Tag Archives: Adventure

Violet (2017)

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A teen witnesses a murder and must come to terms with what he saw.  Through his interactions with friends and family, he attempts to but can’t seem to find the way.

Violet was written and directed by Bas Devos, for whom this is a first feature according to IMDB.  This film is interesting in terms of how it develops around the lead that saw the murder.  It’s a simple story with strong emotional impact in terms of a teen dealing with grief, survivor guilt, and other hard feelings to handle at such at any age, especially as a teen.  The film explores this with mostly following the lead’s daily life and what he sees while trying to work through this.  The story has good, interesting elements but what really shine are the lead, its actor, and the visuals.

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Hardware Wars (1978)

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With only one movie under its belt in the series, and little resources, Ernie Fosselius’s “Hardware Wars” is a solid fan film for “Star Wars” and the first ever made. Fosselius doesn’t try to make a movie so much as a mock movie trailer that runs down the events of the first film with humorous results. It’s filled with literally nothing but satire about the original movie, even skirting copyrights by altering everything enough to avoid legal trouble.

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Spaceballs (1987)

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It makes me laugh quite a lot that modern Hollywood are planning to spoof “Star Wars” when Mel Brooks pretty much supplied the definitive “Star Wars” spoof thirty years ago. You can argue maybe there’s more to offer, but no, Mel Brooks did it first and best. He mocked the characters, he mocked the plot holes, and he even mocked the rampant consumerism that George Lucas partook in when “Star Wars” became a cash cow. “Spaceballs” involves the evil President Skroob kidnaps Vespa during an arranged marriage, in an effort to steal planet Druidia’s fresh air. The evil Lord Dark Helmet is assigned to complete the task of sucking Druidia’s air, and hires Lonestarr and his pal “Barft” (The mog, a half man and half dog) to find Princess Vespa when she escapes the arranged marriage.

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Star Wars: Hoshino (2016)

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This is the story of Ko Hoshino, a skilled blind Jedi Master who learned the hard way that patience and wisdom can mean life or death when you’re training to battle the dark side. Stephen Vitale’s fan film “Hoshino” is a visually fantastic tale about the coming of age of a brilliant Jedi warrior, and writer Eric Carrasco delivers a tale that’s steeped in simplicity like classic “Star Wars.” Jedi master Ho Koshino is learning to build her own light saber and thinks back to her tragic origins. Continue reading →

Star Wars: The Force and the Fury (2017)

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Despite what Disney and Lucasfilm have been doing lately with the “Star Wars” cinematic universe and promising “Star Wars” films until the foreseeable future, that doesn’t stop fans from contributing their own stories. “The Force and the Fury” is a great and simple short fan film that is beautifully directed and works on the fundamentals of “Star Wars”: The narrative is simple, straight to the point, and about family and how the Sith and Jedi affect those within its realm.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

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Much like a classic mix tape, “Vol. 2” of “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a movie that’s similar in theme to its predecessor but feels fresh and original. Director James Gunn delivered a truly remarkable adaptation in 2014, and now he offers up a sequel that’s just as good, with a hefty narrative that thankfully has so much going on, but never loses sight of its central themes of family, love, and how music is the soundtrack of our lives. With “Guardians” the group of Starlord, Gamorra, Groot, Rocket, and Drax are back committing to a difficult job for a race of aliens called the Sovereign. They’re tasked with killing a vicious monster called the Abilisk and protecting priceless batteries. In exchange, they give Gamorra her sister Nebula back, who has been held prisoner.

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Boned (2015)

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A dog sitter becomes unwittingly entangled in a dognapping scheme with a handsome doctor and an S&M mistress.

Written and directed by Laura Lee Bahr, this film has a little bit of everything.  The characters she creates here feel like maybe exaggerated versions of real people one would meet in Hollywood, people looking for their shining moment, their 15 minutes of fame.  They sometimes feel like exaggerated versions or stereotypes, but most of the time, they feel like actual people.  The film takes these people and puts them in crazy situations where they have no options but to do things most people wouldn’t even think of doing.  At the same time, outside of the dognapping and a few other events, the film is filled with regular, normal moments which anchor the story in reality and create a counter-balance the WTF moments.  Laura Lee Bahr weaves a story that should not make any sense (a dominatrix, goth kids, dog sitters, botox parties, …) yet it does.  She manages to take a few crazy ideas along with some odd characters and makes them entertaining and engaging.

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