Friday, June 01, 2007

Hole In The Head 2007 - Day 3 (Preview)

SFIndieFest's 2007 [Another] Hole In The Head continues at the Roxie in San Francisco. I've been fortunate enough this year to have access to previews of nearly the entire festival (since I'm in Atlanta, now), and I'll be posting 'previews' two days in advance of each day's screenings. Woo hoo!

Day 3, aka Sunday June 3, begins with three animated programs, including "Plymptoons", which I am SURE will be fantastic! Quite unfortunately, screeners of those three programs were not available. However, the two evening features were.

"El Muerto" (dir. Brian Cox, USA, 2007, 90 mins.) is based upon the comic book by Javier Hernandez. It is also, perhaps the most 'commercial' of the features I've seen from this year's festival. The script, production values and performances are all quite ably polished. The story itself may or may not be as gripping as some of the other offerings in the festival, however the general appeal of the film as a whole makes it quite painless, though perhaps not quite as memorable as some of the bloody bucketfuls that surround it on the schedule.

Wilmer Valderrama ("That 70's Show") proves himself to be a charismatic, if not at least a very effective actor, in his portrayal of the melancholy hero, who has reluctantly returned from the dead for reasons unbeknownst to him. Those reasons would be my only hesitation from being overly enthusiastic about the film. It gets sort of muddy, at least for me, as far as the recounting of the Aztec legend and prophecy of which he is the apparent subject, or victim. So, generally, I LIKED it, but specifically, I can't say I was blown away by any part of it, in retrospect.

"The Thirst" (dir. Tom Shell, USA, 2007, 90 mins. approximately) did not blow me away, generally or specifically. In fact, I was bored. Really bored. It's a vampire movie. A successor must be found to lead a modern day coven and it seems that a pacifist university student, cum vampire hunter, is drawn into the middle of this... There isn't anything overtly terrible about "The Thirst". It's just dull.

Maxxxxx says
re "El Muerte": [ancient cackles]
re "The Thirst": "Is it bedtime?"

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