Quartz Vein

Great fun, if you know what to expect from a Jared Masters film! It's the 60s/70s all over again!!! A seriously funny movie about a futuristic gold prospector who wants to free a maiden held by aliens. No more plot for you, watch it!

Now, let's get SERIOUS. Mr. Masters makes the type of film he WANTS to make....and YOU need to be happy with that! Because no one does it better. His camera work is all handheld or tripod; he does it all himself. I've seen most of his films, and they are titillating. Yes, scantily clad women tastefully filmed in a fantasy-type setting usually, always casting very beautiful (and talented) starlets.

Let's go a little deeper.... Mr. Masters has written a book on filmmaking (The Cinematic Equation), a deeply complex book of poetry (under J. Riddles, I Don't Hear America Singing), screenplays, photography, you name it! His seeming flaw is s... addiction, which may or may not guide his subject matter...who cares? It's great art!

Back to the film, buy the DVD, add it to your collection, and when you just want to veg out, sit back and enjoy!

I'd more put this into post-apocalyptic scifi, but I see why they wanned it horror/comedy.

I've seen a ton of very low budget productions in the last 2 years maybe, and I do mean low budget stuff, and this was definitely top tier in that category, a very high peak amongst the corwd.

From the technical aspect, things are top-notch given the technical capabilities. I've seen some of Mr. Master's earlier works, and it seems he is good at that part of the production. Achieving that without a crew tells tales about his abilities. The locations and photography are very nice, the scenes well lit and sharp. There are some creative stuff with the footage when reaching the town (yes, it's not just desert).

Of course there are some stuff that could not be helped with the budget, but I liked the poster and the costumes. It had some charm and consistency.

There is the acting... I've seen worse. None looking into the camera, none gets lost after reading up the lines. It's in the "so bad it's good fun" territory. Though I'll be honest, I did not like Dawson Boese, that acting was bad, and the storyine with her went nowhere. Sure, it was nice to have one more person in the movie, but she/her character was definitely a miss.

There's more on the plus side. On top of what's already mentioned there are some witty one-liners, and a handful of references (I can't get rid of the feeling the mutants moved like the informer-alien from SW:New Hope).

As a sidenote, watch the trailer before the film. A text-roll was kinda needed to add the info the trailer delivers to the film, but that did not happen. All is not lost though, the DVD still has the trailer.

I didn't know what to expect when I streamed this movie. Some said it was the 60's 70's all over. Far from it.

First the good, and why I gave it three stars --

Considering the zero budget and limited resources it's a very creativiely made movie. The use of stock footage is great. It's also directed very aptly. And edited with vigor. And the music track is real good.

Now the downside-- And this is a BIG downside. The acting is literally non-exisitent. And I mean absent totally.

The male lead, who is also the director, cannot act. None of the women can act either. In fact there are a couple scenes where it's obvious one girl is actually reading her lines off a cue card to the right of the camera!

It's all really too bad because this could actually have been a good movie with capable actors.

The guy has some directorial and story-telling talent.