The Land of College Prophets

The Land of College Prophets shows much promise and will likely be the stepping stone to a great career for writer/director/star, Thomas Edward Seymour. The movie, while being primarily an action film with supernatural/comic book elements, has great dialogue and narration throughout the film. While obviously special effects and a larger budget could have made the film more appealing visually, I would call this an all around success for the filmmaker. This is what indie films are all about and it is rare that you get to see a truly independent action film. Land of College Prophets is a film that any comic fan should see. I look forward to seeing more work from the Hale Manor team in the coming years.

Thomas Edward Seymour and Mike Aransky worked together previously on another low budget and noteworthy movie, "Everything Moves Alone". In that movie the theme and acting are angst-ridden and the visual story-telling is particularly strong. Thomas Seymour now shows his range by crafting "The Land Of College Prophets" which is the polar opposite of the former movie.

Where the acting is subtle and the scenery often open and expansive in "Everything Moves Alone", Seymour now uses saturated, exaggerated colors and claustrophobic spaces in "Land Of College Prophets". Instead of natural, everyday personalities, Seymour amps up the performances and themes in "Land Of College Prophets". The "guy next door" has been replaced by a heroic and angry archetype. Instead of quiet inner turmoil and angst, now the characters explode in graphic, yet stylized violence.

Too see both movies back-to-back would definitely get an audience on their feet!

I saw this film and was totally blown away by a few things - first, the story was original and nothing like what's out in the video stores or theaters. second - the way this movie was shot is amazing, colors are good and the way the camera moves around the characters and action really ties the movie together. finally i am impressed at what people can do with limited funds - i heard that they didn't spend very much money and the result fools you - usually low budget has horrible acting and less than desirable production value. This movie has great acting and good production value. I think they did their own music score for the film, which fits the bill for this production. If you like dark mysterious horror or futuristic films, this is a must. More people should be making movies of this caliber.

This is one of those movies that looks promising. But it really lets that promise down. It's neither good or bad good (in the campy sense), merely very very boring. And that's how a film really fails.

The apparent aim was to make a campy sort of movie - you have a cast of ridiculous characters seemingly out of various animated comedies like Sealab, King of the Hill and possibly South Park. You have one bald guy who likes to dress like a priest, another guy who wears army fatigues (and looks like the guy who mutters from King of the Hill), a goofy Science Teacher, another bald guy who wears a deck of cards on his arm.

The trouble is, none of the concepts really works. All of the actors play their roles too tightly, and it comes off as more pretentious than anything else. The only exception would be the campus cop leader.

The plot apparently revolves around a romantic dispute over a guy in drag. This was when I started putting the DVD player on "x4". Nothing much happens, but near the end we get sort of a surreal sort of fight with a guy painted blue and wearing a helmet and everyone else.

"Land of the College Prophets" utilizes its low budget to good effect. The saga-engrossed characters meet challenges and villains all against the constant backdrop of today's mundane culture. The College Prophets are really about imagination striking out in the middle of Coca Cola land. Their parallel universe occasionally collides with the mundane and usually the mundane loses. Mike Aransky, Phillip Guerette and Thomas Edward Seymour are to be thanked for their robust homage to every great saga comic we've seen. Watch for Russ Russo too in a standout as Jonah Joe, a purist in the world of fighting. All in all, it's an exploration of point-of-view, exclusively from inside the saga. All the rules of the world don't work anymore, only the dark laws of the land of the College Prophets. John Huff