Lights! Camera! Action!

Action week this week during "On The Lot", and of the five filmmakers on display this week, two showed a very good eye for action, one a somewhat good eye and two will probably be shown the door by the voting public.

This week's strongest films were "Sweet" from Jason Epperson and Andrew Hunt's "Zero2Sixty". Neither were true action pics, but both took different situations and added interesting action sequences. Jason's film covered the mad dash of a husband to get his wife an anniversary gift when she's expected home in 15 minutes. In the course of finding flowers for the missus, the husband manages to rescue a baby and stop a bank robber from getting away- funny stuff. Meanwhile, Andrew brought us the story of a car being stolen off a new car lot and the hot pursuit that ensures featuring an FBI agent with car salesman in tow spouting platitudes about the car they're using for the chase. Persistence pays off for the salesman in the end. Great story, good car chase scene, very effective.

The only other contestant who came close was Mateen Kemet with his look at a purse-snatching and the chase that ensues. The overall storyline wasn't so hot, but I was impressed with the editing on the action sequences. Since action was the theme of the week, he showed an eye for pleasing the audience with the action.

That left films 1 and 4 and my picks for getting the boot this week. Sam Friedlander did a short about a bounty hunter catching his man and getting involved in a shoot-out with people who want to keep his bounty from testifying in a trial. Lots of shooting but the dialogue was lame and it came off as a poor "Midnight Run" imitation. Finally, there was Kenny Luby and his short "Losers", a skateboarding film concerning a race between the usual arrogant boarder and the physics teacher who fills in for his injured son. The action- the race- was filmed reasonably well, but the acting was terrible. Also, in the middle of the race, we inexplicably get a shot of a lizard cheering for the father- very weird.

Strictly on the basis of this week's films, my guess is Sam and Kenny are going home this week. I hope that's the case, but Mateen could get the boot instead of Sam. I hope not. I think Mateen has more interesting things to say and I want to see what more he can bring us.