Nick Burridge
20 Reviews
Reviews
Ruby Red
WOW this was both beautiful and brilliant! I won't repeat the synopsis as other reviewers have that covered, but instead I'll try focus on moments in the film that were pitch-perfect, or I think could have been done a little better. First off, fun little team intro + voiceover before going into the movie. This is totally nitpicking but I think you'd have been better off shooting the intro in a different location to the majority of your film - it's such a beautiful location and I wanted to be taken aback and surprised when it comes up on screen decked out with the cast in costume... but having seen it just before it lost just a little of it's initial punch. Just a thought though :) Next, the singing starts... and my word what singing it is. The female lead is undoubtedly the stronger singer, but the male lead does an admirable job keeping up (most of the time - the 'no' song was a little off). But the lyrics, backing instruments, and the different 'feel' to each song were all spot-on - this is a proper musical, something I don't think I've ever seen in 48Hours before. Blew me away, actually, and the period setting was the perfect choice for this style of music (actually you probably had the location first and that informed your choice of style? guessing here). So some shit happens and we're greeted with twist number 1 (omg she's alive)... which I (and I suspect many other people) saw coming as soon as the 'they're both dead' was announced. Didn't stop it from being a big/powerful moment, but I suspect it would have been more moving if we'd seen a little more of the couple's happiness together before the death/separation. But hey, 7 minutes, whatchu gonna do? Twist number 2! The man opening the envelope from the start is the male lead many years later! I like this! It's an invitation (to yet another piece of beautiful art department), and after a rocky start he's reunited (or united? seeing as they haven't met before) with the daughter he didn't know he had. Cool use of the butterfly tattoo to show the connection, and a nice end freeze-frame of forgiveness. Other cool stuff I liked: Just having 'Bobby Young' on the envelope and not making a big deal of everyone's names, although that may be because I'm sick of hearing 'Bobby Young' in every bloody film. The sets/costuming, as stated before, are outstanding, and I thought the cast did an admirable job also (some of those voices, wow!) The plot resolves itself very nicely, hard to do with a foot in two time settings - both of which are period/historical settings! Amazing stuff, and personally you'd have been one of my picks for the grand national final.
Stuck In The Mini With You
In the past I've described Haynesfilm as making 'awesomely cute' films... so this one surprised me. They took a much more serious tone as 4 girls travel together to do something (we don't know what yet) for Bobby Young. Interesting dynamic and some nice reveals - did anyone else notice how foreign accents seem to be in this year? - and flawless visuals leading up to the big twist at the end. I really liked it... but on first viewing I don't think I love it as much as I love some of their previous films. The darker tone left me a little cold (so tough to do a well-recieved serious film in 48 hours IMHO), but I think on a second viewing this might actually stand up better knowing the twist at the end. Wouldn't be surprised to see this in the finals so will hopefully get that chance :) All in all another excellent outing from Haynesfilm/Ow
Roundelay
I want to steal Hybrid's actors. No matter what's thrown at them they always seem to make it work believably. This film started strong, had me all the way up until the first twist (people start dying. well, more people - someone dies at the start) but I hadn't quite gotten attached enough to the characters yet to care. Nicely executed standoff, then into the final twist... which left me more confused than anything else. I wanted to see a bit more investigation before we went into yanky wire-deaths - more of a middle to this film would have done wonders. That said, it was brilliantly shot (as always) - and wasn't that holo-watch cool?! Goddamn I want to do a sci-fi detectivey movie now...
iBrobot
AHHHHH MY EYES Don't know what I can say about this film that hasn't already been said... but I think we'll see iBeard picking up Best Use of Prop at the finals.
Ruby Red
WOW this was both beautiful and brilliant! I won't repeat the synopsis as other reviewers have that covered, but instead I'll try focus on moments in the film that were pitch-perfect, or I think could have been done a little better. First off, fun little team intro + voiceover before going into the movie. This is totally nitpicking but I think you'd have been better off shooting the intro in a different location to the majority of your film - it's such a beautiful location and I wanted to be taken aback and surprised when it comes up on screen decked out with the cast in costume... but having seen it just before it lost just a little of it's initial punch. Just a thought though :) Next, the singing starts... and my word what singing it is. The female lead is undoubtedly the stronger singer, but the male lead does an admirable job keeping up (most of the time - the 'no' song was a little off). But the lyrics, backing instruments, and the different 'feel' to each song were all spot-on - this is a proper musical, something I don't think I've ever seen in 48Hours before. Blew me away, actually, and the period setting was the perfect choice for this style of music (actually you probably had the location first and that informed your choice of style? guessing here). So some shit happens and we're greeted with twist number 1 (omg she's alive)... which I (and I suspect many other people) saw coming as soon as the 'they're both dead' was announced. Didn't stop it from being a big/powerful moment, but I suspect it would have been more moving if we'd seen a little more of the couple's happiness together before the death/separation. But hey, 7 minutes, whatchu gonna do? Twist number 2! The man opening the envelope from the start is the male lead many years later! I like this! It's an invitation (to yet another piece of beautiful art department), and after a rocky start he's reunited (or united? seeing as they haven't met before) with the daughter he didn't know he had. Cool use of the butterfly tattoo to show the connection, and a nice end freeze-frame of forgiveness. Other cool stuff I liked: Just having 'Bobby Young' on the envelope and not making a big deal of everyone's names, although that may be because I'm sick of hearing 'Bobby Young' in every bloody film. The sets/costuming, as stated before, are outstanding, and I thought the cast did an admirable job also (some of those voices, wow!) The plot resolves itself very nicely, hard to do with a foot in two time settings - both of which are period/historical settings! Amazing stuff, and personally you'd have been one of my picks for the grand national final.
Subject 57
Ha! Body-switch... nicely interpreted. Delightfully over-the-top acting from all involved, and sexy nurses make any film better. They didn't overstay their welcome with the gag before it got old, and the ending twist was equal parts drama and hilarity. Just a good fun movie, nice one.
Stuck In The Mini With You
In the past I've described Haynesfilm as making 'awesomely cute' films... so this one surprised me. They took a much more serious tone as 4 girls travel together to do something (we don't know what yet) for Bobby Young. Interesting dynamic and some nice reveals - did anyone else notice how foreign accents seem to be in this year? - and flawless visuals leading up to the big twist at the end. I really liked it... but on first viewing I don't think I love it as much as I love some of their previous films. The darker tone left me a little cold (so tough to do a well-recieved serious film in 48 hours IMHO), but I think on a second viewing this might actually stand up better knowing the twist at the end. Wouldn't be surprised to see this in the finals so will hopefully get that chance :) All in all another excellent outing from Haynesfilm/Ow
Blue Rising
[watched in screening room] my god, what was this? actually I'm going to follow the advice of the sign in their team intro... "Don't Ask" Man attempts to run the 'red zone' (?) with other man and the aid of some magic potions and weird editing. Another man laughs maniacally and attempts to gun them down with a machine gun that shoots invisible bullets. Men are hit and bleed strangely thick/clumpy blood. Hey, I guess it is an alien world... Later on, man trudges across a bleak (post-apocalyptic landscape). He drinks something. He spits it out and throws the bottle away. He drinks something else, then spits that out too and throws the bottle away. Some girl is gonna get raped (eventually). Man ignores it, till a wise old man and his dog (who doesn't bite) appear and use wise sayings to convince him to intervene. With a gun that doesn't work. Pew pew! And I haven't even gotten to the MS Paint-animated bird. Despite the 'plot', this movie had some real nice-looking moments (the eclipse actually made me sit up and go "ohhh...that's clever") even if the flarey sun did get tiresome after a while. Unfortunately the audio quality was all over the place, and I was... confused. ...you know what? I don't care. I'm off to watch it again.
Headshot
Goddamn these guys are good. So very, very good. A simple story told well, opened and closed nicely (sort of comes full circle), and was quite sweet understated comedy (as much as fart jokes can be) instead of the blatant in-your-face whackness this contest seems encourage. Perhaps it's not as 'transcedent' (as Al put it) as their incredible short from last year, but I for one am stoked to see Idiotvision do a film like this and pull it off with such aplomb. (I just checked the definition of aplomb to see whether it applied here. It does.)
GOD BLESS AMERICA
[watched in screening room] Loved this! One of the best musicals I've seen done in 48 hours... song was very well written and produced (some great little audio gags in there too - like a little Japanese riff when they sing about Japan) and I didn't find the camera work boring like some people on here are commenting. Location could have been a bit more utilised, or changed around a little (I agree with whoever suggested little jump/cutaways to burger king and the like), and it perhaps needed a little more of an ending. Fireworks, maybe? :P But yeah, going to be humming that song to myself for the rest of the week... thanks
GOD BLESS AMERICA
[watched in screening room] Loved this! One of the best musicals I've seen done in 48 hours... song was very well written and produced (some great little audio gags in there too - like a little Japanese riff when they sing about Japan) and I didn't find the camera work boring like some people on here are commenting. Location could have been a bit more utilised, or changed around a little (I agree with whoever suggested little jump/cutaways to burger king and the like), and it perhaps needed a little more of an ending. Fireworks, maybe? :P But yeah, going to be humming that song to myself for the rest of the week... thanks
Between Light and Shadow
Wasn't sure what to make of this. Looks like they had a great time making it, and the mere thought of a possessed shopping trolley makes me giggle. Had moments of sheer brilliance, but then (for me) sort of got bogged down in a sea of WTF. Better sound might have helped.
Best Foot Forward
So this film switched between a black & white period style, and a modern colour setting. Which was cool, except I wasn't sure why! Some fantastically delivered dry jokes (I've wanted to call someone 'old bean' in a movie for so long...) and the color-switching wasn't at all distracting. Nice little twist as to who the target of the protagonist's affections was, and a freeze-frame in keeping with the style of the film. Good work guys - a solid film.