Sleep in Heavenly Peace

This movie was not much of anything. It was mainly just the worst thing a movie can be nowadays. Boring. The story went nowhere. The writing was clumsy and was something you see in a high school film. One of the worst things you can do is bore your audience and that is what the writer and director have done here. And this is a short film. It's not like it was a two hour film. The acting was a terrible as you can get but you have to overlook it since it is a short film. But they don't step up and help the director out any. The camera work was shoddy. You just wished the DP would have taken a chance and used his camera to help tell the story but it doesn't happen. All in all it was just bland. Which is the worst thing I can say about a film. When you are bored during a 15 minute short film, there is a problem with the production and direction.

This is a remarkable short film and rewards multiple viewings - the director is obviously working on a level beyond the average film student. Or maybe I shouldn't say 'obviously' because the film works on a very subtle, dry, understated level that many might miss on first glance. On one level it's a gory comedy, but there are other levels of deep emotion and questioning, thanks in large part to the dedicated performance from the lead actor. True, some of the other performances are uneven and there are some redundant scenes, but on the whole this is a clever, sharply written and directed movie. Great cinematography and music too. You'll enjoy this if you like the films of the Coen Brothers, Polanski, or Hitchcock's darker movies.

This sick comedy of errors and accidents takes a real-life incident and turns it on its ear. It's the sort of story (involving a grisly accident and a desperate survival attempt) that could be -- and probably has been -- turned into a treacly, uplifting TV movie; but the execution here may remind you of the Black Knight Sequence in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It would seem far-fetched if something very much like it hadn't actually occurred and been well-documented.

Production values are surprisingly decent (props include an ambulance and giant drill-thingy), makeup effects are sufficient to pull off the necessary illusions, and the acting ranges from competent to very good. Fortunately, the best performance is by the actor who's on screen for the entire runtime. This guy's a trouper, and pulls off a couple of pratfalls Bruce Campbell would be proud of.

(This is not some over-the-top, "splatstick" gorefest, by the way, contrary to another reviewer's comments. You'd see more grue on the average CSI episode, and the humor here is mostly derived from the situation rather than spurting karo syrup.) Good score and nice crisp cinematography, particularly for the outdoor scenes.

The ending threw me at first; I expected a final capper, some kind of dark joke to top the previous ones, maybe an E. C. comics sort of twist. The actual conclusion is more subtle. It struck me as ambiguously bleak, and goes for pathos and irony rather than an in-your-face "gotcha." On those terms, it works quite well.

Good, economical visual style, great use of real snowy locations and some laugh-out-loud funny moments (watch out for that fence!) make this one worth your time. I'll be keeping an eye on Mr. McMahon.

I had an absolute blast watching this flick and I was surprised by how solid the production values were. The writer/director definitely shows some talent with a solid ear for naturalistic dialogue and good composition in the photography which helps ground the film in a reality that is necessary for all the goofy antics that follow. This is a hard film to find the right tone for, but this one straddles the fence quite well. The cast was good, with a terrific lead performance that hearkens back to silent movies but with a bit more subtlety.

Overall, great fun and I hope that the director gets a chance to flex his muscles with a larger budget.

The death of family dog before Christmas can be, for a woman, good example of responsability and respect for pet for education of her son.

So, her husband must digg a grave for poor animal. But the ground is frozen, the machine works not so well and when it works the man lost his arms.

It is beginning of a series of events . And for a compensation - his pray is accepted, his faith becomes strong, like the dependence by his wife.

A bitter - sweet comedy, with touch of horror - the last miniminalized by unrealism of situation , seductive for religious message for me. And , sure, for nice performance of Bowd Beal.