Change Your Image
Umbru
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Star Wars: Threads of Destiny (2014)
Excellently constructed Fan Film.
For an amateur Fan Film this is top notch. The special effects are well done, though the same problem most fan films have shine through in the story and acting. It hits upon the clichés, and by the numbers, and the actors come across more than a little stunted, sounding a bit more like Live Action Roleplayers (LARPers).
For all that I stayed with it through the whole thing, which is actually pretty impressive. The acting, as it was, and story were at least if not better than Episodes 1 and 2. I'd really enjoy seeing something like this done by some passionate people willing to push new boundaries instead of the normal Star Wars tropes.
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising (2008)
I saw it for the first Time at Comicon in San Diego!
I was laughing so hard most of the time I had people glaring at me because they couldn't hear over my laughter. I literally fell out of my seat at a specific point.
I'm a Bartender and Bouncer for a living in the Real world (note my use of the term Real world, sadly it always has to come first), and whenever I tell someone I play RPG's, it's usually followed by one of two questions: 1. What, like D&D? I played that back in Junior High.
2. Really? I've been looking or a group forever! Have room for another? Very rarely do people not know what D&D and Gaming are.
That having been said almost every person who watches this movie can get something out of it. Even if you aren't a Gamer, chances are there is something in your life you "Geek Out" about that can be made fun of in a light hearted way, and that alone means you can relate to the hijinx in this flick. It's just light hearted happiness in an hour and a half.
Surface (2005)
Stereotypes are sometimes truer than you may think, aka Who wants to be a Marine Biologist anyways!
There are Many things that you could say about Surface, some would say it's a re hash of older material, and on the Surface it could easily seem that way, but if you were to actually watch it and pay attention you may be quite surprised by the Depth it can achieve.
Surface follows several different threads simultaneously.
The first thread is the single mother, sometimes more devoted to her work than her child, marine biologist. The cookie cutter part is how she worked her way through college and earned every damn merit she has and she's got a chip on her shoulder about it to boot (after all a female lead must be equal or superior to a male lead to attract the womens demographic in a modern dramatic series). What is not so normal is how she really is shown to not have the family values we all are used to, and the reasons she gets along with her child is how she spoils him whenever she can due to her feelings of abandonment due to her work. She feels Guilty! She of course is one of the few to make the initial discovery of a new aquatic mammal, that is larger than most species of whales.
The Second thread follows an Insurance Salesman from Louisiana who loves to go boating and spearfishing. Painted as a redneck at first he soon develops into an everyman who simply feels his life didn't go anywhere, and now that his brother died in an encounter with a monster that everyone says doesn't exist, he feels he has a destiny to fulfill in exposing these monsters. Against all odds he refuses to give in to his peers and loved ones. A character many who lead "Mundane" lives would empathize with quite strongly in his quest to prove to himself, as well as his loved ones he isn't crazy.
The Third thread follows a young man who, with friends boating at night, discovers a creature he can't explain. When he finds some odd looking aquatic Eggs floating in the area he saw the creature he takes one home, waiting ultimately till it hatches, then becoming attached to his odd creature/pet, and learning all about it's eccentricities along the way. The Child in all of us can easily understand the wonder and attachment this boy has with his creature.
The Fourth thread follows the reclusive scientist who has foreseen something of this nature happening for many years, and now feels the safety of the people of the world is in danger. And rightly so as we see these are gigantic, near unkillable, omnivorous, amphibious monsters of an unknown origin, possibly alien, that will eat humankind out of house and home, as well as disrupt the worlds ecosystem if left unchecked.
These plot threads thus far sometimes cross over, such as the government cover up that threatens the Lady Biologist and the Insurance salesman, orchestrated it seems by the reclusive scientist working for the government. But there is much more going on beneath the Surface than some are willing to wait to see.