit.

The more I write the more upset I become. As an editor I sat there and said 'cut that', 'cut that', 'cut that'. There was so much BS in this film and I found it hard to sift through everything and find the real story line, which was so thinned out by everything else that the relationship between Parker, Mary Jane, and Harry, seemed very weak and unresolved. I'm just going to give up talking about it. Everything has become so formula and strayed from the comic book, it angers me. Did I mention that I'm pissed.

I don't think this film is worse than Superman Returns, but it definitely fires me up! Such high expectation and such high disappointment. But, then again, it's Hollywood, and they don't cater to the 32 year old. They want the 15 year old kids and it shows by the intellect they write into their films. Spider-Man 3 leaves me very sceptical about the rest of the summer blockbusters.