Review of "The Mayo Conspiracy"

Promoted as a mockumentary of the seedy underbelly of the condiment industry, The Mayo Conspiracy highlights the cartel referred to as “Big Mayo” and their grip on America’s condiment usage. How much power could Big Mayo hold over the public? If you believe the facts revealed in this film, Big Mayo had hands in some of the biggest events in American history, from the JFK Assassination, to the CIA’s clandestine attack on the ghettos, to the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the most recent controversy over the newly passed Affordable Care Act promoted by President Obama.

The white devil’s condiment is just one tool wielded by the condiment establishment to keep control over the populace, but it’s unobtrusive nature makes it one of the most powerful. The typical citizen may not have any idea how ingrained in our society mayo has become, and while this film is satirical in nature, this reviewer believes that the filmmakers have used their jokes to hide some disturbing facts in a way that gets the word out to investigative viewers while protecting themselves from the mayo cartel’s vengeance.

- Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net - 

Review of "The Throbbit"

I know what you’re thinking already, yes “The Throbbit” is a “re-imagining” of “The Hobbit”, but definitely not the XXX version I originally thought by the title. This feature-length spoof film just barely ranks around a PG-13. It contains a good bit of adult humor, but in the way of innuendos and word-play rather than anything explicit.

Now, I may not be the best reviewer to write about a film that spoofs a trilogy (I only saw the first and fell asleep mid-way) which itself is based on a classic book (that I haven’t read). My apologies if I miss glaringly obvious references to the original material (either Tolkien or Jackson). What I can appreciate, though, is the grand set design, costuming, puppetry, and for the micro-budget fan film that this is, the achievements in special effects and camerawork that were able to pull the audience into just as magical of worlds as the Peter Jackson films (I did see the trailers at least, as well as the LOR Trilogy).

Director Timothy Alan Richardson did not have the production team and post-production studios that Peter Jackson did, however he still manages to bring Dweebs, Gooblins (more than just goblins), a David Bowie inspired Gooblin King, flying beagles, a nation of Elfises in a Las Vegas style Rippendell, and a drag(on) queen to life.

- Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net - 

Review of "The Jersey Devil"

* Finally, a Faith-Based Christian Film with some meat to it! *

“The Jersey Devil” plays fast and loose with the details of any particular biblical source, but that doesn’t make this film any less worthy as a spiritual guide to help viewers on a path towards an afterlife without all the guilt associated with following any moral code.

Starring Jack Mulcahy as Lucifer and Keith Collins as James Burnett, the demented soul who is recruited to take over the reigns of Hell from Lucifer so that he can retire and enjoy himself a little bit. Along for the ride is Richard (Edvin Ortega), a recently lost soul with a crippling porn addiction and no backbone who James recruits to be his new Devil’s Advocate. Once Lucifer hands over the keys to the kingdom below, James’ first order of business is to relocate Hell to somewhere new and put a “fresh face” on Hell to entice more souls. His choice? Jersey City, NJ. Lucifer instantly regrets his decision to retire, and follows the new Satan to drag him back to the original Hell.

Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net

The film is being released by the Shami Media Group and will be available in stores and online on October 27th.

Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l10SsT9UDWc
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerseydevilmovie

Review of "Nuclear Neighborhood"

“Nuclear Neighborhood” is a film that looks & feels like it came from graduates of Troma University; a sci-fi/horror film made with little budget but plenty of fun and creativity. Within no time, Matthew J Oliver’s film jumps right into the meat & bones of the story.

Dan’s girlfriend is kidnapped by a strange man in a creeper van, and Dan’s friends conclude that she’s being kept in the weird apartment building up the road. Weird because all kinds of unexplained activity and an assortment of trippy, deformed people that seem to inhabit the building. As it turns out, radioactivity is the root cause of the eerie phenomenon, but this info isn’t enough to keep Dan and crew from breaking in to save his girl. As the team splits up, they encounter monsters, booby traps, and misunderstood freaks of nature as they get deeper into the madness and closer to the villain who took Dan’s woman.

Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net

“Nuclear Neighbordhood” will be screening at the Art Theatre of Long Beach on Thursday August 6th @ 9pm, The Dark Room Theatre in San Francisco on Sunday Aug 9th @ 7pm, and Movie at LoBot Gallery in Oakland, Ca on Sat August 8th @ 9pm.

Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/4uNr7UxRPDg

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NuclearNeighbourhoodOfficialMovie

IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4526874/

Review of "Intrigue", a Short Film

With light-hearted fun, director Mikel J. Wisler brings the audience into a campy spy thriller, and just when you think you think you’ve figured out each of the possible ways the story can go, he pulls the rug out from you in the most unexpected way, bringing some very authentic laughter and finishing the short movie in a most relatable way.

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Review of "Malady", a European downer with plenty of sex

“Malady” is a dark & moody film, slow to build, and very light on the dialogue, but luckily there’s plenty of sex to stave off any depression. It’s on the verge of being an art film, as the nearly 1hr-40min. running time has only about 15 minutes of story within, and even adding to that the 20 minutes of sex, the audience is still left with over an hour of the director/cinematographer basically getting off on his own shot compositions. Granted, the camerawork is often stunning, but there’s just too much “hang time” between any pivotal moments that I found it easy to fall out of the film completely and start to check on things like my laundry, the dishes, and if the pets were fed. If not for the repeated impromptu sex, I may have never finished this film at all.

The story itself is intriguing at first, although more in the way of “why would she even…” than, “ooh, what is this about and where is it going.” The story opens with an attractive girl who is heartbroken at the death of her mother. When she goes out for a meal, she sees a random guy who has all the warning signs of a natural creep: vacant eyes, unkempt beard, and he is a scab-picker. So, against the whim of any intelligent woman, she tracks him down, they have a staring contest, and she decides to go back to his flat with him, no words spoken. Then they fuck – and they fuck a lot in this film. But where Holly should have written this experience off as a one-night stand, her Catholic guilt (or Protestant guilt, or whichever other guilt comes from wearing a cross around your neck) seems to persuade her to stay with Matthew, likely with the idea that she can help him in some way, any way.

Read the Full Review at BeaverMedia.net

An Interview with David Conley, Cinematographer & Director

With “Mad Max: Fury Road” currently blowing audiences hair back nationwide, I wanted to revisit another post-apocalyptic action film, very much inspired by George Millers previous Mad Max films, “Bounty Killer” (2013). You can read two previous reviews of the film itself here and here, but for this issue I sat down with cinematographer David Conley to talk about his contribution to the film as well as upcoming projects of his own.

LA: Bounty Killer is packed with action – from the fight sequences to car & motorcycle chases. What were some of the camera toys & tools that made it possible to get the coverage you and Henry Saine needed?

DC: Bounty Killer is definitely packed with a ton of action and shooting the movie was no different. Henry and I decided the movie needed a very active camera. I operated a Steadicam Flyer on nearly every scene in the film. On top of that we used a Jimmy Jib, which can go around 40 feet high, but my favorite toy we had was the Ultimate Arm. It is a black Mercedes SUV with a crane arm on the top. The car takes three operators: The driver, the crane arm operator, and the camera operator who calls all of the shots. In the right hands It is capable of capturing some of the most dynamic shots you can think of. Luckily for me, George Peters, who is one of the founders and an incredibly experienced operator with a long list of major credits, came out to operate the camera for me. It was a great pleasure directing him and watching him work. If you haven’t seen Bounty Killer, you most likely saw some of the Ultimate Arm’s handiwork on “Skyfall,” which was the movie they worked on just before.

Read the Full Interview at BeaverMedia.net