I dare you to hate this movie. Directors Brian Cunningham and Matt Niehoff create such an entertaining and raucous amalgam of movie genres, that “Overtime” ends up being a very easy and memorable ninety minutes. Often times when directors attempt comedy, they fail big time, but “Overtime” manages to be one of those movies where everything goes wrong, and I laughed through most of the mishaps. Raph and Max are two gangsters that are trying to live their lives by some form of morality, and are trying to see what it’s like to go about their everyday lives without beating or killing someone.
Tag Archives: Indie Film
Hell's Belles (2013)
Director Christian Anderson’s short horror film is a short I hope turns in to a feature film. I intend to buy it. And re-watch it. Every time I think there can’t be any new material mined from the horror hero gamut, someone always surprises me. “Hell’s Belles” is a fantastic short horror film about two ghost fighting babes named Adria and Helena.
Hypothermia (2010)
This is almost like “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” if conceived by Jim Jarmusch and directed by Larry Fessenden. The film attempts to put up a pretence that it’s saving the monster shots for the big finale, but in reality you can almost feel the director concealing the monster for the fact that it’s not a very menacing creature, when all is said and done.
Lo (2009)
Director Travis Betz, if anything, tries for originality and for the most part achieves it. Though “Lo” strives for simplicity and a downbeat nature, it’s a rather spectacular feat to comprise an entire film and story, as well as a horrific world, around one setting and one room only. Comprised very much like a stage play, “Lo” begins as a creepy trip in to the supernatural, and ends as a tragic love tale. “Lo” is about a man who simply can’t let his loved one go, and the trip he takes to ensure that he can re-claim the one he lost a long time ago.
The Hourglass Figure (2012)
In terms of plot, “The Hourglass Figure” really isn’t anything I haven’t seen before. It feels like a re-iteration of the Twilight Zone story “A Special Kind of Stopwatch” later remade in the eighties with a domestic twist called “A Little Peace and Quiet.” The premises are basically the same in tone and emotion. A busy and over worked house wife finds that she can get the quick fix to peace, quiet, and rejuvenation with a supernatural time stopping device.
Tag (2011)
This is a side of director Shane Ryan that I’ve never seen before. Intended to be in competition for the winning slot in the highly publicized 2013 horror film “The ABCs of Death,” Shane Ryan gives us “T for Tag.” Now known as “Tag,” Ryan’s short film is a spooky, unnerving, and gruesome bit of revenge cinema that channels the likes of Takashi Shimizu for a short that’s based heavily on violence, murders, and the ever merciless demon of guilt that plagues our young protagonist.
2 Hours (2012)
There was something particularly haunting about director Michael Ballif’s short film “Two Hours” when I was finished. I have seen short zombie films over and over in the course of three years, but “2 Hours” manages to achieve a certain morbid and disturbing nature to it that will stick with viewers long after the credits have rolled. Shot on an apparently small budget that’s defined as “no budget” over the course of two years, director Michael Ballif manages to paint an interesting post-apocalyptic world based around the walking dead.