Fantasia : Postal

Here he was, the most hated video game to films director Uwe Boll, presenting his latest film Postal. I have been lucky enough to never have been exposed to his work, having only seen the trailer of Alone in the Dark, to which I screamed an endless array of insult at the screen for it not being a period piece. But that's another story. Postal is probably the kind of film that Uwe Boll should've been making all along, instead of films based on serious games like Alone in the Dark or Dungeon Siege.

Postal, the game, is just meant to be a provocative pointless excuse for a first person shooter. Postal, the movie, tries to be a bit more. Think of it as South Park live-action, an often made comparison. It's dirty, scat-filled, afraid of nothing, but underneath it hides a rather clever and honest political commentary.

Postal was a resounding success with the crowd, yours truly included. I wouldn't go as far as to say that "the world needs movies like that", but I will say it is one hell of a ride, and it does a good job of exposing a lot of the hypocrisy and stupidity that rules this world. And no matter show hard to shock you think you are, there will probably be a point in this movie where you will have to look away, shake your head, or just walk off.

7.5/10 with a butt-factor of 1.5 (9/10)

Fantasia : DJ XL5 Kaleidoscopic Zappin' Party

It was my first year going to XL5's party. A strange mix of locally and internationally made shorts such as Internet-available classic Dr. Tran and the world-premiere episode 13 of Tom et ses Chums. The show is preceded, and sometimes interrupted, by '70s and '80s trailers of soft-porn and violent B-movies. It's tough to describe the show except that it's like a crappy TV evening with a group of friends. The shows are uneven (from excellent to crappy) but the experience is made better by fan participation. I'm not sure I'm in love with the concept, but it was an entertaining 2 hours anyway. I should note the always awesome Daniel Walther was in some of those clips, which made them awesome. For some strange reason, I left the party wanting to smell underwear, hyped about some Asian kid's next action movie, and browsing adult sites for Poutine Anale. 6.5/10 with a butt-factor of 1.

Fantasia : Recon 2022

I will be exceptionally harsh on Recon 2022, the locally-made sci-fi epic story starring a group of elite space marines on their quest to help the fledging human race overcome their terrible enemies, the Ma'hars. Producer/Director Christian Viel was on-hand to present his movie, and in his opening speech he told the audience "Not to think about it too much", as it's just a "fucking space marine movie". Fair enough.

I can forgive a lot of things about this movie. I can forgive the fact that although their enemies are supposed to be Ma'hars and Greys, they are barely in the movie (the bad guys are mostly humans/mercenary cyborgs). I can forgive the many cheesy CG shots that are the landmark of low-budget movies. These factors are due to budget constraints. Unfortunately, director Viel seems to be unaware of very basic concepts in cinema such as “the reaction shot”. It would seem the script or storyboard of that movie must have parts like "Film people shooting randomly for 20 seconds. Then the bad guy falls for no apparent reason". This kind of filming constitutes the bulk of the action scenes. One particularly bad example of this is when an enemy cyborg is shot dead, as it falls down it fires one final missile at the good guys. Where did that missile go? We'll never know. It doesn't hit nor does it misses, it just disappears. The movie is filled with moments like this. That doesn't have anything to do with budget constraints, it's sloppy planning, and amateurish execution.

I was more lenient on the first one because I believe first shots can be given a break. But by now the cost in time and money of CG shots should be known, and it's better to have 15 well-made CG shots than 45 duck-taped inconsistent shots. However, not all is lost. Characters are generally better-defined and more interesting than in Recon 2020, and the script's quality is also better, with some funny moments and clever dialogs. But overall it's very disappointing, especially considering the insane amount of work involved in all those CG shots.

Side by side with lower-budgeted feature-length titles such as Maurice Devereaux's End of the Line and last year's The Descendant by Philippe Spurrell, this independent film is left far behind. 3/10 with a butt-factor of 1.

Fantasia : The Rug Cop

After last year's almost too-hilarious Executive Koala, one could only realistically expect something not quite as funny with the toupet-throwing antics of The Rug Cop. In that case, wrong would be one's expectations. Not only is the Rug Cop funnier than Executive Koala, but it barely contains a few moments in which I wasn't laughing out loud. It helped a lot that the crowd was really into it, cheering on our rug-throwing hero. This is the most fun I've had at Fantasia since Bubba Ho-Tep. 9.5/10 with a butt factor of only .5 (laughter helps the pain).