Category Archives: Film

TAM Trailer Review – The DaVinci Code

Okay, so this must be one of those artsy European Movie trailers, because I’ve seen it a couple of times now, and I don’t know what’s going on.  I’ve not read the book (or was it a graphic novel?) that this movie was based upon, so I’m pretty much going to have to do a bit of deductive reasoning and look for meanings behind the scenes in order to figure out what’s going on.  But, I think that’s what this movie is supposed to be about anyway, isn’t it?  Solving a puzzle?  Kind of like a Whodunnit?

Here’s the link to the trailer that I’ll be reviewing.

With ominous and foreboding “danger this way lies” music underneath, the trailer opens on what I believe to be an amusement park.  It’s dark, so I can’t really tell.  But there is all kinds of scaffolding for what I’ll assume in a roller coaster.  It’s night, and it looks like the park is closed (doesn’t look like much of a fun-park, either.  More of the type that Cirque De Soliel would perform at.  You know, an artsy park.  Kind of like Victoria Park when the Shakespeare people take over for the weekend.
We hear someone whispering in a language that I do not understand.  I think it may be Elvish, which makes me think that maybe this could be a prequel to Lord of The Rings or Star Wars.  Probably LotR, because when we see a profile shot of the guy talking his crazy language, it looks just like the Elf King in LotR.  The next scene, though, makes me second-guess that thought (very Agatha Christie, Mr. Howard, keeping me guessing!).  This scene is a very scary one in which a guy self-flaggelates (can you believe little Ronnie Howard would ever show that in one of his movies?!?).  This clue makes me think that it might be Star Wars, because the guy whipping himself looks like what I imagine  Darth Blue-face-with-red-eyes looks like without his shirt on (that’s not to say that I’ve ever imagined what Darth Bfwre looks like without a shirt on).
After the opening credits, I realise I’m totally bewildered, because now we’re panning in on what looks to be Hogwart’s school from Harry Potter.  AND, the voice-over sounds exactly like the headmaster of that school.  AND, to add further confusion, he also sounds just like Gandalf from LotR (and, maybe the bad guy from the X-Men movies!!!), so I now don’t know what this movie is a sequel to.  Perhaps this is what the movie is about?  Perhaps the DaVinci Code is a puzzle to try and find that out?  I’m up to the challenge.
As Gandalf talks (I found his voice-over very much too expositiony) we see shots of various clues as to what movie this is sequelling. Here are my guesses as to what the Movie Sequel clues are:  one scene, the guy is crouching like Naked Arnold in Terminator movies, but he’s on top of a glass building? just like Tom Cruise in the M:i series.  Next shot is definitely a clue about Monty Python and The Holy Grail.  Next is House of Flying Daggers, then they walk into a room that looks vaguely like the set to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, then we cross-fade to someone picking up a Catholic cross (nice editing here, by the way).
Okay, I admit it.  I am totally flabbergasted.  I have lots of clues but I cannot piece them together.
Finally, we come to a picture of The Last Supper (this must be the DaVinci element to the movie), which makes me wonder “Life of Brian”?  I don’t know.
Hey, it’s Tom Hanks!  But it looks like it might be “serious” Tom, rather than “funny” Tom.  Cut to a guy (Sean Connery?) running through a museum, looking like he really wants to get out of there  (that’s how I used to feel when we’d go on field trips to museums in elementary school).
Back to a guy in a black hooded cape (exactly like the capes the Darths’ wear!) and then a bunch of quick-edit shots as the music soars and swells.  Some of paintings in museums (a museum heist movie?), some of Tom Hanks, a woman, car chases, grafitti on The Mona Lisa, people busting in through doors, falling down wells… ending with someone tossing into the air one of those anagram keychain thingys.
Holy smokes, I am totally frigging lost!  If anyone has any clues as to what this movie is about, clue me in.

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Mission Impossible III – Trailer Review

This is the start of what may become a new semi-irregular feature here at The Annekenstein Monster – Theatrical Trailer Reviews.  It’s not very often that I go to the movies.  While I don’t find the admission price to be too much of a deterrent, the allure of the acutely-expensive popcorn/pop/etc, and the generally poor theatre etiquette of others are more than enough to keep me away.
But I like talking about movies, and since the trailers pretty much give away the whole plot anyway, I figure a smart (ass) review of the trailer should suffice.

So, here’s my review of the theatrical trailer for Mission:Impossible III, which opens tomorrow, world-wide:
As we open on a crisp, blue night-timey cityscape, it’s apparent right away that there’s gonna be some cold-blooded killing going on.  Close in on Tom Cruise, standing on top of a building.  A crisp, blue, glass-encased building, so you know it’s just begging to be broken into.  Or, jumped off of.  Tom looks angry – “Tibbets Is Tough” Angry.  But we don’t know why.  Perhaps he’s just been interviewed about Scientology again?  Maybe the placenta tasted ‘off’?  Zoom in, ever in, to perform a retinal scan of his eye.  Turns out it’s the man they call Ethan Hunt, the Mission Impossiblist, and, judging by the thing that’s burning (either it’s a fuse, or his penis) he’s angry because a) there’s not much time left until something blows or b) Katie just gave him an STD.  Maybe the plot involves trying to get an STD antidote?
Immediatley after the credits, as soon as he puts on the welding glasses, the action starts and you get the feeling it won’t let up again for the whole 2 or 3 minutes of the trailer.  BAM: get out a gun BAM: meet Truman Capote (maybe the plot does involve STD’s?) BAM: meet the girl BAM: meet Larry Fishburne, the guy they got when they couldn’t get Sam Jackson BAM: meet the explosives.  BAM: slow down for some expositional character acting, where the plot gets revealed. Something about Capote looking for some In Cold Blood Redux.  Great acting at this moment, from Cruise particularly, as he looks at the girl, looking all intense and not even moving, hardly.  Can you say “People’s Choice”?  Then, right after the sell-line “This summer, the mission, begins” (excellent work by the way, PR guys.  Top notch line-selling), out of nowhere, comes the weld-spectacled Cruise and it’s all “Explosives, meet BAM!”  And, literally, (SPOILER ALERT!!!) everything starts blowing up and things fly and fall everwhere as we see, I’m pretty sure, scenes from previous Mission Impossible movies (perhaps to catch us up?).  Helicopters zoom, boats zim, rubberized dummy heads shimmer, motorcycles motor, and people everywhere look so sexy and hot with all kinds of implements and devices in their hands.  I’ll say this for Cruise, nobody runs with more intensity than Tom Cruise.  Except, maybe, Forrest Gump.  But for Ethan Hunt, Life is Like A Box of Explosives (you can have that one, PR guys), and to avoid it all, he runs and jumps and kisses and punches, and rides and drives and jumps some more.  Wow!  I’m exhausted!  And there’s still 25 seconds to go!
Finally, we come to the climax of the trailer, and what a climax it is.  Check out this dialogue:
Cruise:  You’ll never get what you want!!!
Truman Capote:  You don’t think I’ll do it!!!!! (and it is NOT a question!  Because you KNOW he damn well will!)
Then, in a marvellous super-agent moment, Cruise is running down a bridge, and a car explodes directly behind him.  Miraculously, instead of forward, the impact waves cause him to be blown sideways (don’t think he hasn’t asked Katie for that, either) into a car.
And that’s the end.
All in all, an action packed trailer.  But, really, if you’ve seen one Mission:Impossible III trailer, you’ve pretty much seen them all.  Only check it out if you’ve got a huge Cruise Missile in your pants for Tom (you can have that one, E!DailyTonight guys)

Trailer for Mission:Impossible III

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RIFF 4 Shorts Review

I went last night to see both screenings of Reel Shorts at the Reel Island Film Festival.  That’s a lot of sitting in those City Cinema seats, I’ll tell ya!
Here, then, are my opinions on what I saw:
Pete Murphy’s “The Olde Christmas Spirit” was shown first.  Frankly, this was a rough piece of work.  Pete, I think, has an interesting eye, but this film (as well as the few other films of his I’ve seen) suffers from poor acting, worse sound and lazy editing.  The story and script, too, could have benefitted tremendously from a prudent editor.  
The acting in the first scene was, I’d have to describe as, plodding.  Very slow and deliberate.  Couple that with languid edits and the film starts off at a less than energetic pace.  And slows down from there.  The main trouble with the acting of the lead actor is that he tries too too hard to act Angst and tries to play “Cool guy” too much.  His acting gets in the way of his, well, acting.
I could go on, I suppose, but I have to live in this town.
Next up was “Snowbird” The Search for Lonestar” by Scott Parsons.  An interesting, but slightly flawed, docu-drama on the origins of Gene McLellan’s song Snowbird.  I say flawed because of too much reliance on voice-over narration to tell us what is going on.  It results in too much telling us the drama rather than showing us the drama.  The story is about this woman trying to find out about a guy named Lonestar, a former lover, who apparently co-wrote a song about her with Gene McLellan.  She’s trying to find out about the song.  Turns out the song is Snowbird.  Little things bugged me.  Like when we flashback to the woman’s younger days, when she’s with Lonestar, she’s wearing the same short denim shorts that she’s wearing in “present day”.  And there was no attempt to make her look younger in those flashback scenes.  Maybe that was a conscious decision, but to me it belied the reality of those scenes where she was supposed to be a teenager.  Especially since her “youthfulness” was supposed to be the thing that sets of the rest of the story.  Small complaints, really.
Third was Louise Lalonde’s “Courir la chandeleur”, a re-enactment of an old Acadien soiree, performed by Birchwood Intermediate French Immersion students.  This was an enjoyable film.  Yes, the acting of the junior high kids was pretty amateurish (and some of their French Immersion french was pretty rough), but their energy and enjoyment of the experience kept me interested.  Probably could have shortened the amount of time we see them dancing to a tune, though.  That seemed to go on a bit too long.
Speaking of going on a bit too long:  Jeremy Larter’s “A.J.” was a film that I absolutely hated and couldn’t wait for it to be over.  Basically, this was a masterbatory piece of shit, where one guy, Jeremy Larter, points his camera at another guy (forget his name) who plays A.J. who may or may not be mentally handicapped and gets him to do “funny” stuff.  What a piece of crap and a waste of my time!  Scene after scene of this guy doing stupid, barely interesting, things.   There was no apparent attempt at structure.  Just random scene after scene of boring “look at me and how car-aaazy! I am” bullshit.
Thank goodness for Joey Weale’s “Flagwar”.  Basically, this film documents an elaborate game of capture the flag on the streets of Charlottetown.  Very well done, it kept me interested and entertained for almost its entirety.  I say “almost” because my only criticism is that it may be a few minutes too long, and a couple of times I wanted the action to move along, rather than showing me, yet again different versions of basically the same scene or idea.  The film employed a lot of still-photos to further the action, and at first I was worried that such a technique might bog the film down.  Nobody likes a slideshow, right.  But, to his credit, Joey made it work beautifully.  He used all kinds of tricks and techniques (without making them feel simply like tricks or techniques) to keep the action moving forward and to keep the audience engrossed and it worked wonderfully.  It’s apparent that a great deal of thought and effort went into the production of film, and I was very much impressed with the whole thing.
Of the first round of Reel Shorts, Flagwar got my “viewer’s choice” vote.

The second round of Reel Shorts was basically a display of the talents of Fox Henderson.  Five of the nine shorts were either “all credits by Fox Henderson” and one other (Jack and The Mud Queen) utilized his studio and talents (to the point where I thought it was another by him, but in fact was directed by Devon McGregor).  Rather than go through each of his films, I’ll offer a general opinion of his work.  First of all, it’s obvious that he’s a very talented guy and so much of his work is impressive.   Last year, he had a few animated films entered in RIFF 3, and my criticism then was that his films were technically interesting but failed on the story, editing and acting fronts.  This year, all that improved dramatically, and I was very impressed with practically all of his work.  Dan Caseley was very good playing Mr. Death in a couple of very funny silent movies.  One aspect of his work that I don’t care for is in his choice to re-record the dialogue in a controlled environment (just like the big movie-makers do).  While I understand the desire to want to control the sound, it can really adversely affect the performances if the actors aren’t up to the over-dubbing task.  This was most apparent in my least favourite of his films “They That Did Dream”.  The dialogue-audio re-dubbing was very intrusive to the enjoyment of the film.  But, since I didn’t like the story at all anyway, I doubt that better audio would have helped much.
I was very much impressed with the look of Jack and The Mud Queen, and the acting of the lead actor was good, but, like other films presented, this story needed to move along a lot more quickly.  Once again, plodding direction gets in the way.
Onto the non-Fox Henderson films of Reel Shorts 2:
Daniel Arsenault’s “Music Has Family Roots” was a trifling bit of music video.  Basically a single-camera, one shot thing showing two live musical performances of Michael and Robert Pendergast.  Apart from a slightly interesting projection effect, there wasn’t much of interest in this, as a film.  The music performances were good, though.
“This and That” by Richie Mitchell was a film that I ended up not “getting”.   I think it was about a guy who desired to be a gay thief, but wasn’t because of a priest in a car who followed him around.  In one reality he has a companion who may or may not be his lover, and they steal some money from a store owner.  In another reality, he is alone, with no companion, and rather than steal from, is given an envelope by, the store owner.  He then gives the envelope to the priest.  When he sees his alternate-universe companion crossing the street, he gasps, but the priest shakes his head “no”.  ???  There are also some shots of a woman walking down the street.  She has been shopping.  I didn’t like this one very much.
And the other non-Fox film was my very own, Christmas Lights.  This film, of course, is brilliant, and above criticism.  Seriously, though, I am very proud of this film and think it’s a pretty good piece of work.  It’s a tight, compact, funny piece of tragic-comedy.   The audience seemed to like it quite a bit.
I do think (not really), however, that a conspiracy was hatched to confuse the audience (perhaps in an attempt to keep me from any chance of winning “viewer’s choice”?).  First of all, on the website, my film was shown as being directed by Jason Rogerson.  That was later corrected.  Then, on the Viewer’s Choice slips of paper that each audience member was given, Driving Lights was shown as being directed by Rob MacLean.  And, the title on the actual film is “Christmas Lights” not Driving Lights, but I think that one was an honest mistake.  All the rest, though, is an obvious attempt to confuse the audience.

Of the second round of Reel Shorts, I voted Christmas Lights as my “viewer’s choice”.  If it wasn’t in the running, then my vote would have gone to Fox Henderson’s “The Last Days of Death: After Life”.  It was a very funny piece of comedy and my only criticisms of it are that it is too long and the joke doesn’t go anywhere.  Each scene is merely a different version of the same joke.  It is only too long because it’s one-joke retold again and again.  And again.  I wanted each scene to build on the previous scenes in some way, but they didn’t.  As a result, the joke didn’t have a conclusion.  It just ended.

In the past, I’ve railed against the Reel Island Film Festival for showing films that I didn’t think were good enough to be shown.  I complained that RIFF’s eyes were bigger than its stomach.  Meaning that the festival was too big for the amount and quality of films it screened.  This year’s event, due to a lack of funding, was very much paired down compared to previous RIFF festivals.  Whereas in the past, they might have tried to have two evenings of shorts screenings and would have had to “water down” the overall quality in order to fill up all the slots, this year’s festival, I think, benefitted by the single night (of shorts).  The result was an evening with a pretty solid lineup of shorts.  An impressive variety of films.
I do think they need to be careful, though, with the potential problem that the RIFF could turn into the Fox Henderson Film Festival.  Nothing against Fox, and his work is definitely worthy of being shown, but ideally, I would have liked to have seen a couple less entries from Fox and a couple more entries from other people.

Sci-Fi With My Little Eye…

Here’s a link to a short essay on The Top Ten Sci-Fi Films That Never Existed.
A pretty accurate assesment of what went wrong, story-wise, with some of the biggest Sci-Fi movies, what should have been done instead, and/or what movies should have been made but haven’t and won’t be.
Usually I stick my nose up at people who toss off their opinions of what’s wrong with things because their annoying personalities get in the way of their points, but this guy, David Wong, sticks to the business at hand and offers an exciting alternate universe of what might have been.

Mythical Super Hero Anne – Chapter Three

Here is chapter three of five, from episode 21, “The Destruction of The Loved Ones” of The Adventures of Mythical Super Hero Anne.

3.

            Matthewsan and Diannakiro were
sitting on the edge of the luxury futon sofa, looking at Malirra, who was not
moving, so deep in thought was she. 
Mythical Super Hero Anne, still disguised as Toshomiko, a mild mannered
fourteen year old Japanese girl, was pacing the floor, behind the futon.

            “Malirra,” said
Matthewsan, with urgency in his voice, “can you tell me where Mythical
Super Hero Anne can be found?”

            Malirra looked at Matthewsan, then
to Diannakiro.  They both looked so
worried.  Finally her gaze fixed upon
Toshomiko, who stopped pacing, eager to hear Malirra’s answer to Matthewsan’s
question.  “Malirra say, ‘Mythical
Super Hero Anne is very close to me. 
Both in my heart and in who I see.'”

            Toshomiko gasped, and began to pace
again.  Malirra knows my identity, thought Mythical Super Hero Anne.  Why
hasn’t she said anything before now?  She
truly is wise, for she must have kept silent knowing all would be lost if my
identity were to be publicized. 
Toshomiko looked at Malirra, who was still staring at her, and smiled.

            Matthewsan was confused.  “I do not understand,” he
said.  “What can that mean,
Diannakiro?”

            Diannakiro quickly looked at
Toshomiko, with a look that asked what she should do.  Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne shook her
head at Diannakiro, as if to say not to tell.

            “Diannakiro,” asked
Matthewsan, “do you know what the riddle means?”

            Diannakiro turned her attention to
Mattewsan and said, “I am afraid I am unable to help you with that riddle,
Matthewsan.”  She felt bad for being
misleading to an elder, but at least it wasn’t an out and out lie.  She really couldn’t tell Matthewsan what she
knew for his own good and safety.

            Matthewsan looked at Malirra.  “Is that the only clue you can give me,
Malirra?”

            “Malirra say, ‘Diannakiro says
she can’t help so, but maybe her friend does the answer know.'”

            Matthewsan looked puzzled
again.  He never was good at figuring out
Malirra’s puzzles.  But if ever there was
a time to put all his effort into solving one, it was now, for all of Tokyo was
depending on Mythical Super Hero Anne to save them from Gilzilla. To do so,
Mythical Super Hero Anne must be found.  Diannakiro says she can’t help so, but maybe
her friend does the answer know? “Well,” he mused, “who is
Diannakiro’s friend?”  Matthewsan
thought hard for a moment, and then looked up in surprise, a little angry at
himself for not seeing the obviousness of the riddle right away.  “Why it is Toshomiko!  She is the one!”

            At that moment, Mythical Super Hero
Anne thought her secret was out, that Matthewsan had figured out that she was
the super hero girl. “Toshomiko is Diannakiro’s friend,” said
Matthewsan.  “Toshomiko, do you know
what Malirra’s riddle means? ‘Mythical Super Hero Anne is very close to me,
both in my heart and in who I see’?”

            Toshomiko looked at Matthewsan.  He is
so kind to me, she thought, he really
should know, and he will likely figure it out anyway in a short while.  After all, Diannakiro knows, as does
Malirra.  So telling one more loved one
can’t hurt.  Toshomiko took in a deep
breath and said “It means that I am Mythical Super Hero Anne!”

            Matthewsan could not believe what he
was hearing.  “You?!” he
said.  “You, such a mild mannered
fourteen year old Japanese girl can make such a claim: that you are Mythical
Super Hero Anne, the mythical Japanese super hero?”

            “Yes.”

            “Toshomi– Mythical Super Hero
Anne, why did you tell him?” asked Diannakiro.

            “I told him because I knew he
would soon figure out adopted father-sister’s riddle.”  Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne walked to
behind Malirra and put her hands on the wise, old one’s shoulders.  “You see, according to Malirra’s riddle,
Mythical Super Hero Anne is someone who is both near and dear to her, both as a
loved one, and as a physical presence in this living-square.  The only two people in this living-square
whom Malirra loves so much are myself and Matthewsan.  And Matthewsan knows he is not Mythical Super
Hero Anne–“

            Matthewsan laughed, still in
shock.  “How could I be such a
hero?  I am but an old man.”

            “–therefore I am the
one,” continued the super hero, walking towards Matthewsan.  “I am very close to her, both
physically, and in her heart.  I am no
more than two metres from her physically, and in her heart I am loved as one of
her own offspring.”

            “You are Mythical Super Hero
Anne,” said Matthewsan, rising from the luxury futon sofa and touched the
girl’s shoulder.  “But why didn’t
you tell me sooner?”  He turned back
to the futon, and looked to where Diannakiro was sitting.  “And you knew this as well,
Diannakiro?”

            “Yes,” said Diannakiro,
proudly.  “I’ve known it since we
first met.”

            Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne
took Matthewsan’s hands in her own, and looked into his eyes.  “I could not tell you,” said
Toshomiko, “like I could not tell anyone. I was afraid, and still am, that
if you knew, you might let my secret out. 
But I weighed that danger against the danger of you finding out on your
own.  I feared it might break your heart
to know that I kept a secret from you. 
So I told you myself, even at the risk of putting your life in
danger.”

            “It is true,” said
Matthewsan.  “The sting of
discovering this truth was lessened by your telling me yourself.  If I had discovered the truth, for instance,
tonight, alone on my futon bed, the shock might have been too great for my old,
weak heart.  Toshomiko…”  Matthewsan again put his hand on the girl’s
shoulder, smiling with great pride, as he realized who he was speaking to.  “Mythical Super Hero Anne, by telling me this
secret, you may have put my life in jeopardy, but you also saved it at the same
time.  Thank you.”

            Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne
hugged Matthewsan tightly, surprising him with the grand gesture of physical
contact.  Then she looked at everyone in
the living square.  “It is vital
that no one but you three know my true identity.  It must be a secret to the public.”  She looked back at Matthewsan.  “Now that you know, you cannot tell
anyone, Matthewsan.”

            “Of course,” said
Matthewsan, standing proudly erect and at attention.  “It is an ancient Japanese tradition to
keep secrets forever.  And I am a man who
lives and dies by ancient Japanese traditions. 
I will not tell a soul.”

            Diannakiro took Toshomiko by the arm
and pulled her aside. “But what about Malirra?” she asked. “She
knows now.  Won’t she tell?”

            That was a worry to Mythical Super
Hero Anne.  While Malirra wasn’t known as
a gossip, she did have numerous friends and acquaintances in the community who
were very gossipy.  It was possible that
they could pull the secret out of Malirra’s brain.  Mythical Super Hero Anne was just about to
warn her, when Malirra spoke.

            “Malirra say, ‘I am much too
wise to tell this secret, but right now it is Gilzilla that Mythical Super Hero
Anne must get.”

            Matthewsan put his hand on
Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne’s shoulder. 
“Malirra is right,” he said. 
“Mythical Super Hero Anne, I am proud to have you as my adopted
daughter, but now you must destroy Gilzilla, the evil monster from the
sea.”

            “But before I destroy
him,” said Toshomiko/Mythical Super Hero Anne, reaching into her backpack
which was leaning against the front of the luxury futon, “I must first put
on my Mythical Super Hero Anne outfit.” 
She pulled out a straw hat that had bright orange braids hanging down
from both sides, and put it on her head. The transformation was immediate and
total. And at that moment, Diannakiro, Matthewsan and Malirra were the first
humans to witness the transformation of Toshomiko, from mild mannered, polite
female Japanese worker to all powerful Mythical Super Hero Anne.

            “And now I must find
Gilzilla,” said Mythical Super Hero Anne.

            At that moment, there was a
commotion in the hall outside Matthewsan’s apartment, and then the door crashed
open, splintering into a million shreds!

The Annekenstein Monster Oscar Pool

Last year, Matt Rainnie won it by a landslide.
This year, it could be you.

Enter the Annekenstein Monster’s Oscar Pool and see how you fair against the competition.  It is guaranteed to be the coolest Oscar pool going.  Especially if *you* join.  You know who I mean.  I mean *you*.

It’s easy as pie.  Just click on The Annekenstein Monster Oscar Pool link and fill in all your answers.
The winner won’t win any prizes, but will receive the adoration of your competitors.

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Good Night, And Good Luck

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
Edward R. Murrow

I’m looking forward to this movie.

Shining

This is great.
Click on this link to see a (quicktime) redux version of a trailer for The Shining.  A post-production house had a contest to see who could come up with the best alteration to existing movie trailers, to make them seem like different movies than they actually are.  This one won.

I’d love to see more of the submissions.  If anybody has a link, let me know.

via Screenhead, via Waxy, via Tattered Coat

The DP Got Cranky

Early Sunday morning last (and sorry for saying "Sunday morning past"), my son, who had been sleeping over at his friend Keaton’s house, called and asked if he and Keaton could make another movie on Sunday.  Reluctantly, I agreed.
So for the rest of the morning and half the afternoon they excitedly dreamed up scenario after scenario, creating an epic film full of action and intrigue.  Being the one who’d have to try and make sense out of it all, and do the actual tough work of editing it into a coherent and not-too-long movie, I nixed most of their ideas.
What they finally decided upon was that Cameron would play "The Black Ninja" and Keaton would play "The White Ninja".  They would also elicit the help of a third person, Matt, to play "The Wizard".  Their after-Rob-rejected-the-too-complicated-plotlines truncated story was:  The Wizard appears to the White Ninja and tells him to kill the Black Ninja.  The two ninjas fight, Black Ninja wins, end of movie.
I suggested: How about the wizard appears to white ninja, tells him that black ninja is bad and to kill him.  Then he appears to black ninja and tells him that white ninja is bad and must be killed.  He appears a couple more times to each, each time telling the one to kill the other.  When the ninjas finally meet, they discover the duplicitous intent of the wizard and end up killing him together.
They loved this idea, and so we all waited for the next hour and a half or so for my wife to get home with the car.
We needed a car, you see, because Keaton had a "great place in mind" to shoot the movie.  It involved a drive of a few minutes to park the car near the Trail and then a couple of minutes walk to to a path, down which there was a great place in mind for shooting.  It had a bridge and a stream and a lake and some wooded areas.  Sounded good so I agreed that would be the location.
Car arrives, I ask Karyn if she wanted to come with us.  She declined and off we went, me and The White Ninja, The Black Ninja and The Wizard.  Parked the car and began walking down the trail.
It took about 15 minutes to get to the path.  I was not anticipating a 15 minute walk (not that it’s long, but you know, I was told a minute or two), so once I got to the path, my desire to continue (or to begin, really) the production was evaporating.  Still, I trudged down the path for another 5 minutes or so.
And we get to the ‘great place in mind’ and I see right away that it’s not going to work.  Too small an area, the bridge was situated in such a way over the stream as to render it useless, the lake was a large green-algae puddle, and the wooded area looks like it’s been used by witches and wiccans, what with the cauldrons and fire pits and corpses (ok, there were no corpses).  And the mosquitoes were infuriatingly bad.
So, I was not a hampy camper.  Still, we went ahead with the setting up of the first shot, which would take place near the firepit.  As I was setting up, though, the mosquitoes literally attacked me and not-literally carried me away.  I declared the fire-pit area a non-shooting worthy location and moved production over to the bridge.  Just as we were about to shoot the first shot, the rain started.  It poured.  Hard
So I aborted the shoot.  We trudged the 5 minutes back up the path, getting soaked under the rain.  We trudged back along the trail. After about 5 more minutes of rain, it stopped, the sun came out and we were dry by the time we got back to the car.
We drove home and spoke no more of the most unfortunate attempt to shoot our latest movie.

Go Fish

I’m putting up here, for a very limited time, the lates MacDonald Family Film Production.  It’s called Go Fish.  It’s a study of the corruptive power of greed and its consequences.

It’s a fair sized download, about 40MBs, but this film contains some of the best acting and dialogue I’ve ever seen.  The tension that builds throughout is palpable and by the end of the movie, I dare say everyone who watches it will be on the edge of their seat, wondering what will happen.  And then, when you see how it concludes, well, it will blow you away.

Seriously though, this is a fun film.  My favourite, of the 3 or 4 that I made with my son and his friend Keaton.

Click on this link to download, if you like.
It will only be around for a little while, because it eats away at my monthly bandwidth allotment.

(I have removed the link.  It was pushing me over my limit.)