Monday, March 2, 2015

Review of "Bounty Killer" - A fun-as-f*** thrill-ride through a dystopian wasteland

In an alternate universe (or the near future), where corporations have taken control over world governments and destroyed civilization through the latest batch of corporate sponsored world wars, the remaining people’s only hope lay in the hands of a select crew of Bounty Killers.

These bounty killers are sanctioned by the grassroots “Council of Nine” to execute all white-collar criminals, and compete with one another to see who can stack up the highest body count (and sign the most autographs for their adoring fans). The two top bounty killers are Drifter (Matthew Marsden) and Mary Death (Christian Pitre), best friends and sometime lovers – but when word gets out that the “Council of Nine” has issued a death warrant for Drifter, Mary Death is forced to decide what matters most – money & fame, or true love.





Review of "Sad Clown", a short film

What do you do if your job is to make people laugh, but you can’t find joy for yourself? 
I recently watched Jason ’P. Schumacher’s short film, “Sad Clown”, a new 11-minute story featuring the tortured but treasured and timeless character. The film opens with a professional clown, putting on his makeup before a live show. The ringmaster enters and is alarmed, as this clown is not wearing a big red smile, but instead is in the process of painting on a frown and little blue teardrops. How can this be? With the show only moments from starting, what can be done to make this clown change his mood?

While in the traditional story of the clown and the doctor, we never know why the clown is depressed, but in “Sad Clown”, we learn the history… a jovial clown, once in love with a beautiful lady clown, has had his happiness whisked away by the whizz-bang flash of the circus magician… or should I say, illusionist? And now, this poor clown has no joy left to share with the world.





Review of "A Killer Conversation"

“What’s the use of having an ‘almost’ shitty life? The ‘almost’ is hardly any consolation, is it?”
A Killer Conversation, written by Michael Haberfelner and directed by David V G Davies, stars Melanie Denholme (also serving as producer), Ryan Hunter, and Rudy Barrow.

It takes less than 1 minute for Karl (Hunter) to hear a knock at the door, and upon answering, be knocked out by a burglar (Barrow) who then enters Karl’s flat with plans to rob and kill him. Before getting to the plundering, however, the burglar is a bit hungry and decides to keep Karl alive for a few moments so that the burglar can enjoy some company as he eats the meal that Karl had just been preparing for himself.

Thus begins this absurd dark comedy, where the burglar and Karl philosophize about life, love, and proper manners around Karl’s kitchen table. The burglar even promises to do the dishes after he kills Karl, so that when the neighbors find his body, they don’t judge him as a filthy beast.