If State Property 2 is the McDonald's across town (you know, the one with halfway decent service and clean floors), then Amir Valinia's Pain: The Movie (2004) is the run-down McDonald's you pass by on your way there. In short, this story of "life on the streets" is a low-rent version of an idea that was never that great in the first place.

Clichés are piled high, characters generally fall flat and the movie's generic plot trudges along like a bloated music video. State Property 2 and the like are overblown to the point of unintentional comedy---at least in the same way that Plan 9 From Outer Space is---while Pain is just flat-out boring during the bulk of its 108-minute runt...Read the entire review

Though it was first conceived and written roughly fifteen years ago, New Hampshire independent filmmaker Bill Millios' Dangerous Crosswinds didn't become a reality until the spring of 2004. It's a film that explores the hot-button topic of euthanasia---not unlike Paul Haggis' Million Dollar Baby, for example---though most other similarities should end right there. Dangerous Crosswinds is a small-scale production: shot inside the quiet state of New Hampshire, this independent drama only includes a handful of characters and a fairly simple story. It's certainly not without a few faults, but Dangerous Crosswinds is an interesting film that's really worth looking into.

Our story centers around Harry Toland (Larry Jay Tish), a native of New Hampshire who's just returning home from ...Read the entire review

The Movie

When I was a high school freshman, my friends and I would sometimes make homemade movie parodies. Using someone's Dad's Handycam we'd shoot Star Trek schtick, and at the time we thought it was pretty damn funny stuff. Were that video still around, I'd buy a shotgun and blow it into smithereens.

I mention this because that's what Butch Black: The M.E.A.N. Man looks like: Five or six good pals who decided they wanted to remake/semi-parody their favorite moments from the Tarantino-esque crime flicks. I'm not sure which movies exactly, but I'd guess it was all of 'em.

Anyway, Butch is a no-bullshit mega-cop who's trying to track down a villain while dealing with things like atrocious dialogue, cornball movie references, boom mikes that only bother to capture about half of the soundtrack, and the limited quality of equipment purchased with a Sears charge card.

Even at...Read the entire review

The Movie

Short films as a practical device have been around since the dawn of cinema, as the first experiments in filmmaking were very brief. Short films as an art form have existed for nearly as long, as shorts were exhibited in theaters. Many avant garde filmmakers site the 1929 short Un Chien Andalou as an influence. Today, short films still abound, but they aren't as readily available to the general public. These films are often screened at film festivals, shown between programs on cable channels, or viewed on-line. Empty Street Productions has taken a more direct approach to getting their shorts to the masses, as they have released their latest, HeadHunting, Inc. to DVD.

Max Shippee stars in HeadHunting, Inc. as Stanley Telemacher, who works for HeadHunting Inc., an employment agency. Stan has been under a great deal of pressure at work and has been...Read the entire review

The Movie

Harry Monument is an affectionate, cheesy homage to film noir, replete with sardonic voiceover and stylized narrative. Writer/director/producer/editor/cinematographer and more Richard Evans' love of gritty Forties B-films comes through loud and clear. In a way, the film's limited budget and non-professional actors lends a certain air of credibility to the absurd, convoluted story that, on the surface, seems nearly impossible to synopsize but here goes nothin' ...

Hard-boiled cop Harry Monument (Danny Ward) is found dead in a Los Angeles park, near a heap of French fries – Harry's partner, Keno Argyle (Dave Draper), becomes swept in his mysterious death after landing a job as a stand-in on a kung fu movie, only to be kicked in the head by an excitable director. Thanks to the blow, he subsequently imagines himself in Los Angeles, doggedly pursuing Harry's killer, ...Read the entire review

We Irish Americans are known for many things (mostly drinking), but I bet you've never heard of an Irish American Ninja. At least I hadn't, not until I sat down to watch Bill Sebastian's film of the same namesake. As you'd probably expect this film is very independent and really designed to be a spoof of the American Ninja series from the movie vault that time forget.

Irish American Ninja is a difficult movie to grade. There really isn't a cohesive story or structure to the film, the pacing is erratic, it is poorly acted, perpetually cheesy and over-the-top in every regard. So why then am I recommending it? There are points where this film hits pure genius and despite all of its flaws, it truly is hysterical. Oh, and I also love ninjas.

Much to his mother's dismay, all George McGoogle (Sebastian) ever wanted to be was a ninja. He spent countless ...Read the entire review

With the movies coming out of Hollywood getting more narrow in focusas time goes on, relying on remakes, sequels, and comic book adaptations,independent films are where new and different stories are told.  Ofcourse seeing these films is often hard to do, but it is getting easier. Film Baby is an on-line distributorwho specializes in small films, selling them on DVD-Rs and giving filmmakers some much needed exposure.  The first FilmBaby disc that has come across my desk is Obtuse Todd, a moviewith a different feel about a guy whose life starts getting increasinglyweird after a lonely young girl dials his number by mistake.

Todd (writer/director Matthew Farley) is a lonely guy, a musician whoworks at an insurance company to pay the bills.  He's falle...Read the entire review