Short Film of the Month: Signs (November 2009)

Communication is key

Director: Patrick Hughes
Writer: Patrick Hughes, Karl Fleet, Nick Worthington

Distributor: Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia
Year of Release: 2009
Running Time: 12:13

Synopsis: This short film is about communication. Using no dialogue it moves the story with facial expressions and the written word on pieces of paper. Hughes creates a depressing, emotional, romantic story that is fantastic. This film could be up for the Best Short Film at the Academy Awards but its release on the internet could make its bid invalid.

Ninja Assassin Surprises

Not in the way you would think though

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Sometimes you need to shut your brain off, let it recharge. You need to enjoy yourself, laugh, weep, cheer or observe people beat each other senseless. Tread carefully; Ninja Assassin does not really fit into any of these categories though. Sure this film will be filed under “the pointless action pieces” category but it is a little more then that.

Saying Ninja Assassin has a cohesive plot might be a stretch. It was surprising as hell though. Opening with an action sequence I really could have done without was making me rethink my choice of film for my Saturday night. Sure it set up many ideals about ninja’s and their role in today’s society, but it just felt like they could have done this much better. Then the next scene changed my perspective, doing a complete 180, it looked like a conspiracy film with ninja’s was about to break Hollywood barriers. Looked was the key word in that last sentence. The story potential was sitting right in front of Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski (who was given re-write duties and only had 60 hours to complete it, Straczynski only slept for 7 hours over that span) but they seemed to miss it. But did I really go see Ninja Assassin for the story? No, but at one point it appeared like a story was going to be a bonus.

So why did I see Ninja Assassin? Three reasons:

Rain – Having heard so much about him and seeing his performance in Speed Racer, I wondered if he could carry a film on his own as Raizo, one of the world’s deadliest assassins. To be honest, that question is never answered with this film, as Rain surprisingly had very little screen time. I still see the potential (which the Wachowski brothers saw in Speed Racer) though and will give his next film a shot, whatever that may be.

The Wachowski Brothers – They directed this film, so why would I not go see it! Wait…what…sorry…damn it! Well my plans were already made when I found out they only produced the film and I could not cancel on friends now could I? My expectations were brought considerably lower after this disappointing revelation.

Martial Arts Films – Being a sucker for any martial arts film (that is not made in America), I was intrigued. Ninja Assassin felt like it was going to bend (to some extent at least) the typical mold for a Hollywood martial arts film.

So did it?

Ninja Assassin will not revolutionize any part of the way we look at cinema but it was different. Still not sure if it was for the better yet. It seemed, at least to me, the action sequences were borderline cheesecake or really well done, not leaving much ground in between. The choice of weaponry made for some interesting fight scenes. Also makes me wish I could throw a Kusarigama (Raizo’s choice in weaponry) around without cutting myself to tiny bits!

One choice that director James McTeigue makes is very questionable, the uses of blood spatter. It was not quite used to the effect that Kill Bill used the technique but more along the lines of some anime films. It seemed like they put more focus on the blood spatter over the fight choreography. On the other hand, during the fights in the shadows, it did help differentiate who was getting sliced and diced.

Not sure if I would recommend this film but it is entertaining. Ninja Assassin is maybe worth a watch once, on a night where your brain needs a rest. No terrible acting in this film, as Noami Harris, Ben Miles and martial arts film legend Sho Kosugi have the only parts in the film where acting is necessary. If you can look past minor plot holes and predictable scenarios then Ninja Assassin just may have good enough action to amuse you.

Oh, one last thing, a message to any studio or director. If you are going to cast Rick Yune, use him in the film, do not cover his face and give him one line to say multiple times!

3 out of 5

Aravind Adiga's "The White Tiger"

"Kill my boss?! Do I dare live out the American dream?"

by Ashley Blunt

The White Tiger is indeed about a man who kills his boss - I'm not ruining it for you, really! The main character owns up to it right in the first few pages, and without much sense of regret or even chagrin. But while it may well be the American dream, this story takes place in India and is very much of India: not only are both boss and employee (and all other characters) Indian, the story of the murder - the story of Balram Halwai's entire life, spirals around and grows out of the circumstances of India.

The pieces of Balram's life are simply and directly narrated by Balram himself, who received no fancy education or special privilege. They immerse us in the India of the moment, and are laid out for us in such as way as to convince us that, in the same circumstances, we would have murdered the boss as well, even though, to be honest, he was not so bad, as bosses go. In fact, the case is made, though not explicitly, that had the boss been a little crueler, inspired a little more fear in Balram, well, then - he probably never would have taken the chance.

Balram's not a bad guy, after all. Aside from the whole "murder" incident, he's generally done his best to live in a decent way. Oh, right -- he's also responsible for the death of pretty much his entire family. But some of them had it coming. And again, when allowed to present the circumstances from his point of view, Balram is quite convincing.

Perhaps you'd disagree with me. Perhaps you'd say Balram deserves to be in prison, to be punished, what have you. But then again, perhaps you'd feel just the same as I did when I finished the book: slightly guilty, slightly vindicated, largely relieved. I don't know. You'd have to read it.

Phineas and Ferb

(The Greatest Television Show Ever)
by Matthew Luecke

I think the subtitle says it all. Though technically a kids’ show on Disney Channel and Disney XD, what a wonderful, funny, good show for adults as well. If you haven’t watched it, start. After I told a friend of mine about this show (he shall remain nameless), he later told me that instead of watching the girls at his gym, he was watching Phineas and Ferb on the television. I found myself watching a rerun of the “Love Handel” episode instead of watching football on Sunday. I saw pictures of adults dressed up like some of the characters for Halloween. Evander Holyfield and Bowling for Soup have guest starred. The songs (yes there are songs!) are so good, they got their own half-hour special.

The premise: in order to not waste their summer vacation, two half-brothers decide to do something every day. In each fifteen minute episode, they do something big. For example, in the first episode, Phineas and Ferb build the most awesome roller coaster ever in their back yard, and across the town of Danville. Every day, Phineas’ sister Candace tries to “bust” them to their mom, who is the only character on the show who never, ever sees their contraptions. Meanwhile, their pet platypus, Perry, sneaks away because he is a secret agent. Agent P battles Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz (and sometimes his daughter Vanessa—who Ferb has a crush on) and his evil invention or scheme (almost always an inator of some type like a monster-truck-away-inator) to take over the Tri-State Area. Most of the time, Perry’s work ends up making Phineas and Ferb’s contraption disappear just in time to foil Candace’s desire to bust them. And there is time for a song.

And there is also time for character development. Candace has a crush on Jeremy who reciprocates. Jeremy’s little sister Susie is evil incarnate, enough to scare the daylights out of Phineas and Ferb’s bully friend Buford. The boys are friends with Buford (the bully who loves his pet fish), Baljeet (the super-smart kid),and Isabella (who has a crush on Phineas and leads the Fireside Girls). Candace is friends with Stacey. The two of them like video game wrestling and a band called “The Bettys.” Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s daughter Vanessa tries to bust her father to her mother, Dr. D’s ex-wife, who never believes he is evil. Vanessa’s mother is also friends with Phineas’ mother. Phineas’ mother, Linda, was a former one-hit wonder named Lindana. Ferb’s dad is an antique collector and lecturer. The grandparents have their own adventures such as roller derby and gorge jumping on motorcycles. Linda and Dr. D went on a date in 1982 where Dr. D suggested she should try to be a pop star and she suggested he start small to try to take over the Tri-State area. Pretty good for a 15 minute show!

So far, Phineas and Ferb have traveled through time twice, visited outer space twice, raised awareness about the aglet (the plastic tip on the end of a shoelace), and most recently found the lost city of Atlantis. Aren’t they a little young to be roller coaster engineers, time travelers, and rocket scientists? Yes, yes they are. (“Aren’t you a little young to be a [insert name here]?” “Yes, yes I am,” is a recurring joke). The show is wonderfully self-referential that way. It’s so self-referential, that the writers “change it up” sometimes. There was one episode where Candace and Vanessa’s clothes got switched at the dry cleaners and Dr. D was building a floating city while Phineas and Ferb built a rainbow-inator. Vanessa couldn’t “bust” Dr. D to her mother before the city sunk and the rainbow-inator self-destructed at the end. Recently, the show has added a character named Irving who is a “fan” of their adventures and waits eagerly for recurring lines like Phineas’ “Where’s Perry?” or Isabella’s “Whatcha doin’?”

There are laugh out loud jokes, clever humor, puns, inside jokes, and sight gags.

What a simply wonderful show. Watch it and enjoy.

9 Disappoints

Even though the animation is spectacular

BY COLIN ENQUIST

9 is a beautiful looking animated film based off of a short film of the same title. Shane Acker, who created the short as well, directs the full length film. Producing the film are two high end directors themselves, Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov. The voice cast consists of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer.

The story commences with an awakening. 9 (Wood) is born. At this point in time we do not know how, we just know that a scientist has created the rag doll-like “stitchpunk”. 9 has begun to explore the apocalyptic world around him, where he meets up with another stitchpunk, like himself. Soon we become introduced to a few more stitchpunks, learning everything about the world as 9 does. 9 helps rescue a fellow digit, 2 (Landau), but in the process create a new evil set to destroy his new set of friends.

An evil mechanical creature is set to destroy them. Why? Who knows, the audience sure doesn’t. I am under the assumption it is to destroy anything living (or maybe moving?). As the mechanical monster creates his army we are entitled to some very creepy looking machines. Some will be haunting my dreams for weeks to come.

The story is there, right in front of you, but it is confusing. We are meant to figure out what the next logical step is at the same moment as 9 but when he figures it out, you can fathom how he came to that conclusion. It’s like the director laid all the significant pieces on the floor and took some away just to confuse whoever looks at it.

So the story was slightly average, the voice cast was forgettable and it threw some good scares, making it an animated film you won’t want to bring young children to see. Well I can at least say the animation of this film is as good as it gets. From the opening sequence to the closing credits I can not tell you how much I enjoyed looking at what the animators did for this film. Every detail is exquisitely put into each character. The bar has been raised on animated films because of 9.

I do not recommend watching this, unless you enjoy confusing films that never make sense. If you really enjoy animated films that use state of the art technology then it might be worth a view once 9 hits DVD. Hopefully we get more films like this one even though Acker’s debut film was not the greatest; you can tell he has a great eye that will help his bright future.

2 out of 5

'The Bone House' Invites Us In To Play

Edmonton screenwriter, etc. puts on a show that we won't soon forget...even if we wanted to!

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Halloween is still fresh on our minds, so it seems that all the freaks are coming outta the woodwork. Edmonton writer Marty Chan's The Bone House is no exception, but as we learn in this live theatre thriller, that's just the way we like it!

Tuesday night (Oct. 27) was half-price night, so my inner cheapskate awakened and I headed down to Old Strathcona to take advantage of the sale ($11). There was already a lineup when I arrived at the TransAlta Arts Barns' PCL Studio Theatre (Edmonton, AB.) a half hour before showtime (8:00PM). We took to our seats and The Bone House started soon after.

There was a projection screen at the back of the small PCL stage, and to the right was a desk with a laptop and speakers. Black curtains surrounded us at every wall, from floor to ceiling, even shading the exit doors. It was a humble theatre, filled with about a hundred temporary seats, almost all of which were occupied.

A young gentleman in black dress pants, a white dress shirt and tie jumped onto the stage and excitedly welcomed us to the show in a southern American accent. He asked if we could turn our cell phone completely off and then started re-arranging patrons. After some five minutes the three front rows were all female, and my friends and I had been split up from each other. He assured us it was just part of the show, perhaps tearing us away from the comfort zone of our familiar friends for optimal fear.

He called himself Eugene Crowley (played by Chris Fassbender), the "mind hunter," and told us that he was in the business of analyzing whatever it is that goes on within the minds of serial killers. Crowley continued speaking to his audience as such, involving us like no other theatrical project I've been to had.

The "mind hunter" showed us grisly images of murder victims of some of the world's most notorious serial killers, whom he referred to as "celebrities." He blamed the likes of us for their celebrity, nurtured by our inherent curiosity for who these men were and what they'd become, all the while barely registering a shred of interest for their countless casualties.

"I worry that I may panic in the middle of this eerie play that I've unintentionally become a part of"

But Crowley welcomed us to the show for one psychopath in particular, going by the nickname "Midnight Cowboy," alluding to a song from the famous Dustin Hoffman-Jon Voight movie of the same name. The "Midnight Cowboy" had lacked control in his seemingly normal inhabitance, feeding his callous urges to gain control by taking it away from others. His calling card, of sorts, was a second victim at every crime scene who acted as an involuntary spectator to his devilish deeds.

Crowley and his assistant Jacob (Kyle Horton) then introduced us to Gabrielle, a survivor of one of "Midnight Cowboy's" savage excursions. The traumatized young lady reluctantly agreed to a hypnosis session for the crowd, her harrowing ordeal bleeding into our imaginations with every torturous shriek and numbing flashback.

Crowley goes beyond acceptable tactics to get inside the mind of this killer on the loose, before we transition this lecture-styled play into a potential--albeit pretend--crime scene. Let's fast forward, shall we?

The lights have gone out and it's pitch black. There are a couple of (not actual) gunshots onstage, shortly after Crowley suggests that any one of us in the crowd could be a killer...the killer!

Staring into blackness, sitting alone amongst a group of people, I start to breathe heavier. I keep blinking my eyes, hoping for a random spark of light to fill me in on what's going on beyond the dark. No such chance.

I worry that I may panic in the middle of this eerie play that I've unintentionally become a part of. But I stay calm, as bumps in the night elicit squeals from folks caught offguard. A villainous voice floats across the room, taunting the unsuspecting assembly who thought they came here for something a little more mainstream.

A third gunshot had to of jolted the lot of us, before that song from the Hoffman-Voight movie began humming from the speakers. The voice disappeared, the lights came back on, and all that was left was a bloodied garment hanging from the projection screen.

The befuddled crowd, abashed at their own fear by this point, remained in our seats, debating whether or not the act had come it its end. "That guy who was sitting beside me is gone," one of the girls behind me said to her friend, perhaps insinuating he was the "killer." By this point, I was just happy to see again! A few minutes pass before we begin to exit the studio, back into the safety of reality, or at least that's what we force ourselves to believe.

3.5 outta 5 stars

This review initially appeared on "I Heart Edmonton"
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