Director Darrell C. Hazelrig’s “The Dark Companion” is an odd animal to make out. It’s darkly comedic, but also kind of grim when you think about it. It’s about a world where humans and puppets live beside one another, and drink in the same bars, and yet puppet Howard’s plight can be interpreted in both ways, when you boil it down. Director Hazelrig has a good time toying with this premise of a puppet that realizes it has a sentient hand up its back, and I like where the story inevitably goes.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
Crave (2013)
I really wanted to like Charles de Lauzirika’s “Crave,” because while it is painfully boring, it plants seeds for some chaos and havoc when it begins. The problem is that it never follows through on those seedlings of story potential. At least Charles de Lauzirika doesn’t seem to know how. What could be a demented look at a descent in to darkness turns in to a soapy, dripping melodrama with a hint of violence added all for a very lame pay off.
Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D (2013)
There’s a moment during “Dracula 3D” where I had to look away from the screen and cringe in utter embarrassment. It’s not the scene with the giant mantis, but where Dracula and Mina Harker are pitching woo on the castle balcony in the night. In between the pillars you can see a night sky and moon light so badly composited on to the screen, with atmosphere so poorly made up of blatant CGI, that it’s shocking in its sloppiness. Dario Argento is much better than this. Hell, Asia Argento is much better than this.
Steps (2013)
“Steps” from director Josef Rodriguez has a lot more coherency than “Take It Back” does, but it is still a work in progress. “Steps” is a short with a lot of potential to be a funny look at a jerk’s punishment when he crosses a girl at a party. When he’s kicked out, he realizes he has to pee and there’s not a bathroom in sight.
Storage 24 (2013)
Despite being featured in an article as one of the lowest grossing movies of the year (It premiered in one theater), “Storage 24” is actually a solid monster movie. If you want to see a vicious monster murdering thirty something Brits, this is the movie you’ll want to watch. Director Johannes Roberts‘ genre entry is a film with big ambitions, but a small budget, so he uses the creature effects wisely and pays off with vicious violence, and a pretty interesting finale. I’m not about to call “Storage 24” a masterpiece, as Roberts film takes too much of its time on back story and set up.
Our Top Ten “The Simpsons” Episodes of All Time: 5. Bart of Darkness
5. Bart of Darkness
Season Six
1994
“Flanders is going to kill Rod and Tod, that’s horrible…! In principle.” This episode drew a little bit of a connection for yours truly, as I could pretty much sympathize with Bart’s situation, sans the lunacy. Breaking my arm years ago, I was excluded from many summer activities including sports, and yes, going to public pools. In possibly one of the best episodes I’ve ever seen, the summer heat wave is so bad in Springfield that a guitarist singing “Sunshine on my Shoulders” gets knocked cold by a passerby, and the ice cream man drives around the neighborhood announcing that he’s all out of Ice Cream.
Within a Blink of an Eye (2013)
Much of what we do and say has consequences. Every step we take in human relationships from body language to even the most minute word has a profound impact on how we see one another and approach our lives. “Within a Blink of an Eye” astutely examines such a factor in the human dynamic, while also examining the concept of fate.