This is a short film by Home Video Productions: International, a student group of filmmakers and creative types at Shepherd University. It was entered in the Frederick, Maryland 72 Hour Film Fest. It won the “Head of Class” (Best Student Film) award and was one of 5 nominations for “Best of Fest” out of over 40 other films. More info at www.72.fest.com.

Do yourself a favor, set it to 1080p (or at LEAST 720p), go grab a cup of coffee or pop some popcorn, then enjoy the short 5 minute film.

Synopsis: A young lady wakes up from the repetition of a melancholy life as she rediscovers her past love of art and it shakes her very reality.

Technical Specs: Used 3 Nikon lenses (wide angel, 50mm, and telephoto). Used 2 Canon T2i, Zoom H4N, boom pool, slider, tripod w/ fluid head, and more. Used LED and florescent lighting.

Software: Adobe Premiere & After Effects CS5 for all editing, post-production, animation, and sound design.

Credits:
J. P. Schmidt – Director – http://vimeo.com/user864373
Anthony Bellissimo – Editor – http://anthonybellissimo.com/
Matt Richards – Producer – http://www.mattc0m.com
Ashli Chesire – “Amy Jackson”
John Meeker – “Mr. Clark”
Hans Mertens – “The Gentlemen”
Stephen Wittkamper – Assistant Producer
Thom Huenger – Composer – http://www.myspace.com/thomhuenger
Cody Cheesebrough – Music Producer – http://www.myspace.com/erikgoestogermany
Justin McKenzie – Sound
Joey Diaz – Camera Operator – http://joeydiaz.carbonmade.com/
Zack Shelly – Equipment Coordinator
Sarah Crickenberger – Assistant Screenwriter

This quirky adventure mixes the irony of psychic warfare in the US army, a tale of self discovery, political commentary, a mix of great actors, and a premise that is guaranteed to be off-the-wall. While this may seem like a sure winner, it stumbles rather than taking flight and becoming a true classic.

Interested in what I’ve got to say? View my review posted at MovieSector. It’s got the full text, screen captures, a trailer, and my final score (you can also add your own score).

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I believe that you, too, should have the experience of watching it.

You read my review posted over at my new website called “Movie Sector.”

The Watchmen is part action, part mystery, part drama, but mainly it’s just damn interesting. The movie itself is a near carbon copy of the graphic novel, and it doesn’t just skim the interesting bits from the top – it delves into a lot of detail.

[singlepic=67,115,100,,left]There’s a lot of adult subjects in here. From nudity to excessive gore to political commentary to deep characterization, The Watchmen doesn’t treat you like you’re stupid. It gives you the respect to watch a deep, adult oriented movie, without having to dumb anything down to appear “main stream.”

The characters are all pretty interesting. But no one hits the spot quiet as well as Rorschach does. The actor that plays this character hits him spot on, and you feel how disturbed and troubled he is. He plays the character so perfectly, it’s spooky.

[singlepic=69,115,100,,left]As you may have seen from the trailer, this movie is very stylized. It’s a visual delight to watch this movie. It conveys the dark, gritty nature of the graphic novel to near perfection. The action scenes are also very exciting, having a “300″ feel to them. That being said, the action scenes are definitely not the focus of the movie, unlike 300.

As I mentioned earlier, the movie is a nearly identical to the source material. While this is usually considered a good thing, I found it to detract a little. There was no sense of revealing, no sudden twists, nothing unexpected. The only difference, that came near the end, was a thankful change of pace, which I felt worked very well with the movie. But it’s attitude of making an exact replica of the graphic novel turns out to be both a blessing and a curse, from my opinion.

[singlepic=68,115,100,,left]I also did not enjoy some of the music selections. I wish it was more ambient, more dramactic, more somber. a lot of the songs selected I felt did not really fit as they should have. The trailers had excellent music, as did 300, but I felt The Watchmen itself could have done a lot better in this regard.

Overall, it was a highly entertaining film. It was full of complex ideas, interesting characters, and has a very deep, gritty world. The visual effects work wonderfully, accompanying the movie and its world, but not overshadowing them. I enjoyed the film, and hope that movie-goers who were not Watchmen fans also appreciated it.

7/10

Wow. what a fantastic surprise this movie was! I was accompanied by a group of friends when we went to see this flick. Even though the new Underworld was released this weekend, our group of young and action-seeking college students ultimately decided on Taken. I mean, the trailer really did look pretty cool, and that played a big role in picking the movie. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

There is something special about this movie. Sure, it has it’s faults. And it probably isn’t going to win any awards. But if you like action movies, you’re going to love this film. And I’m not talking about because it’s got big budget, fancy, and elegant action scenes. No, it’s none of that. But the action is very, very special, and it gets your blood pumping. It’s gritty, it’s real, but most of all. it’s smart.

The action in this movies always seems very fresh. The action is quick and precise, it moves so quickly, you’re never ceased to be entertained. It’s got a bit of the Bourne Identity, some Transporter, but mainly it stands out for keeping every part of the movie grounded in reality. Our hero disarms, incapacitate, and kills his adversaries with remarkable expertise. He uses his hands most of the time, but he’s quick to pick a gun and make quick work of his enemies.

Liam Neeson (known as Qui-Gon Jinn or as your father in Fallout 3) does an excellent job as Bryan Mills, the father who would do anything to save his kidnapped daughter. He does a very convincing role and his acting is entirely spot on. You feel his anger, his determination, and his willingness to cross any line to save his daughter. You see his cool exterior, you feel his experience and professionalism just ooze out of him, and despite the circumstances you see him acting as if he’s always in charge.

The rest of the cast is a bit hit and miss, but the film really revolves around him the entire time. Which is a blessing, because Neeson does such an excellent job.

The real heart of this movie is it keeps throwing unexpected little bits at you. You expect one thing, and it does something else completely. These little twists really make the movie much more interesting and full of flavor, because they all keep in line with Neeson’s cool composure, yet you see his absurd dedication to do anything to get his daughter as quickly as possible. There is some moments that make you think. “did he really just do that? wow.”

The key word here is that the movie is really smart, he doesn’t win because he’s stronger or a better shot – he is able to track his daughters and kill people who get in his way because he is smart, fast, and unrelenting.

I’ve got my complaints. The beginning started off a bit too slow and was drawn on. Most of the characters were really shallow, in fact the only character with any depth what-so-ever is the main character. It makes all the scenes involving other characters a bit dull. Also, the chase scenes involving cars are definitely a bit over-the-top on the “shaky cam”, and it is very distracting and not nearly as entertaining as many of the other scenes.

The action is smart and quick. The main character is a complete bad ass, and yet it’s nothing over the top. His skills come from his ability to out-think his adversaries and this makes the action really fun to watch. While the action is some of the best I’ve seen, and this is one of my new favorite movies, the other non-action bits aren’t the greatest, and I’ve listed a few of my complaints above.

Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. It’s not perfect, but I was expecting a bland action movie and found an unexpected gem instead.

8/10

There’s a brand new trailer out for the upcoming film titled The Watchmen. Check out the trailer at Yahoo Movies (make sure you watch it in HD!). The trailer is amazing, it gave me tingles all over. I’m very excited for the release of this film!

I also just finished the graphic novel today, and it’s great. Well deserving of the praise it has received, and the praise has been extensive! Hugo Award winner, on the Time Magazine’s 100 best novels, you name it. I’d suggest picking it up if you haven’t yet it, yet!

The story is very gritty and adult. It deals with some fairly interesting ideas, and for a super hero graphic novel it is incredibly mature. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever seen or read, and it is really enjoyable. The characters are especially deep, the drawing is great, and the dialogue is interesting throughout.

Read the full story to view a small collection of pictures from the trailer.

• View it on Apple’s site

It’s available in High Definition and I really recommend you watch it that way.

Update 1: Well, the whole purpose of this post was to post the NEW link to the NEW trailer, which I forgot to do!

• Check out the new trailer (right click, save as), hosted by GamingTrend.

Update 2: Screen captures!