Tag Archives: A

Apocalypse Pizza Video (2012)

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As is the case with most short films these days, “Apocalypse Pizza Video” is only really existent as a pitch for a feature film. It’s a small glimpse in to a humongous world and massive narrative that promises to be wide in scope should it ever become a feature film. Or a series. I’m not sure which. Some information I’ve read claims this film is part one in a series, while other sources claim it’s a “trailer” for the feature film the producers are trying to get funding for to make in to a feature film. None of that matter as I’m a complete sucker for any form of fiction that concerns the apocalypse and the film from Je Suis Bien Content is one of the most creative piece of post-apocalyptic cinema I’ve seen in a while.

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The Avengers (2012)

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What Joss Whedon has done is quite spectacular. He’s managed to take what could have been a complete clusterfuck of a movie and compacted every single hero and their mythos within two and a half hours, while also being able to introduce new heroes we can root for in the process. “The Avengers” is a true accomplishment of not only studio ambition but comic book cinema, a true masterpiece of the fantasy genre that piles together Marvel’s greatest heroes for a film many comic book fans have dreamed of having for decades. “The Avengers” incidentally is one of the many variations of Akira Kurosawa’s unparalleled masterpiece “Seven Samurai.” In “The Avengers” much like Kurosawa’s masterpiece, a thuggish villain rears his ugly head prepared to take down a land of innocent people for their own selfish purposes. Only when seven mismatched and unique heroes join forces and put aside their egos to defend the land does the villain meet his match. Ultimately while “The Avengers” is in fact an ambitious project that’s been planned from the get go, the film feels very meticulously crafted.

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Archetype (2012)

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These days in an effort to get movies off the ground, indie filmmakers are prone to creating short films that exposit the concept of their feature film for the audience allowing them a chance to expand upon it should they be offered a chance by studios. That’s the basic reasoning for “Archetype.” Made for a little money, “Archetype” is actually quite excellent for such a short film that works as a prologue for the premise of Aaron Sims’ film. What happens when artificial intelligence becomes so intelligent it’s convinced it led a past life? And what happens when the corporation that created the AI finds little ability to convince them otherwise?

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Affliction (2011)

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Director Amir Masud’s short supernatural thriller entitled “Affliction” gave me a lot of flashbacks to films like “Donnie Darko” and “Carrie” for the fact that we can never be sure what our main character Sara’s destiny is. Is she meant to be a messiah or a prophet? Is she the beginning of a new wave of holy warriors, or merely a fluke or pure evil masquerading as good? Nevertheless, “Affliction” manages to be a powerful and disturbing journey in to a mind of a mentally unbalanced girl whose own religious beliefs has managed to unlock something in her that she never knew she had.

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A Senior Moment (2012)

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I was pretty sure I had an idea of where this film was going, but thankfully as with most productions with Patrick Rea behind it, you can never underestimate it or its ability to be clever and pull the rug out from audiences. That’s basically what “A Senior Moment” is all about, in the end. Sure it’s a nice and sweet little short about the lives of elderly folks that are amazingly similar to those of the younger persuasion, but the climax it leads up to is what kept lingering in my mind and giggling afterward.

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Anna (2012)

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The cast and crew really bring together what I can only describe as a short and sweet bit of sweet payback cinema that involves a woman who has just about had enough with her life. How many of us have the balls to go out there and take life by the cojones and risk it all to tell people what we really think about them? Once and for all Anna has decided to play by her own rules and after smashing her fist in to a mirror ventures out in to the world staring down a crude construction worker, telling off her boss and putting an end to a would be mugger that inevitably puts her in to the arms of her co-worker she’s infatuated with.

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The Ark (2007)

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Some viewers of Grzegorz Jonkajtys’s work may consider his films to somewhat pessimistic about the world, but I view them as a refreshing state of animation where we can reflect upon our own humanity for once. Not all animation has to have dancing penguins and talking teapots to be considered watchable. Most times animation can be used to reflect humanity as a whole. That’s what “Ark” essentially is. While it’s another post-apocalyptic tale, it’s also a meaningful one about one man’s struggle to stave off a disease that’s consuming his very essence.

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