MassBay Film Festival

Checked out the MassBay Film Festival in Worcester last night. We saw The Helix Loaded and My Big Fat Independent Movie. They are both feature spoofs of other movies and I'm planning something similar so was interested in checking these out.

We had tried to see Helix (which is a Matrix parody) at the start of the festival back on April 15th, but technical difficulties intervened so we got to see "Sin City" again. So by the time I did see Helix it wasn't up to my expectations -- they got all the technical aspects and effects down but tried to spoof too many movies to make the whole thing work. Probably 5 good laughs thru whole thing. Big surprise was the one and only Vanilla Ice having a featured role, not sure who he corresponds to in "The Matrix" but whatever. They threw in lots of "Fight Club" references and then just a single line or scene from other movies such as "secretary" and one from one of my all time favorites "The Professional" that nobody reacted to but me. Helix was sometimes a serious, exact replication of The Matrix, then Tyler Durden would pop in and throw some jokes out that just flopped. To be fair there was less than a dozen people in the audience which makes it tough for a comedy to really get some big laughs.

On the other hand, Big Fat Indie was hilarious. A very pleasant surprise, just non stop gags and goofs. Closest to "Not Another Teen Movie" -- which I found surprisingly funny when I finally caught that on cable. This flick didn't stay in one movie for too long, just lots of good, rapid fire gags. If one went over your head, the next one would make you laugh.

Plan on heading back to the festival later this weekend. One documentary sounds pretty cool, "Down size Me" is a rebuttal to "Super Size Me" by a bodybuilder who goes on the McDiet and actually loses weight. Then there is a two hour block of Star Wars fan films that could be cool.

No More XUV

Just read that GMC has stopped production on the Envoy XUV - the very vehicle I drive and love. Guess the whole sliding roof thing just didn't take off. It was a hit with antique dealers and contractors (of which I am neither) as well as pet owners (which I am - but Homer hates riding in anything), but few else. The masses still buying SUVs are all looking for seven seaters. Granted I've only opened my roof twice in the past year, but just knowing that I can makes me sleep better at night. At least now I own a collector's item, just need to be able to find a collector when its time for a new ride.

Must See TV

Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight. Will be interesting to see how he does. According to Boston Globe, next week on MTV Cribs they will be featuring Red Sox lead idiot Johnny Damon and Motley Crue's Vince Neil. Cribs premiers Tuesday at 10:30pm.

What The F

The other day it was 70 and beautiful and right now it is SNOWING! What is going on? Did Hell freeze over or something? Oh wait, I remember now. The Red Sox won the World Series!!!

Yesterday was the home opener at Fenway Park with a great celebration 86 years in the making. The sox unveiled a huge championship banner and passed out the championship to the players -- even some players no longer on the team made the trip, which was very cool. The other very cool thing was the surprise appearance of Patriot's linebacker Tedy Bruschi. This was his first public appearance since his recent stroke and all of Fenway started chanting "Tedy" as he walked across the field. He was joined with other Boston sports greats Bill Russell, Bobby Orr, and fellow 3x Super Bowl champ Richard Seymour who all threw ceremonial first pitches. And the day ended perfectly, with a 8-1 spanking of the Yankees. But I'll give the Yanks credit, the were all in the dugout watching all of the pregrame ceremony. Biggest laugh of it all was the rousing ovation for NY closer Mariano Rivera -- he's blown the last four games against the Sox. He was even laughing about it. All the other yanks got their normal echoing of boos, but A-Rod has now passed Jeter for loudest and longest booing.

Ride to Wave

Yeah! Summer is here. At least it sure feels like it. Sunny all weekend with temps hitting the 70's this afternoon. Got the Harley out for a good ride today and though it wasn't the first ride of the year, it was the first time I've seen tons of other bikes. I love the unprompted wave of biker to biker on the open road, especially the first waves of the season. I'll even return a wave from people on Japanese bikes. Then there is the rare knob on his bright yellow plastic crotch rocket who has no clue of the biker brotherhood. Usually ridden by some high school jock who has yet to realize the rest of life is straight downhill. I never give a wave to them.

Film School Weekend

Spending this weekend at the Action/Cut directing seminar in Boston. This is the closest I ever plan to come to film school, and so far it has been very cool and surpassed my expectations. Only about twenty people all being led by an actual working TV and Film director Guy Magar. It is a packed weekend of the nuts and bolts details on how to actually direct a major production. All the information that film schools don't ever mention. People have come from Rhode Island, New York and even Minnesota to attend this shindig.

The seminar should be just the kick in the ass needed to get the mighty sporks of PlasticVille cranking out some more plastic quality no-budget productions this spring and summer.

Sin City Rules

The first great movie of 2005 is out - Sin City. This is based on the Sin City graphic novels (aka very adult comic books) and isn't an adaptation but more of a literal transfer of the comic to the screen. It is directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (the creator of the comic). Rodriguez got some shit from the Directors' Guild about a co-director credit so he quit the DGA. So now the credits even include special guest director Quentin Tarantino.

I'd best describe it as a high-tech film noir with lots of blood, guts & sluts - and a surprising amount of humor. It features multiple overlapping story lines, all based in the seamy underbelly of Sin City. Technically it breaks all sorts of new ground -- it has the most seamless transitions of live action to digital trickery I've ever seen. A great ride.