Okay, so this is super late. Basically I was weirded out by several aspects of Finals night. Here are some: everyone there was terribly terribly cool. This was a bit intimidating for me, who had dressed warmly and not very chicly.
Everyone was very hyped up, which I can totally understand if your own film had made it through, but it did feel a little like everyone but me was on drugs. Some things just aren't that funny!
I was very pleased at how well organised it was this year and how smoothly everything was run. Some very very good movies were shown. Here are my opinions on the ones we watched.
Clean Slate "The Baby Farmer"
Amazing movie. Just so professionally shot, well written and actually very terrifying. This one the best of Wellington, which I was very happy about because seriously? It rocked. The only gripe I have with it is that technically it's a Ghost movie, not a Monster movie. But then a ghost is a kind of monster sometimes so my gripe is very small.
Hydra Productions "16 Bullets"
A coming of age movie which dealt with a girl turning 16, being introduced to the family business (hitmen) and given her first gun and contract. I loved this one for the acting I think, the family had a real feeling of love and togetherness going on and the use of Robin Slade was great. Very mean girls, with back handed compliments delivered smoothly. Very true to genre, which it turns out, is important to me.
Long Live Megatron "Optimistic Prime"
Yay Heat Five! I was really looking forward to seeing this one again, and the jokes played just as well the second time. Love the use of the Barbershop quartet. The audience was pissing themselves in this one.
Open Book "Robin Slade: The Actor's Actor"
I have a lot of love for mockumentaries and this one was very well pulled off. I think everyone had a feared getting "puppet" as a genre but this team did really well to cast their muppety puppet as a renowned actor working on a two man show with a doting director. Some great jokes and the best actor award went to the puppet's jealous offsider.
Northside Steelers "Emotional Rescue"
For me, this movie was too disjointed. It set up a really touching and very dark storyline of a man trying to kill himself and then sort of jumped the shark, had a bunch of different set ups for stories and didn't follow them through. Really, I was disappointed that it abandoned the quite moving emotional stuff for confusing fluff.
Pancake "Faery Disenchanted"
Quite a clever idea this one, fairies in a support group. Surprisingly dark ending! Brilliant acting by a teeny wee girl and some very good jokes. It was maybe a bit too predictable (apart from the very end!).
Prime Rib "Gunther & Me"
I really liked this one. (Go the monster genre!) It was a kind of coming of age story about a boy who's imaginary friend is a bit too real and not really relevant to his life anymore. This team won the teen award and I think they did really well. I especially liked the Father's lines: "Aw, you little wanker".
SE7 "Seven in Seven"
I've never seen Se7en, but I know enough about it to participate in conversations about it. This parody was pretty good, although I didn't get one whole section of it because I don't watch enough TV! Overall sort of disappointing after it had so much build up on the forums.
Traces Of Nut "Monster"
(Go the monster genre!) I have mixed feelings about this film, it was pretty funny and the fight scene was well choreographed but I dunno, the premise didn't really do it for me I think. I may have just been jealous that they had a better monster movie than us? Suffice to say I didn't enjoy it as much as the rest of my group did.
Ufo Film "That Fateful Day In April"
Uhm. Yeah. One joke isn't really enough to sustain four minutes of confusing images and annoying soundtrack. It's true that the joke is good, but....I think this one should have been Pretentious Art Film. Then I would have forgiven it.
Unproductive But Optimistic "This Thing Called Hate"
Very nice Monster movie about a monster who just isn't evil. Beautifully acted and some good jokes. I especially liked the use of "That's what I'm talking about" in this one. It was well shot, but perhaps went on a little too long. Kudos for filming in and around the police station though.
White Tiger "Slade In Full"
What can I say here? I don't like it. My theory is that it's a "boy film" and therefore the jokes aren't that funny to me. A lot of people have been saying "oh wow, he made it all on his own" but...well, he did a film two years ago with just him and one other person. Personally I don't think it's particularly clever to watch the same guy die over and over again but then what do I know? The audience at the Embassy was roaring with laughter and the teenagers from Prime Rib were stomping their feet they were laughing so hard.
I guess I'm just not the target audience.
Later....the Grand, National Finals.
Please don't flame me about what I've said here. If you've googled your team name and don't like what I've said remember: I am just one person. It doesn't really matter what I think. My team didn't even get to the finals!
PoF: Batman
CO: getting stuff done