The Crimson Mask

I just saw this movie in the IndieFest USA 2009 festival in Anaheim. This review does not include spoilers, only my opinion on this movie.

First of all I want to tell the film maker: Dude, what the hell was that ? You call this a film ? I saw you in indiefest and I didn't want to tell you what I thought of the film in front of all the people. If you ever went to film school, you should go back and re-take all your classes cause your film making skills suck big time. One can't even call this a movie. Just a bunch of unrelated shots and scenes in order to deliver a stupid story.

It was my ever first time in life that I wanted to scream "rape" in a movie theater just to stop the screening and tell everyone that this film is raping my brain cells. It was my first time ever that I wished I had forks so I can shove them into my eyes because this film is HORRIBLE and I don't have enough words to describe how bad it is.

Usually the best part in bad films are the rolling end credits but in this case even the credits were 6 min. long.... C'mon.... The film maker even screwed the end titles by showing a very slow titles that didn't even had the right video field to them and were blurry as hell.

I only wish that IMDb had a 0/10 but it doesn't so I gave this film 1/10.

Story : 2/10 - I see what you were going after but you ruined the entire story.

Acting: 1/10 - Not even going to comment on that.

Cinematography: 0/10 - A blind man with Parkinson could have done a better job.

Directing: 0/10 - don't make me laugh. This un-matched puzzle you call a film is a total FAIL.

I loved this film. I believe Plagianos's choices are intelligently made - it also doesn't hurt that the two leads, Burrow and the underused journeyman Clohessy, understand their roles and play them with the type of passion deserved. Watching Parker on his last legs of life still able to talk back to his employer—a great no nonsense turn of Brooklyn underbelly from Lee R. Sellars—with humor and wit, as well as have the ability to attempt to retrieve his pride when defeat by sword seems his only option, goes a long way in making the climatic scene resonate. It may be one more convenient connection at the hands of a higher power, using 'The Book' of Chapter Three's title to bond these two men together as slaves unwilling to back down and be pushed around like puppets, but beneath the contrivance is a measure of truth. If anything, the multitude of overlapping plot threads and crisscrossing of paths only adds to the illusory aspect of the film, making The Crimson Mask into the morality tale its creator set out to make. It's inspiring job of professionalism as a first-time feature with little in the way of monetary resource shows the promise this young man's future holds. I look forward to checking out his next projects!

I'm not really sure what movie iacon6 thought he was reviewing, but this was definitely not the disaster he's made it out to be. (I suspect cinemafreek's assessment of why he would write a review not far off the mark) I saw this movie several weeks ago at the film festival in Philadelphia. What I saw was an excellent independent film featuring a plot that managed to be complex without being complicated, excellent performances (especially Clohessy) and a satisfying conclusion that features a great action scene and a relatable moral. For a relatively new filmmaker, I think this was a very ambitious film that succeeded quite well in its mission, and I look forward to seeing what else Elias Plagianos can come up with in the future.

Taking into consideration different aspects, before you trash this film, keep in mind that it was clearly done on a budget! The thing that strikes me most about this film is how fresh it is, the plot is different, the performances are different, the presentation of certain scenes and elements is also different. The two stories get together revealing another amazing aspect in the movie, through combining the two stories and knitting it all together. The fantasy factor is handled very carefully in this film, added to strengthen the scenes without taking from the reality of the stories. For creativity this movie definitely stands out for me. The acting was kind of tricky because as a character you'd have to maintain your personality and balance between your realistic and imaginative features. Excellent.

The film had an interesting look. Modern noir with moments of pulp cinema to accent key moments. You can definitely see it was done on a budget but they were very clever making it look professional. The movie takes some bizarre turns but nothing is out of place. It takes a while for the viewer to realize this isn't our world, but this Twilight Zone-y world, that's close to reality but strange forces are at work. Note the color red throughout the movie that symbolizes this. My only real problem is the connection of various money men that manipulated Thomas. It came off disjointed. You didn't spend time with any of them long enough to hate the guy and root for Thomas. On the other side, Parker's nemesis Jeffries (played perfectly by Lee Sellers) stole any scene he was in. His charisma is what you want in this Faustian tale. The basic message of the movie really resonates. It was a smart choice to replay the lesson in the end credits for people who didn't pay attention when it was first shown.