Movie Review: Doll It Up (2018)

Doll It Up (2018) - USA - Comedy - NR (PG13)

Independent Short Subject - 8 mins

Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts

Directed & Written by Yalan Hu

Starring Timothy J. Cox, Devin Craig, Wayne DeBary, Jeff Mandel, Natalie Doll, Dorri Doll

A rollicking comedy with a truly 'inflated' sense of humor helmed by the wonderful comedic talent of Timothy J. Cox.

Gunther has a problem.. he's a man. To complicate this problem, his wife is a doll, literally. When his interest for a new doll gets a rise out of him (shaddup) can he just cast aside his old doll?

Timothy J. Cox is no stranger to the indie film scene. He's been in about every film ever made (that might be just a wee bit of an embellishment on my part). From his masterful performance in Matthew Mahler's To Be Alone, and with no dialogue mind you, to performances in Here Lies Joe (not me), Dark Romance and an appearance on the TV show Bull his capabilities as a serious actor are well accomplished.

On the flipside, he is just as talented when it comes to doing comedy and it's always a pleasure to see him doing comedy. Especially so when he has the opportunity to chew the scenery, and in Doll It Up he has scenery for breakfast. I had to do screencaps on my second viewing because I was laughing too hard to concentrate on anything else.

Doll It Up is Yalan Hu's directorial debut; according to IMDb (please correct me if I'm wrong). She has a strong sense of composition, putting the scene elements right where she wants them and keeping the viewer attuned. Her story structure is good in this as, without an introduction to this strange allegory, we get it. And of course her sense of humor is overboard.

Doll It Up certainly has a point. But its one weakness is the comedy overshadows that point. I give Hu extra credit for the final scene in which she creatively re-emphasizes the point. I find myself at 3 Fingers plus on a rating, but I'm going to give it a little nudge for Hu providing me with enough ammo to pick on Tim on social media for a good month at least. ;)

My Rating: 4 Fingers; that's 8/10 for you IMDb weirdos.

You can find Yalan Hu on Facebook.

Timothy J. Cox has his website and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Movie Review: The 6th Friend (2016)

The 6th Friend (2016) - USA - Horror Thriller - NR (R-LV)

Directed by Letia Miller

Written by Jamie Bernadette

Screenplay by Jamie Bernadette and Letia Clouston

Starring Jamie Bernadette, Chantelle Albers, Dominique Swain, Monique Rosario, Tania Nolan, Jessica Morris, David Villada, Tina Cole, Matt Clouston, Benjamin Adamson

Perhaps the most successful marriage of a psychological thriller and slasher flick with more than a few tricks up its sleeve to boot.

Six women get together for what promises to be a vexatious gathering at an isolated cabin in the woods as they not only carry with them the memory of a tragic night 5 years past, but that very memory may have a score to settle.

Psychological thrillers and slasher flicks many times have intersecting elements. Successfully marrying these two sub-genres would seem to be a given, and yet when attempts have been made the end result is more decidedly one or the other. The 6th Friend breaks that mold.

The standard mold of a slasher flick is the flashback to a previous incident and then bring that fully into the present so at the outset we understand the threat. The 6th Friend takes a different trek by building the past concurrent with the present, not only keeping the viewer guessing as to the exact nature of what had happened but upping the tension by keeping a certain element of the unknown always present as the story unfolds.

Nothing is delivered up front in the story but rather uses the characters and their interactions with each other to evolve it. This has the benefit of making the characters feel real and developing a harmony within the story.

A fluid screenplay moves things along at a natural pace. At the outset it is a slow burn to build the story, then fuel is thrown on the fire as the story takes off on its own. Dynamic direction keeps things moving where even in moments when things are perceivably slow it does not allow the viewer to linger idly.

Playing to the tension is a feeling of not knowing what is and what is not real. As a bonus an element of media consciousness plays out in the story, and how you want to interpret that is up to you.

I do feel that this film will strike a chord better with women than with men. Without divulging anything, certain elements men are just not going to get in general. It's difficult to feel terror when what causes that terror does not specifically apply to you.

In the end result The 6th Friend is ultimately a successful horror thriller; keeping the viewer guessing while scaring them at the same time, with a little something extra that may leave them wondering just how real is real.

My Rating: 4 Fingers; that's an 8/10 for IMDbers.

Find out more about The 6th Friend on the film's Facebook and Twitter pages.

Movie Review: Intensive Care (2018)

Intensive Care (2018) - USA - Action Comedy - NR (PG13)

Directed by Jared Bentley

Starring Tara Macken, Jai Rodriguez, Kevin Sizemore, Jose Rosete, Leslie Easterbrook, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Gunnar Sizemore, Austin Pollard, Ela Gavrila

Dumb, dumber and dumbest meet even dumberest in this comedy of errors masquerading as an action thriller, and yet it strangely succeeds.

An ex-special forces soldier takes up a new profession as a caregiver for a rich elderly woman. A seemingly innocuous job turns potentially deadly as thugs break in with the intention of robbing the woman but end up with more than they bargained for.

If the plot seems basic and especially in the category of 'seen it before', well it is. There's nothing new here from the standpoint of ex-whatever fighting machine having to face-off against a threat that we haven't seen in any number of Steven Seagal, Jean Claude Van Whatshisname or any action star's glut of dime a dozen movies.

In actuality this film seems confused at the outset as to what it wants to be. The setup is basically an action movie. The IMDb page lists it as a action/horror/thriller. But past the half hour mark, and I was less impressed with it up to that point, it takes a turn into an action comedy, and that alone saves it.

The filmmaking is competent, the acting is competent, as a matter of fact on the whole it's pretty competent and that's about the best thing that can be said about it. Yet the humor and action keep it going, even if at times it is interrupted by "WTFs" on the part of the viewer.

Throughout the film I had gone from a rating of 2 fingers during the first half hour to upping that to 2 Plus. My thoughts were it at least maintains itself. But then that became an important distinction as, with as basic of a premise and setup as it has, it rolls with its humor and action and is actually watchable and even enjoyable throughout its 80 minutes. There is an additional post-credits scene which nicely sets it up for a potential sequel.

My Rating: 3 Fingers; that's 6/10 for IMDbers

The Great Indie Film Promotion!

Well.. I might be overselling it.. just a wee bit.

A few problems have arisen over the past several months in trying to get indie film promotion and networking moving forward. At the heart of most of this is sucky internet. As of late I've actually had a good connection. Why? I don't know... but I'm going to follow the old standby of not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Additionally just the scope of indie film. Big Hollywood is easy to promote as their output and associated output is far less than 1% of the films made every year. Even if you eliminate national cinemas from the pool the majority of films made every years are by indie filmmakers. That's a hell of a lot films and filmmakers.

Participation is also a key factor. Not everyone is Timothy J. Cox or Kate Davies-Speak. I'd be willing to argue nobody is. Both of them have been instrumental in the promotion of indie film. Timothy J. Cox actively promotes films he is in and the works of others. Kate Davies-Speak uses her social media, I'm most specifically familiar with her Twitter activity, to engage those in indie film to share among themselves and promote each other. Her #ShowreelShareDay and #TrailerShare days have encouraged me to use the indie film community, whether they know it or not, to promote themselves.

I've mentioned the use of hashtags before for different promotions. What I'm aiming to try now is to build this to a weekly indie film promotion where filmmakers, actors, reviewers and others can share links to trailers, interviews, reviews, and have others retweet their links.

Weekly? A bit too much? Not really, because my ultimate goal is to build this to a daily promotion. Obviously I can't do that on my own. But Hollywood gets almost by the minute promotion, and much of that is given to them for free. But ask someone to do that for indie films and many will want to charge for it. Yep... throw free money at the rich and charge the working class.

My intention, at least in this function, is to get others involved with promoting indie films. Ideally those who will be open to having a regular social media promotion. That could be a day a year, a day a month, but eventually those days add up and over time that could build into a daily promotion. As the promotion builds we will eventually trend the hashtag, and if it builds to the point it gets in the top 10 then it will be getting more attention due to that, and that certainly is a goal.

I am going to start of the promotion on Thursdays. Probably beginning around 9 a.m. (East Coast/New York time) and continuing throughout the day till like 11 or midnight. I fully expect the first time, or first several times to flop. It takes a while to build up anything and I will start with promo tweets for a handful of indie films throughout the day. Of course anybody else who tweets the hashtag with their own promo tweet will be retweeted by me and hopefully others.

The hashtag is #MyIndieFilmPromotion

I will be tweeting and retweeting from two Twitter accounts: @SexAndBloodShow (shut up... I've already commented it was a poor choice for a Twitter url) and @MIFilmAdvantage.

The reason for Thursday is to keep from conflicting with my work schedule and Thursday is not the weekend, not the first day of the week and not a church day. I'm wanting to keep it on a day when people will less likely be occupied with something else.

What to share?

Pretty much anything that helps promote your film or a film in which you are involved or someone's film you are trying to promote. Trailers, IMDb listings, interviews, reviews, etc. If they'll fit in a tweet, by all means include them all. You can also add up to 4 images in a tweet too if you want to include posters, screencaps or other promotional materials. Sometimes when I have promoted films in the past I would create an image with a summary of a film, cast, etc. so I could include more about the film beyond the Twitter character count.

A few things to note:

Filmmakers - Often when I try to collect info for promoting films on Twitter with a Tweet. Rather than actually 'reply' with info like I've requested most just click on 'like'. If I want to actually collect any info then I have to search it out as a result. This is time consuming. Nobody knows your film, cast, social media links, etc. better than you. Not only will providing information help me out, it's a good habit to get into when it comes to soliciting reviews as it helps out the reviewer. What you can provide in a minute or two can take somebody else an hour or longer to have to search for it.

Reviewers - Let me be specific about what is and is not indie film. Indie film is not made with millions of dollars with big name actors. Indie film is individuals and even small companies making their own films. The United States has a problem with multi-million dollar movies masquerading as indie films because they are not made by one of the Big 6 studios. You are welcome to join in and help to promote indie films, but if you are confused about what they are and instead use the hashtag to promote bigger studio films you will be asked to stop.

Why this particular promotion?

As I've mentioned, internet has been a problem here. I've at least had a fairly consistent connection, but bandwidth often sucks. As I have been using mobile internet more, it does not require as much bandwidth as my computer does. This is a way for me to become more actively involved in promotion that I can also do on a phone or tablet.

I will tweet about the date of the first #MyIndieFilmPromotion rather than springing it on you. You don't have to specifically tweet within the hours I am. I will search the hashtag and retweet any tweets. You can also use a tweet scheduler online or a social media hub to schedule tweets. Any retweets are encouraged and very much appreciated.