Inter Species Wrestling (and Me!) featured on G4TV Canada!
I was at the Montreal Comic-Con the first week of September SHILL~ing Inter-Species Wrestling, the International Wrestling Syndicate and the YoungCuts Film Festival.
A cameraman from G4TV's show EP Daily (Electric Playground Daily) was there and practically broke his neck doing a double-take when he saw the Inter Species Wrestling stuff. He did an interview with me, we gave them some clips to use and they edited together the piece that ran Wednesday.
(Sadly they cut the bit about the "ass-kicking" that I took at the end of our last show.)
You can see it here:
http://www.elecplay.com/watch/19/297/4/17
Or if you have problems with that link, you can see it here:
http://www.g4tv.ca/
On the G4TV site, it is the EP Daily for Oct 28/09. The interview and clips start at 17:45.
Worth seeing for the ridiculous variation on the D-Lo Brown vest that was used at our last show.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Horror Films Your Mom Would Not Approve Of
The Horror Films Your Mom Would Not Approve Of
A Priest, A Rabbi and Your Mom Walk Into a Movie Theatre...
You might think that your Mom disapproves of all horror films on principle. At least that’s the stereotype: the wagging finger; the warning that horror films cause nightmares. But the truth is that this is merely a bit of parental judo, reverse psychology designed to push us to watching horror films, because nothing warns us and upholds the moral order like a horror film.
What are the elements of a horror film after all? There is a monster; there is a sense of danger (as critic Joe Bob Briggs puts it “Anyone can die at any time”); the deaths are usually gruesome; and there is usually a moral. If you think about it, fairy tales and horror films are not that far apart - they are even closer to one another in the fairy tales original Grimm-er forms, before the tales got Disneyfied and the good bits got removed - like Cinderella’s evil stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper and the blood attracting a pack of killer crows who pecked the stepsisters to death. Mind you, even Uncle Walt was capable of scaring the beejezus out of small children and if you don’t believe that, than watch Bambi with a six year old some time.
You can tell a child that fire is bad, or as my Mother did when I was seven, you can show them The Towering Inferno and scare the crap out of them. I know some will object that The Towering Inferno is a disaster film, but horror and disaster are not incompatible. Inferno has a monster (fire), no one in the cast is safe (Robert Wagner dies!), the deaths in the film are spectacular (after Robert Wagner dies, his secretary Susan Flannery aka Lorrie does a 90 story swan dive through a plate glass window while on fire!), and the film offers up a few morals not just fire is bad, but also building a 100 story skyscraper with sub-standard wiring and a non-functioning sprinkler system is not smart. The Robert Wagner death scene comes after he has had a nooner with his secretary Lorrie (Susan Flannery), so Wagner’s death has the added moral warning not to sleep with your secretary. It’s unfortunate that future president William S. Clinton was already 28 when The Towering Inferno came out in 1974. If he had seen the film when he was more impressionable 7, the whole Monica Lewinsky thing would never have happened or, at the very least, the stain on Monica's dress would not have been semen, but the remnants of the accidental discharge from a fire extinguisher kept by the President in case the building caught fire during the blow job.
Most horror films offer up morals that could have come directly from any Sunday sermon, in some cases directly from The Ten Commandments: you shall not murder (I Know What You Did Last Summer); you shall not commit adultery (Fatal Attraction); you shall not steal (Leprechaun). Then you have the teen slasher films best epitomized by Friday the 13th where any behaviour not approved of by your mother (sex, drugs, alcohol, loud music, rudeness, untidiness) was guaranteed to lead to a quick and bloody demise. Granted, Jason Voorhees usually killed EVERYONE, but the neat, sober, polite celibate kids with good cardio lived longer. And then there are the horror films that seem to channel your Mom's over-protective streak: don't go swimming in the ocean (Jaws); or in lakes (Lake Placid); or in rivers (Piranha); actually don't even go near the water (Piranha II: The Spawning); don't go camping (Grizzly); don't go on vacation in Eastern Europe (Hostel); or in Latin America (The Ruins); actually better give Hawaii a pass too (A Perfect Getaway); don't sit too close to the TV (Poltergeist); don't pick up hitchhikers (The Hitcher); never enter a Mexican stripper bar for truckers after midnight (From Dusk Till Dawn); never agree to appear on a Japanese TV game show where you get locked in a warehouse with three serial killers ($la$her$); and most importantly never expose your mogwai to sunlight, never get him wet and never, ever feed him after midnight (Gremlins). Admittedly, those last three are a trifle specific, but good advice nonetheless.
Every once in a while however a horror film strays off the reservation and includes a moral that your Mom would never approve of. While the following are by no means an exhaustive list, they are five horror films that teach a lesson that would absolutely horrify your Mom.
5. The Faculty (1998)
Directed by Robert Rodriguez, story by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel, screenplay by Kevin Williamson.
While often overlooked in Rodriguez' filmography, The Faculty is a great twist on Invasion of the Body Snatchers (or Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters) built around the idea that the alien slugs taking over human bodies begin in a high school and take over the teachers first. This adds a great generational struggle aspect to the paranoia when people start acting weird. It's not just Alien vs. Human, it's Alien Teacher vs. Human Student with one generation of actors chewing the scenery as the alien bad guys (Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Bebe Neuwirth, Piper Laurie, Jon Stewart, Robert Patrick) while the younger actors (Clea Duvall, Jordana Brewster, Usher, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett) try not to get blown off the screen.
The film is especially creepy because the aliens are health nuts. The adults immediately stop drinking coffee in favour of water and all the converted have the healthy glow of fitness zealots. The shots of Coach Joe Willis (Robert Patrick) standing like atin stainless steel god on his football field completely ignoring the sprinklers going off all around him are especially creepy.
Josh Hartnett plays the school drug dealer Zeke Tyler, who sneaks his drugs into school by removing the ink cartridges from ball-point pens and filling the empty pen full of white powder. (Zeke and the film try to claim that the white powder is in fact powdered caffeine, but this attempt to deny that Zeke's scat is cocaine rings hollow.) At a critical moment in the film, Zeke concludes that one of the students in their make-shift alien resistance group is an alien. Zeke's response is the classic reaction of any drug dealer trying to sniff out a narc: he spills out some white powder and orders the others to sniff the scat.
Dubious Moral: The best way to avoid becoming a insufferable little fascist in high school is to do copious amounts of cocaine.
4. Cherry Falls (2000)
Directed by Geoffrey Wright, written by Ken Selden.
This wicked little horror film is built around the idea that a small-town, terrorized by a serial killer, becomes convinced that the killer is targetting virgins. Most descriptions of the film go right out and say that the killer IS killing virgins, but within the context of the film there is very little evidence that the victims are in fact virgins. They might be, but the main person claiming that they are is the killer - who carves the word "virgin" into his victims. Naturally the slasher is a less than reliable witness, but the small town leaps to conclusions and panics as small towns in films are wont to do.
The effect of this is to turn the traditional slasher formula on its head: the sluts are safe while the virgins are in mortal danger.
The film's saving grace is that it sticks to its guns. When the town becomes convinced that the town's virgins are being carved up, parents begin having "Have you had sex yet and if not - why not?" conversations with their teens. This leads to the town's teens taking matters into their own hands and organizing a mass deflowering party. They do so, perhaps not with the active assistance of the town's adults, but certainly with their acquiescence. The film claims that the adults don't interfere because the party takes place just outside of city limits, but one suspects that this is an excuse that the parents seize upon with a certain amount of relief.
The film's high point comes when the school slut Cindy (Kristen Miller) comes into her own and holds an impromptu sex education class on the front lawn of the high school, giving the girls of the school practical instructions on how to handle the (male) school virgins during the planned orgy.
Dubious Moral: Not having sex as a teenager will in fact kill you.
3. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Directed by John Fawcett, story by John Fawcett and Karen Walton, screenplay by Karen Walton.
Perhaps the best werewolf film ever made, certainly the most political. Ginger Snaps uses lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty and especially for menstruation, as two sisters struggle with the onset of puberty when the older sister Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is bitten by a werewolf leading to all sorts of changes for her both physically and in her behaviour.
The highlight of the film is probably the sequence where Ginger and her sister Brigitte (Emily Perkins) tentatively try to get help for Ginger's bizarre symptoms from the school nurse and are treated to an extended and highly disturbing description of the joys of menstruation.
Ginger Snaps concentrates on female puberty, but the film does extend the metaphor to male puberty as well, particularly the tendency of young adolescent males to start growing hair in the oddest of places.
While not the hero of the story like Zeke Tyler in The Faculty, the only character in Ginger Snaps who offers any help to Brigitte - and even a possible cure for Ginger - is local drug dealer Sam (Kris Lemche). His solution is to inject Ginger with belladonna, warning that the deadly nightshade might either cure Ginger or kill her by overdose. When he prepares the drug, Sam boils the plant in a spoon over an open flame and uses a syringe to gather up the liquid. Basically, it looks like he is preparing heroin.
Dubious Moral: To survive the agonizing pain of puberty, consult your local drug dealer.
2. Braindead (1992) (aka Dead Alive)
Directed by Peter Jackson, story by Stephen Sinclair, screenplay by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson.
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In this gory, zombie comedy by the director of Lord of the Rings before he was THAT GUY, a milquetoast Kiwi, Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme), tries to protect his domineering mother, Vera Cosgrove (Elizabeth Moody) after she is bitten by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey and infected with the zombie virus.
Virtually no one in the film seems to understand that they are in a zombie film, with the possible exceptions of the natives at the beginning of the film who have clearly watched a lot of Evil Dead even if the film takes place in 1957, 24 years before the release of Sam Raimi's classic film. As a consequence, this film includes some of the most ineffective methods to kill zombies ever including poisoning(!) and burying themalive living dead.
The highlight of the film is surely the moment when the local priest, Father McGruder (Stuart Devenie), while fighting zombies in his cemetery, kung-fu kicks a zombie in the face and shouts "I kick arse for the Lord!" Technically, he kicks face for the Lord, but I think we can forgive the Father for his confusion.
The climax of the film is the final confrontation between Lionel and his grotesque zombie Mum.
Dubious Moral: Sometimes the only way to deal with a domineering, over-protective Mother is to completely annihilate her with extreme prejudice.
1. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven, written by Wes Craven.
Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Directed by Chuck Russell, story by Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell, screenplay by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Directed by Wes Craven, written by Wes Craven.
Within the context of the larger Nightmare on Elm Street series there is a hidden trilogy. They are the only films written by Wes Craven and the only films to star Heather Langenkamp and not to put too fine a point on it, the only films in the series that are any good.
Like both The Faculty and Ginger Snaps, Nightmare on Elm Street spits in the face of horror film tropes by stating that doing drugs not only won't lead to your imminent death, but drugs can actually help you fight the monster and win, or at the very least postpone the battle until you have a better chance of winning.
Like in The Faculty, the original Nightmare on Elm Street tries to pretend that the only drug that Nancy is taking is caffeine, but it is clear that by the time that Nancy starts quoting from The Anarchist Cookbook and plotting to turn her house into a giant death trap for Freddy Krueger that she is a full blown tweaker, mainlining meth-amphetamines.
When Nancy returns in Dream Warriors to train a group of teenage mental patients on techniques for fighting Freddy in their dreams, she openly admits that she is taking a pharmacological cocktail designed to allow her to sleep while preventing her from dreaming. You can almost hear Freddy screaming in frustration that Nancy is cheating.
Dream Warriors is not completely pro-drug, Taryn (Jennifer Rubin) is killed by Freddy's heroin needles and part of the plot of the film hinges around the fact that the hospital - where the children have been committed because of their nightmares - decides to sedate the children, delivering them directly to Freddy. And it is clear that as effective as the drugs that Nancy are taking are, at best they are merely postponing her struggle with Freddy; they are a treatment not a cure. But making the distinction between drugs that help and drugs that hurt is a level of distinction that most horror films never even aspire to.
New Nightmare takes the Freddy Krueger story and gives it an Escher twist, setting the story in the "real" world and positing that by creating the Freddy Kruger character, Wes Craven has given an elemental demonic force a shape and a name - and access to our world. The Freddy Krueger character is like a doorway that evil can use to enter our world. In the climax of the film, this demon, in Freddy's form, steals Heather Langenkamp's child. To save her child and fight one final battle with Freddy, Heather must follow (and swallow) a trail of sleeping pills left like a trail of bread crumbs by her son Dylan (Miko Hughes) - echoing the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Again, drugs make fighting Freddy possible.
Dubious Moral: To keep your childhood dreams from becoming nightmares that kill you, the proper drug cocktail is essential. Consult your pharmacist.
A Priest, A Rabbi and Your Mom Walk Into a Movie Theatre...
You might think that your Mom disapproves of all horror films on principle. At least that’s the stereotype: the wagging finger; the warning that horror films cause nightmares. But the truth is that this is merely a bit of parental judo, reverse psychology designed to push us to watching horror films, because nothing warns us and upholds the moral order like a horror film.
What are the elements of a horror film after all? There is a monster; there is a sense of danger (as critic Joe Bob Briggs puts it “Anyone can die at any time”); the deaths are usually gruesome; and there is usually a moral. If you think about it, fairy tales and horror films are not that far apart - they are even closer to one another in the fairy tales original Grimm-er forms, before the tales got Disneyfied and the good bits got removed - like Cinderella’s evil stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper and the blood attracting a pack of killer crows who pecked the stepsisters to death. Mind you, even Uncle Walt was capable of scaring the beejezus out of small children and if you don’t believe that, than watch Bambi with a six year old some time.
You can tell a child that fire is bad, or as my Mother did when I was seven, you can show them The Towering Inferno and scare the crap out of them. I know some will object that The Towering Inferno is a disaster film, but horror and disaster are not incompatible. Inferno has a monster (fire), no one in the cast is safe (Robert Wagner dies!), the deaths in the film are spectacular (after Robert Wagner dies, his secretary Susan Flannery aka Lorrie does a 90 story swan dive through a plate glass window while on fire!), and the film offers up a few morals not just fire is bad, but also building a 100 story skyscraper with sub-standard wiring and a non-functioning sprinkler system is not smart. The Robert Wagner death scene comes after he has had a nooner with his secretary Lorrie (Susan Flannery), so Wagner’s death has the added moral warning not to sleep with your secretary. It’s unfortunate that future president William S. Clinton was already 28 when The Towering Inferno came out in 1974. If he had seen the film when he was more impressionable 7, the whole Monica Lewinsky thing would never have happened or, at the very least, the stain on Monica's dress would not have been semen, but the remnants of the accidental discharge from a fire extinguisher kept by the President in case the building caught fire during the blow job.
Most horror films offer up morals that could have come directly from any Sunday sermon, in some cases directly from The Ten Commandments: you shall not murder (I Know What You Did Last Summer); you shall not commit adultery (Fatal Attraction); you shall not steal (Leprechaun). Then you have the teen slasher films best epitomized by Friday the 13th where any behaviour not approved of by your mother (sex, drugs, alcohol, loud music, rudeness, untidiness) was guaranteed to lead to a quick and bloody demise. Granted, Jason Voorhees usually killed EVERYONE, but the neat, sober, polite celibate kids with good cardio lived longer. And then there are the horror films that seem to channel your Mom's over-protective streak: don't go swimming in the ocean (Jaws); or in lakes (Lake Placid); or in rivers (Piranha); actually don't even go near the water (Piranha II: The Spawning); don't go camping (Grizzly); don't go on vacation in Eastern Europe (Hostel); or in Latin America (The Ruins); actually better give Hawaii a pass too (A Perfect Getaway); don't sit too close to the TV (Poltergeist); don't pick up hitchhikers (The Hitcher); never enter a Mexican stripper bar for truckers after midnight (From Dusk Till Dawn); never agree to appear on a Japanese TV game show where you get locked in a warehouse with three serial killers ($la$her$); and most importantly never expose your mogwai to sunlight, never get him wet and never, ever feed him after midnight (Gremlins). Admittedly, those last three are a trifle specific, but good advice nonetheless.Every once in a while however a horror film strays off the reservation and includes a moral that your Mom would never approve of. While the following are by no means an exhaustive list, they are five horror films that teach a lesson that would absolutely horrify your Mom.
5. The Faculty (1998)
Directed by Robert Rodriguez, story by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel, screenplay by Kevin Williamson.
While often overlooked in Rodriguez' filmography, The Faculty is a great twist on Invasion of the Body Snatchers (or Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters) built around the idea that the alien slugs taking over human bodies begin in a high school and take over the teachers first. This adds a great generational struggle aspect to the paranoia when people start acting weird. It's not just Alien vs. Human, it's Alien Teacher vs. Human Student with one generation of actors chewing the scenery as the alien bad guys (Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Bebe Neuwirth, Piper Laurie, Jon Stewart, Robert Patrick) while the younger actors (Clea Duvall, Jordana Brewster, Usher, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett) try not to get blown off the screen.The film is especially creepy because the aliens are health nuts. The adults immediately stop drinking coffee in favour of water and all the converted have the healthy glow of fitness zealots. The shots of Coach Joe Willis (Robert Patrick) standing like a
Josh Hartnett plays the school drug dealer Zeke Tyler, who sneaks his drugs into school by removing the ink cartridges from ball-point pens and filling the empty pen full of white powder. (Zeke and the film try to claim that the white powder is in fact powdered caffeine, but this attempt to deny that Zeke's scat is cocaine rings hollow.) At a critical moment in the film, Zeke concludes that one of the students in their make-shift alien resistance group is an alien. Zeke's response is the classic reaction of any drug dealer trying to sniff out a narc: he spills out some white powder and orders the others to sniff the scat.Dubious Moral: The best way to avoid becoming a insufferable little fascist in high school is to do copious amounts of cocaine.
4. Cherry Falls (2000)
Directed by Geoffrey Wright, written by Ken Selden.
This wicked little horror film is built around the idea that a small-town, terrorized by a serial killer, becomes convinced that the killer is targetting virgins. Most descriptions of the film go right out and say that the killer IS killing virgins, but within the context of the film there is very little evidence that the victims are in fact virgins. They might be, but the main person claiming that they are is the killer - who carves the word "virgin" into his victims. Naturally the slasher is a less than reliable witness, but the small town leaps to conclusions and panics as small towns in films are wont to do.The effect of this is to turn the traditional slasher formula on its head: the sluts are safe while the virgins are in mortal danger.
The film's saving grace is that it sticks to its guns. When the town becomes convinced that the town's virgins are being carved up, parents begin having "Have you had sex yet and if not - why not?" conversations with their teens. This leads to the town's teens taking matters into their own hands and organizing a mass deflowering party. They do so, perhaps not with the active assistance of the town's adults, but certainly with their acquiescence. The film claims that the adults don't interfere because the party takes place just outside of city limits, but one suspects that this is an excuse that the parents seize upon with a certain amount of relief.The film's high point comes when the school slut Cindy (Kristen Miller) comes into her own and holds an impromptu sex education class on the front lawn of the high school, giving the girls of the school practical instructions on how to handle the (male) school virgins during the planned orgy.
Dubious Moral: Not having sex as a teenager will in fact kill you.
3. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Directed by John Fawcett, story by John Fawcett and Karen Walton, screenplay by Karen Walton.
Perhaps the best werewolf film ever made, certainly the most political. Ginger Snaps uses lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty and especially for menstruation, as two sisters struggle with the onset of puberty when the older sister Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is bitten by a werewolf leading to all sorts of changes for her both physically and in her behaviour.The highlight of the film is probably the sequence where Ginger and her sister Brigitte (Emily Perkins) tentatively try to get help for Ginger's bizarre symptoms from the school nurse and are treated to an extended and highly disturbing description of the joys of menstruation.
Ginger Snaps concentrates on female puberty, but the film does extend the metaphor to male puberty as well, particularly the tendency of young adolescent males to start growing hair in the oddest of places.While not the hero of the story like Zeke Tyler in The Faculty, the only character in Ginger Snaps who offers any help to Brigitte - and even a possible cure for Ginger - is local drug dealer Sam (Kris Lemche). His solution is to inject Ginger with belladonna, warning that the deadly nightshade might either cure Ginger or kill her by overdose. When he prepares the drug, Sam boils the plant in a spoon over an open flame and uses a syringe to gather up the liquid. Basically, it looks like he is preparing heroin.
Dubious Moral: To survive the agonizing pain of puberty, consult your local drug dealer.
2. Braindead (1992) (aka Dead Alive)
Directed by Peter Jackson, story by Stephen Sinclair, screenplay by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson.
.jpg)
In this gory, zombie comedy by the director of Lord of the Rings before he was THAT GUY, a milquetoast Kiwi, Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme), tries to protect his domineering mother, Vera Cosgrove (Elizabeth Moody) after she is bitten by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey and infected with the zombie virus.Virtually no one in the film seems to understand that they are in a zombie film, with the possible exceptions of the natives at the beginning of the film who have clearly watched a lot of Evil Dead even if the film takes place in 1957, 24 years before the release of Sam Raimi's classic film. As a consequence, this film includes some of the most ineffective methods to kill zombies ever including poisoning(!) and burying them
The highlight of the film is surely the moment when the local priest, Father McGruder (Stuart Devenie), while fighting zombies in his cemetery, kung-fu kicks a zombie in the face and shouts "I kick arse for the Lord!" Technically, he kicks face for the Lord, but I think we can forgive the Father for his confusion.The climax of the film is the final confrontation between Lionel and his grotesque zombie Mum.
Dubious Moral: Sometimes the only way to deal with a domineering, over-protective Mother is to completely annihilate her with extreme prejudice.
1. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven, written by Wes Craven.
Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Directed by Chuck Russell, story by Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell, screenplay by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Directed by Wes Craven, written by Wes Craven.
Within the context of the larger Nightmare on Elm Street series there is a hidden trilogy. They are the only films written by Wes Craven and the only films to star Heather Langenkamp and not to put too fine a point on it, the only films in the series that are any good.Like both The Faculty and Ginger Snaps, Nightmare on Elm Street spits in the face of horror film tropes by stating that doing drugs not only won't lead to your imminent death, but drugs can actually help you fight the monster and win, or at the very least postpone the battle until you have a better chance of winning.
Like in The Faculty, the original Nightmare on Elm Street tries to pretend that the only drug that Nancy is taking is caffeine, but it is clear that by the time that Nancy starts quoting from The Anarchist Cookbook and plotting to turn her house into a giant death trap for Freddy Krueger that she is a full blown tweaker, mainlining meth-amphetamines.
When Nancy returns in Dream Warriors to train a group of teenage mental patients on techniques for fighting Freddy in their dreams, she openly admits that she is taking a pharmacological cocktail designed to allow her to sleep while preventing her from dreaming. You can almost hear Freddy screaming in frustration that Nancy is cheating.Dream Warriors is not completely pro-drug, Taryn (Jennifer Rubin) is killed by Freddy's heroin needles and part of the plot of the film hinges around the fact that the hospital - where the children have been committed because of their nightmares - decides to sedate the children, delivering them directly to Freddy. And it is clear that as effective as the drugs that Nancy are taking are, at best they are merely postponing her struggle with Freddy; they are a treatment not a cure. But making the distinction between drugs that help and drugs that hurt is a level of distinction that most horror films never even aspire to.
New Nightmare takes the Freddy Krueger story and gives it an Escher twist, setting the story in the "real" world and positing that by creating the Freddy Kruger character, Wes Craven has given an elemental demonic force a shape and a name - and access to our world. The Freddy Krueger character is like a doorway that evil can use to enter our world. In the climax of the film, this demon, in Freddy's form, steals Heather Langenkamp's child. To save her child and fight one final battle with Freddy, Heather must follow (and swallow) a trail of sleeping pills left like a trail of bread crumbs by her son Dylan (Miko Hughes) - echoing the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Again, drugs make fighting Freddy possible.Dubious Moral: To keep your childhood dreams from becoming nightmares that kill you, the proper drug cocktail is essential. Consult your pharmacist.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The YoungCuts Film Festival Best Of and Closing Gala
The YoungCuts Film Festival Best Of and Closing Gala
Thursday, October 1st at Cinema du Parc 3575 Avenue du Parc starting at 9:15
At the end of the screening, we will be presenting awards for Best Canadian Film, Best Director, Best Film and the Tribute.ca People's Choice Award.
To see the MyFilmmaker.com Award Winners to date at the Festival go HERE!
And to see the leading vote-getters in the Tribute.ca People's Choice Awards by evening go HERE!
During our Closing Gala we will present the following films:
A promotional film for the annual Fuller-Landau Cedars Dragonboat Race filmed by Elisa Ruggiero and edited by Francois Laurent
And the YoungCuts 2009 Top Ten Plus One:
Meltdown by David Green, USA
Winner: Little Burgundy Award for Best Animation
Batter Up by Josh Webber, Canada
(one) by Benjamin Bee Stevens, UK
Winner: MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best Editing
L'Homme Boreale by Francois Laurent, Canada
Nodutgang (Emergency Exit) by Tomas Solli, Norway
Fashionably Green by Esther Viragh, Canada
The Bridge by Sheldon Schwartz, USA
Le Cou Cou by Zed Bennett Jr., USA
Winner: Mirror Weekly Award for Best Short Short Film
Swipe by Max Blustin, UK
Breathless by Kyle Sandilands, Canada
You Have the Right by Clarity, Canada
Winner: Virgin96 Award for Best Music
We will also be screening the Official Closing Film of the 2009 YoungCuts Film Festival:
S'Oublier by Mirek Hamet, Canada
in a a brand-new 35MM print!
Hope to see you there!
The YoungCuts and MyFilmmaker Team
Jay Moulton, Chairman
Louise Kierans, President
Michael Ryan, Festival Director
Francois Laurent, Festival Co-ordinator
Philippe Lapointe, Festival Producer
Marc Hétu, Festival Producer and Captain of the victorious YoungCuts Film Festival Dragonboat
David Roux, YoungCuts Host
Sabrina D. Fenster , YoungCuts Publicist (STRUT INC.)
Thursday, October 1st at Cinema du Parc 3575 Avenue du Parc starting at 9:15
At the end of the screening, we will be presenting awards for Best Canadian Film, Best Director, Best Film and the Tribute.ca People's Choice Award.
To see the MyFilmmaker.com Award Winners to date at the Festival go HERE!
And to see the leading vote-getters in the Tribute.ca People's Choice Awards by evening go HERE!
During our Closing Gala we will present the following films:
A promotional film for the annual Fuller-Landau Cedars Dragonboat Race filmed by Elisa Ruggiero and edited by Francois Laurent
And the YoungCuts 2009 Top Ten Plus One:
Meltdown by David Green, USA
Winner: Little Burgundy Award for Best Animation
Batter Up by Josh Webber, Canada
(one) by Benjamin Bee Stevens, UK
Winner: MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best Editing
L'Homme Boreale by Francois Laurent, Canada
Nodutgang (Emergency Exit) by Tomas Solli, Norway
Fashionably Green by Esther Viragh, Canada
The Bridge by Sheldon Schwartz, USA
Le Cou Cou by Zed Bennett Jr., USA
Winner: Mirror Weekly Award for Best Short Short Film
Swipe by Max Blustin, UK
Breathless by Kyle Sandilands, Canada
You Have the Right by Clarity, Canada
Winner: Virgin96 Award for Best Music
We will also be screening the Official Closing Film of the 2009 YoungCuts Film Festival:
S'Oublier by Mirek Hamet, Canada
in a a brand-new 35MM print!
Hope to see you there!
The YoungCuts and MyFilmmaker Team
Jay Moulton, Chairman
Louise Kierans, President
Michael Ryan, Festival Director
Francois Laurent, Festival Co-ordinator
Philippe Lapointe, Festival Producer
Marc Hétu, Festival Producer and Captain of the victorious YoungCuts Film Festival Dragonboat
David Roux, YoungCuts Host
Sabrina D. Fenster , YoungCuts Publicist (STRUT INC.)
Friday, September 25, 2009
YoungCuts Film Festival Starts Today!
The YoungCuts Film Festival Starts Today!
Friday, September 25th to Thursday, October 1st at Cinema du Parc
Screenings every day at 9PM, plus extra screenings on Saturday and Sunday at 3PM.
We had our Opening Gala last night at Restaurant Newtown, officially the High Fidelity HDTV Opening Gala - a charity benefit for the Cedars Cancer Institute hosted by the 2009 YoungCuts Honorary Chairman, Justin Trudeau who gave a rousing and inspriring speech telling the filmmakers that they were not the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today.
In addition to Justin Trudeau, we heard from Ken Murphy, CEO of High Fidelity HDTV who called on young filmmakers to help shake up and add new energy to Canada's Film and TV community. There were also remarks from David Roux, our Master of Ceremonies, Jay Moulton, Chairman of YoungCuts and Louise Kierans, President of YoungCuts. Representing the Cedars Cancer Institute, Jeff Shamie, Executive Director and Gwen Nacos, founder of Cedars CanSupport spoke passionately about the involvement of young people in helping raise money for Cedars.
We also played a short film by Francois Laurent and Elisa Ruggierio, produced by YoungCuts documenting the 4th Annual Cedars Cancer Institute Fuller Landau 'Rain or Shine' Dragon Boat Race & Festival. Jeff and Gwen are delighted with the film and intend to use it to help promote the charity and next year's dragonboat race. The film will be replayed on the last evening of the YoungCuts Film Festival during our Best of the Festival Closing Screening, Thursday, October 1st at 9PM.
Newtown was packed for the event, everyone had a great time, we heard some great speeches and we saw a great film and some great trailers! A fantastic kick-off to the Festival!
The 2009 YoungCuts Film Festival Program Book can be downloaded HERE.
If you are not going to be able to make it up for the Festival and would like us to mail you a physical copy of the Program book, just make a donation to the Festival HERE to cover shipping and we will happily mail one out to you with some other memorabilia to the Festival or if you buy one of our production DVDs like you can do HERE we will include a program book in the envelope.
Press Articles about the YoungCuts Film Festival:
September 23rd, 2009
Festival Showcases Young Filmmakers Talents Page 77
Julia Gerke, Montreal Suburban
Download the PDF: Festival Showcases Young Filmmakers Talent
September 22nd, 2009
YoungCuts Film Festival: It's the young one
Bill Brownstein, Montreal Gazette
Download the PDF: YoungCuts Film Festival: It's the young one
September 21st, 2009
Filmmaker Makes the Cut
Profile of Mazi Khaligi (Foreign Soil)
From Mississauga.com
Download the PDF: Filmmaker Makes the Cut
The Festival Schedule until Thursday:
Friday, September 25th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h vendredi le 25 septembre.
The Best of Quebec Film Screening sponsored by the free daily newspaper 24 Heures (iCi Weekend)
La Séance du Quotidien 24 Heures (iCi Weekend) - Meilleurs Films du Québec
Inclusing/Incluant: iCi Weekend Best Quebec Film Award/Le Prix iCi Weekend Meilleur Film de Quebec
Saturday, September 26th 3PM Cinéma du Parc 15h samedi le 26 septembre. The High Fidelity HDTVBest Documentary Screening
La Séance High Fidelity HDTV Meilleur Documentaire
Inclusing/Incluant: High Fidelity HDTV Best Documentary Film Award/Le Prix High Fidelity HDTV Meilleur Film de Quebec
Saturday, September 26th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h samedi le 26 septembre. The En PrimeurBest Visual Films Screening
La Séance En Primeur Meilleur Films Visuels
Inclusing: The En Priemur Award for Best Cinematography and the MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best Editing.
Incluant: Le prix En Primeur pour Meilleur Cinematographie et le prix MyFilmmaker.com pour le Meilleur Montage.
Sunday, September 27th 3PM Cinéma du Parc 15h dimanche le 27 septembre.
Little Burgundy presents the Virgin96 Best Animation and Music Screening
Little Burgundy présente la Séance Virgin96 Meilleur Films d'Animation et Musique
Inclusing: The Virgin96 Award for Best Music and the Little Burgundy Animation Award.
Incluant: Le prix Virgin96 pour Meilleur Musique et le prix Little Burgundy pour le Meilleur film d'Animation.
Sunday, September 27th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h dimanche le 27 septembre.
The Tribute.ca Best Actor Screening
La Séance Tribute.ca Meilleur Acteur
Inclusing/Incluant: Tribute.ca Best Actor Award/Le Prix Tribute.ca Meilleur Acteur
Monday, September 28th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h Lundi le 28 septembre.
The MyFilmmaker.com Best Actress Screening
La Séance MyFilmmaker.com Meilleur Actrice
Inclusing/Incluant: MyFilmmaker.com Best Actress Award/Le Prix MyFilmmaker.com Meilleur Actrice
Tuesday, September 29th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, mardi le 29 septembre. The Mirror Weekly Best Short Shorts Screening
La Séance de l'Hebdomadaire Mirror Meilleur Court Court Métrage
Inclusing/Incluant: Mirror Weekly Best Short Short Film Award/Le Prix Hebdomadaire Mirror Meilleur Court Court Métrage
Wednesday, September 30th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, mercredi le 30 septembre.
The Tribute.ca Best Teen Film Screening
La Séance Tribute.ca Meilleur Film d'Ado
Inclusing/Incluant: Tribute.ca Best Teen Film Award/Le Prix Tribute.ca Meilleur Film d'Ado
Thursday, October 1st 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, jeudi le 1 octobre.
The MyFilmmaker.com Grand Prize Film Screening
La Séance Grand Prix MyFilmmaker.com
Includes prizes for Best Film, Best Director, Best Canadian Film and the Tribute.ca Public Prize
Incluant prix pour Meilleur Film, Meilleur Realisateur, Meilleur Film Canadien et le Prix du Public Tribute.ca
We are also pleased to announce that the Official Closing Film of teh Festival will be Mirek Hamet's S'Oublier. If all goes well, this will be presented in a brand new 35MM print!
Bon Festival!
And we hope to see you at Cinema du Parc!
The YoungCuts and MyFilmmaker Team
Jay Moulton, Chairman
Louise Kierans, President
Michael Ryan, Festival Director
Francois Laurent, Festival Co-ordinator
Philippe Lapointe, Festival Producer
Marc Hétu, Festival Producer and Captain of the victorious YoungCuts Film Festival Dragonboat
David Roux, YoungCuts Host
Sabrina D. Fenster , YoungCuts Publicist (STRUT INC.)
Friday, September 25th to Thursday, October 1st at Cinema du Parc
Screenings every day at 9PM, plus extra screenings on Saturday and Sunday at 3PM.
We had our Opening Gala last night at Restaurant Newtown, officially the High Fidelity HDTV Opening Gala - a charity benefit for the Cedars Cancer Institute hosted by the 2009 YoungCuts Honorary Chairman, Justin Trudeau who gave a rousing and inspriring speech telling the filmmakers that they were not the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today.
In addition to Justin Trudeau, we heard from Ken Murphy, CEO of High Fidelity HDTV who called on young filmmakers to help shake up and add new energy to Canada's Film and TV community. There were also remarks from David Roux, our Master of Ceremonies, Jay Moulton, Chairman of YoungCuts and Louise Kierans, President of YoungCuts. Representing the Cedars Cancer Institute, Jeff Shamie, Executive Director and Gwen Nacos, founder of Cedars CanSupport spoke passionately about the involvement of young people in helping raise money for Cedars.
We also played a short film by Francois Laurent and Elisa Ruggierio, produced by YoungCuts documenting the 4th Annual Cedars Cancer Institute Fuller Landau 'Rain or Shine' Dragon Boat Race & Festival. Jeff and Gwen are delighted with the film and intend to use it to help promote the charity and next year's dragonboat race. The film will be replayed on the last evening of the YoungCuts Film Festival during our Best of the Festival Closing Screening, Thursday, October 1st at 9PM.
Newtown was packed for the event, everyone had a great time, we heard some great speeches and we saw a great film and some great trailers! A fantastic kick-off to the Festival!
The 2009 YoungCuts Film Festival Program Book can be downloaded HERE.
If you are not going to be able to make it up for the Festival and would like us to mail you a physical copy of the Program book, just make a donation to the Festival HERE to cover shipping and we will happily mail one out to you with some other memorabilia to the Festival or if you buy one of our production DVDs like you can do HERE we will include a program book in the envelope.
Press Articles about the YoungCuts Film Festival:
September 23rd, 2009
Festival Showcases Young Filmmakers Talents Page 77
Julia Gerke, Montreal Suburban
Download the PDF: Festival Showcases Young Filmmakers Talent
September 22nd, 2009
YoungCuts Film Festival: It's the young one
Bill Brownstein, Montreal Gazette
Download the PDF: YoungCuts Film Festival: It's the young one
September 21st, 2009
Filmmaker Makes the Cut
Profile of Mazi Khaligi (Foreign Soil)
From Mississauga.com
Download the PDF: Filmmaker Makes the Cut
The Festival Schedule until Thursday:
Friday, September 25th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h vendredi le 25 septembre.
The Best of Quebec Film Screening sponsored by the free daily newspaper 24 Heures (iCi Weekend)
La Séance du Quotidien 24 Heures (iCi Weekend) - Meilleurs Films du Québec
Inclusing/Incluant: iCi Weekend Best Quebec Film Award/Le Prix iCi Weekend Meilleur Film de Quebec
Saturday, September 26th 3PM Cinéma du Parc 15h samedi le 26 septembre. The High Fidelity HDTVBest Documentary Screening
La Séance High Fidelity HDTV Meilleur Documentaire
Inclusing/Incluant: High Fidelity HDTV Best Documentary Film Award/Le Prix High Fidelity HDTV Meilleur Film de Quebec
Saturday, September 26th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h samedi le 26 septembre. The En PrimeurBest Visual Films Screening
La Séance En Primeur Meilleur Films Visuels
Inclusing: The En Priemur Award for Best Cinematography and the MyFilmmaker.com Award for Best Editing.
Incluant: Le prix En Primeur pour Meilleur Cinematographie et le prix MyFilmmaker.com pour le Meilleur Montage.
Sunday, September 27th 3PM Cinéma du Parc 15h dimanche le 27 septembre.
Little Burgundy presents the Virgin96 Best Animation and Music Screening
Little Burgundy présente la Séance Virgin96 Meilleur Films d'Animation et Musique
Inclusing: The Virgin96 Award for Best Music and the Little Burgundy Animation Award.
Incluant: Le prix Virgin96 pour Meilleur Musique et le prix Little Burgundy pour le Meilleur film d'Animation.
Sunday, September 27th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h dimanche le 27 septembre.
The Tribute.ca Best Actor Screening
La Séance Tribute.ca Meilleur Acteur
Inclusing/Incluant: Tribute.ca Best Actor Award/Le Prix Tribute.ca Meilleur Acteur
Monday, September 28th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h Lundi le 28 septembre.
The MyFilmmaker.com Best Actress Screening
La Séance MyFilmmaker.com Meilleur Actrice
Inclusing/Incluant: MyFilmmaker.com Best Actress Award/Le Prix MyFilmmaker.com Meilleur Actrice
Tuesday, September 29th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, mardi le 29 septembre. The Mirror Weekly Best Short Shorts Screening
La Séance de l'Hebdomadaire Mirror Meilleur Court Court Métrage
Inclusing/Incluant: Mirror Weekly Best Short Short Film Award/Le Prix Hebdomadaire Mirror Meilleur Court Court Métrage
Wednesday, September 30th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, mercredi le 30 septembre.
The Tribute.ca Best Teen Film Screening
La Séance Tribute.ca Meilleur Film d'Ado
Inclusing/Incluant: Tribute.ca Best Teen Film Award/Le Prix Tribute.ca Meilleur Film d'Ado
Thursday, October 1st 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, jeudi le 1 octobre.
The MyFilmmaker.com Grand Prize Film Screening
La Séance Grand Prix MyFilmmaker.com
Includes prizes for Best Film, Best Director, Best Canadian Film and the Tribute.ca Public Prize
Incluant prix pour Meilleur Film, Meilleur Realisateur, Meilleur Film Canadien et le Prix du Public Tribute.ca
We are also pleased to announce that the Official Closing Film of teh Festival will be Mirek Hamet's S'Oublier. If all goes well, this will be presented in a brand new 35MM print!
Bon Festival!
And we hope to see you at Cinema du Parc!
The YoungCuts and MyFilmmaker Team
Jay Moulton, Chairman
Louise Kierans, President
Michael Ryan, Festival Director
Francois Laurent, Festival Co-ordinator
Philippe Lapointe, Festival Producer
Marc Hétu, Festival Producer and Captain of the victorious YoungCuts Film Festival Dragonboat
David Roux, YoungCuts Host
Sabrina D. Fenster , YoungCuts Publicist (STRUT INC.)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
News Article (YCFF) It's the young one
Artice by Bill Brownstein, Montreal Gazette
Profiles the Festival, Meltdown and Emergency Exit
Also made me sound a lot more coherent and eloquent than I feel right now.
Profiles the Festival, Meltdown and Emergency Exit
Also made me sound a lot more coherent and eloquent than I feel right now.
YoungCuts Film Festival - It's the young one
MONTREAL - Inquiring minds just might want to know how the YoungCuts Film Festival is different from the other 385 or so film fests that play Montreal annually.
YoungCuts director Michael Ryan has a ready response: “It’s probably the largest film festival in the world for filmmakers 25 years old and younger. Plus, it’s our mandate not only to give these filmmakers a platform, but also to find them work after.”
That works for me. And that should work for the rest of you, too. All the more so since YoungCuts offers patrons more creative bang for their bucks than almost any entertainment spectacle anywhere.
The 7th YoungCuts fest will showcase 100 films – of all lengths and from all genres known to man as well as a few genres not yet known – from 12 countries, beginning tomorrow and running until Oct. 1 at the Cinéma du Parc. Tickets for screenings are a steal at $7.50 each and even more of a steal if you buy a booklet of 10 for $50.
If you are not blown away by many of these mostly no-budget flicks, you may have to check yourself for a pulse. Okay, no-budget may be a bit of an overstatement. Budgets for the films run anywhere from $50 to $5,000.
“If you totalled the budgets of all 100 films, the amount still wouldn’t cover the catering cost for Transformers 2. Nor would that sum cover more than one second of screen time on Transformers 2,” Ryan muses. “But it’s hard to quantify in dollar figures the blood, sweat and tears these filmmakers put into their work for no salary at all.”
Which explains why Ryan and festival chairman Jay Moulton feel a responsibility to land these filmmakers some work. Through the Canadian Heritage Information Network, Ryan and Moulton have arranged for a group of YoungCuts grads to shoot 80 shorts on Canadian museums and to get paid for their efforts. Over the years, YoungCuts alumni have also shot commercials for the likes of Pepsi, Air Canada and Astral Media.
Oh yeah, and for Montrealers looking for additional incentive to attend, YoungCuts is one of the few to reverse that annoying trend and to move east here along the 401. That’s right, we snagged this one from Toronto.
It began in 2001 as the Toronto International Teen Film Festival, but moved here as YoungCuts in 2006. “We wanted more of an international flavour to the festival and just felt that Montreal would afford us that opportunity,” Ryan says.
“And it has paid off. We now have more films from more countries than ever being submitted.”
Ryan and his team had to sift through some 1,000 fictional, documentary and animated offerings (and combos thereof) from 25 countries to arrive at the top 100. Then they had to go through that batch of 100 to arrive at the “Top 10 Plus 1,” which will screen closing night on Oct. 1.
Among the represented countries are Canada, the U.S., Britain, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, France, Argentina, Egypt, Singapore, India and the first ever entry from Norway.
The Norwegian entry, Emergency Exit, is a riveting short drama about two men entering a bank for opposite reasons. One is dying and decides to empty his account so that he can go out with a bang. The other is a destitute widower and seeks to rob the bank in order to provide for his young daughter. In the chaos following the aborted heist, the thief takes the dying dude hostage. But they soon establish an unusual bond: the Stockholm Syndrome in Oslo, if you will.
“What strikes me most about these films is the passion and the ingenuity of the filmmakers, and then to get these films done on minimal amounts is amazing,” Ryan says. “It all bodes well for the future of filmmaking.”
One of the most dazzling works in this year’s collection is The Meltdown by American director David Green. Part live-action, part computer-generated animation, the short – which will be featured in the Top 10 Plus 1 screening Oct. 1 – looks like it came out of Pixar or Disney or the NFB, for such is its sophistication and brilliance of its premise. Difference is that its budget was in the hundreds.
The Meltdown action takes place in a fridge that’s gone on the fritz. Conditions are sub-polar inside. An orange has perished from the frost. The ham, mayo, butter, spaghetti and leftover Chinese food now fear for their lives. Unbeknownst to humans, these food products can talk and move their parts and get most agitated.
But they have come up with a plan. They conscript a celery stick to try to turn up the temperature in the refrigerator. It’s do or die. Will the celery stick buckle under the pressure? Will the ever-limp spaghetti noodle have to tighten itself up and come to the rescue?
Best check for yourselves. Don’t want to spoil the suspense.
The YoungCuts Film Festival kicks off Friday night and runs until Oct. 1 at the Cinéma du Parc, 3575 Park Ave. Tickets are $7.50 per screening; or 10 tickets for $50. For tickets and information, call 514-285-4591 or go to youngcuts.com.
News Article (YCFF) Filmmaker makes the cut
Article from Mississauga.com
Profile of Mazi Khalagi, director of Foreign Soil
Profile of Mazi Khalagi, director of Foreign Soil
Mississauga Article: Filmmaker makes the cut
Mississauga filmmaker Mazi Khalighi's film Foreign Soil has been selected to be screened at Montreal's YoungCuts Film Festival.
A film by Mississauga’s Mazi Khalighi has been selected to be screened at a festival
designed to showcase the short works of aspiring Martin Scorseses.
Khalighi’s Foreign Soil was selected from more than 1,000 entries from around the world to be included at the YoungCuts Film Festival in Montreal. It opens Thursday with a gala hosted by honorary chair and Liberal MP Justin Trudeau and continues until Oct. 1.Screenings will be at the Cinema du Parc.
Organizers have received entries from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Argentina, Singapore, India, the Philippines and Armenia. They also received two animated films co-produced by teens from Canada, Israel and Palestine.
Foreign Soil, which was screened at the inaugural Mississauga Independent Film Festival, portrays a family’s acclimatization to a new country. It was described as a gift by Khalighi to his mother Nahid, who led her three young children out of war-torn Iran more than two decades ago.
In a scene from Foreign Soil, Ali, the oldest son, presents his mother with new shoes after she breaks her heel when they first land in the new country.
Khalighi, who was too young to help his mother when they made their journey, said, “Foreign Soil was me giving the shoes to my mom. There are a lot of people with my story, but not all have the outlets to express them.”
At the festival, prizes will be awarded for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Animated Film, Best Original Music, Best Documentary, Best Short Short, Best of Quebec, Best Teen Film, Best Director, Best Film and the Tribute.ca Public Prize.The seven-year festival is open to filmmakers aged 25 years and younger.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Results from NCW Femmes Fatales & other news and notes
Results from NCW Femmes Fatales & other (wrestling) news and notes
Just as a quick reminder:
The Montreal Comic Con is this weekend. Besides some great comic book professionals, they will have wrestling legend the Honky-Tonk Man there. They will also have the Hulk, Lou Ferrigno. IWS & ISW will have a combined table at the Con and we will have ISW & IWS DVDs for sale at a reduced rate. (NCW is also supposed to be there and they may actually have some DVDs left with Honky-Tonk Man appearing at NCW if you are looking for something for HTM to sign.) It would be worth coming out if only to try and get HTM talking about the good old days because as anyone who has ever read his stuff online knows, the Honky-Tonk Man is not shy with his opinions.
The official announcement:
The Montreal Comic Con comes to Place Bonaventure on September 19th and 20th 2009.
Honky Tonk man, Lou Ferrigno, Boba Fett(Star Wars) and over 40 artists will be at the event.
Admission:only 10$
www.montrealcomiccon.com
info@montrealcomiccon.com
*****
NCW Femmes Fatales
Results Quick and Dirty
(Saturday, September 5th)
CandyGirl beat Anastasia Ivy
Addy Starr beat She Nay Nay
Portia Perez defeated Kylie Pierce
Kalamity beat Anna Minoushka, Mary Lee Rose & Roxie Cotton in a 4-way elimination.
Anna Minoushka eliminated by DQ at 7:52.
Roxie Cotton eliminated by Mary Lee Rose at 8:12.
Kalamity forced Mary Lee Rose to submit at 11:37.
Sara Del Rey beat Cherry Bomb in 8:16.
Kacey Diamond defeated Karen Brooks in 13:35.
MsChif beat Misty Haven in 8:29.
LuFisto defeated Cheerleader Melissa in 12:03.
The SLAM! Wrestling article by Pat Laprade.
Pictures from the show. More Pictures.
*****
NCW very smartly gave Lufisto an opportunity to bring back the best of the late lamented Association de Lutte Femenin promotion and pair them with the best Ontario and US joshis for a show. They drew about 150 which is about capacity for the church hall at Des Erables. I hope they made a profit.
Addy Starr was announced as "Barely Legal" Addy Starr which makes me happy.
Being used to IWS and ISW start times, I showed up just as Portia Perez was winning her match.
The Four-Way Elimination match featured two heels and two baby-faces. They are introduced Japaneses Introduction style which is completely silly. The whole point of doing Japanese intros is to make the match seem special. Doing it every match ruins the effect. Plus it makes it difficult to do the match where the wrestlers start fighting as they are being introduced. Can't interrupt the introductions when they haven't started yet, after all.
The first heel: Anna Minoushka, who has at times been cruelly mocked by the fans as Obelisk's twin sister. Anna was wearing a purple wrap-bra and black pants with dinosaur footprints on Anna's ass. Because we are supposed to be intimidated by the fact that Anna survived a dinosaur stampede or something.
Her ally, Kalamity was dressed in a black and silver pant-suit with the silver mostly on the flared legs. She started out wearing long black gloves but ditched them before the match started.
Roxie Cotton is the face from outside of Quebec. She is wearing an azure blue "Valley Girl" shirt and black skirt. Her leggings match her shirt colour.
The home-town hero is Mary Lee Rose in a jean jacket covered with buttons, purple highlights in her hair and a black low-cut shirt and shorts combination. The highlights on her shirt and her belt match the highlights in her hair.
I have been very critical of Anna Minoushka in the past for not using her weight to bully girls in the ring, but someone has been working with her because she was much better in the first part of this match quite literally throwing her weight around. Kalamity plays the early part of the match smart, allowing Anna to do most of the heavy lifting.
The faces try to team-up but they don't quite clique. Early on, while trying to double-team they accidentally bang their heads together. Anna's lack of a killer instinct betrays her here as rather than making their mistake look real by attacking Anna waits for them to deliver the planned move. Much better is Kalamity: when Marie Lee Rose does a flippy neck-breaker thing and rolls into the corner colliding with Kalamity's knee, Kalamity immediately jumps on her taking advantage of the mis-cue.
Anna gets DQed for excessive violence, excessive only by the standards of Anna. Mary Lee Rose takes advantage of the DQ to eliminate Roxie who turns slightly heelish by decking Mary Lee Rose in retaliation. Anna stays on the outside and is fed Mary Lee Rose, at which point the wagons completely fall off. Holding Mary Lee Rose in her arms, a tired Anna weakly pats her into the side of the ring rather than strongly bashing her into the corner of the ring. Mary Lee Rose doesn't help a tired Anna, quite the opposite as she sandbags her a little.
(Pat Lono beside me gets incredibly frustrated when the female ref comes outside to rescue Mary Lee Rose and Anna meekly submits. Given that this is the same ref that DQed Anna, the proper heel response would have been to slug the pip-squeak.)
Kalamity is by far the best wrestler in the match, not that there is much competition.
Sara del Ray is wearing a black and white (mainly white) sports bra and shorts combo while her opponent Cherry Bomb is wearing a leopard top with pink trim and black pants with strategic cut-outs on the sides of her legs. She is announced as "the cutest girl who could kick your ass" and "she breaks hearts and faces".
Sara del Ray is very generous with Cherry Bomb, but easily outclasses her winning with a modified Fisherman's suplex.
At the end of the match, Sara grabs the mike, "I did not come here to face Cherry Bomb! I came here to face the best! Cherry Bomb, yeah she came close, but she is not the best. I am going to be watching the rest of the show from the back to see if tehre is anyone that can give me some competition."
Kacey Diamond is doing a whole Quebec Hollywood star gimmick. She comes out wearing a tiara and black diaphanous cape, waving to the crowd oblivious to the boos. She is wearing a black and silver shirt and connected shorts ensemble along with long black gloves that she wears throughout the match. She is accompanied by her manager who has a blue-tooth connected to her ear that the manager calls our attention to by constantly touching during the match.
Karen Brooks comes out to Maniac and bounces around like Tigger wearing a reddish pink t-shirt with a stylicized KB on the front and "Brooks 1" on the back plus matching reddish-pink sports shorts along with white sweat head-band and sweat wrist bands.
Kacey warms up the crowd by telling us that we are not worthy to watch her. Brooks has her own idea on how to warm up with a stretching routine that keeps luring in Kacey Diamond for a sneak attack only for Brooks to change position just in time to foil Kacey's attack, like Lucy snatching the football from Charlie Brown.
Kacey's eventual response is to pull out an honest-to-God red carpet that she rolls out to do her Oscar trot on. Kacey Brooks attacks her on the red carpet, then rolls her up in the red carpet for a pin that Kacey Diamond somehow wriggles out of. Karen foolishly unrolls the carpet freeing Kacey Diamond, and promptly loses the match. To add insult to injury, Kacey Diamond poses for non-existent photographers using the dazed Brooks as a prop.
Misty Haven is (aside from Lufisto) Quebec's best Joshi and her match with MsChif was proof positive. Misty's color scheme is purplish-pink with white and she is wearing a sports bra under a shirt and skirt combo. MsChif's favourite colour is obviously green as green highlights her black hair, and her black pants. (Her top is green with black highlights to switch things up.)
Bakais, Quebec (and perhaps Canada)'s best indy ref, is in charge of the match and the reason for that becomes apparent as Bakais searches a grumbling Misty Haven and then moves to search MsChif only for her to scream him away. Misty offers to search instead of Bakais, thinks better of it and then pushes Bakais at MsChif to search her - and both are screamed into the corner. (MsChif is apparently related to Black Canary.)
While the match continues on the comedy line, MsChif proves that she has real wrestling chops with a very nice flip into a bridging pin. Later when Misty has MsChif twisted into a pretzel, the green screamer holds the shape when Misty steps away to admire her handiwork and then rolls out of the Escher shape she is holding.
MsChif continues the screaming Mimi motif after winning the match by drpping Misty on her head.
Cheerleader Melissa is wearing a dark azure blue and black sports bra and shorts combo.
Lufisto is wearing a plaid skirt and tunic. She is doing her goth anime schoolgirl gimmick complete with her doll/manager Pegaboo.
One of the ways that I judge the quality of matches is how many notes that I took. Four pages of notes means that this was a very good match. The first match between Cheerleader Melissa and Lufisto was voted SHIMMER's match of the year for 2008. I can't speak for this match being that good, but it was pretty damn good.
The early part of the match focuses around Pegaboo with Cheerleader Melissa being dismissive and abusive of the doll and paying the price for it.
The match spills to the outside where Melissa shows a real vicious side using a wheelbarrow hold to scrape Lufisto's face along the floor, then stunning Lufisto with a chair-shot, giving her time to grab one of the ring barriers, drop it on top of Lufisto and then walk across it while jawing the fans.
After rolling Lufisto in, Cheerleader Melissa goes for a series of pins broken up by Lufisto grabbing the ropes either with her hand or foot. Dragging Lufisto to the center for the pin, Melissa is frustrated when Lufisto bridges out of the pin. Frustrated Melissa turns to submission wrestling, but Lufisto again is able to grab the rope for safety.
After a long forearm exchange sequence, Lufisto takes back some contrao of the match with a German Suplex, but quickly falls victim to an absolutely brutal Curb Stomp. Escaping that predicament, Lufisto goes up top, gets caught by Melissa into an Electric Chair, only for Lufisto to flip out of it into a pin that nearly ends the match.
A desperate Cheerleader Melissa tries to finish Lufisto up with a move that is half sidewalk slam and half piledriver, but Lusisto manages to kick out and then bridge out of the follow-up pin. When Lufisto has her chance in turn to drop Melissa on her head, she makes no mistake and gets the pin.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Sara Del Ray breaks up Lufisto's celebrations and the locker room empties to keep the two apart.
A good first show, building on the strengths of ALF. Unfortunately, the follow-up show isn't scheduled until January.
Just as a quick reminder:
The Montreal Comic Con is this weekend. Besides some great comic book professionals, they will have wrestling legend the Honky-Tonk Man there. They will also have the Hulk, Lou Ferrigno. IWS & ISW will have a combined table at the Con and we will have ISW & IWS DVDs for sale at a reduced rate. (NCW is also supposed to be there and they may actually have some DVDs left with Honky-Tonk Man appearing at NCW if you are looking for something for HTM to sign.) It would be worth coming out if only to try and get HTM talking about the good old days because as anyone who has ever read his stuff online knows, the Honky-Tonk Man is not shy with his opinions.
The official announcement:
The Montreal Comic Con comes to Place Bonaventure on September 19th and 20th 2009.
Honky Tonk man, Lou Ferrigno, Boba Fett(Star Wars) and over 40 artists will be at the event.
Admission:only 10$
www.montrealcomiccon.com
info@montrealcomiccon.com
*****
NCW Femmes FatalesResults Quick and Dirty
(Saturday, September 5th)
CandyGirl beat Anastasia Ivy
Addy Starr beat She Nay Nay
Portia Perez defeated Kylie Pierce
Kalamity beat Anna Minoushka, Mary Lee Rose & Roxie Cotton in a 4-way elimination.
Anna Minoushka eliminated by DQ at 7:52.
Roxie Cotton eliminated by Mary Lee Rose at 8:12.
Kalamity forced Mary Lee Rose to submit at 11:37.
Sara Del Rey beat Cherry Bomb in 8:16.
Kacey Diamond defeated Karen Brooks in 13:35.
MsChif beat Misty Haven in 8:29.
LuFisto defeated Cheerleader Melissa in 12:03.
The SLAM! Wrestling article by Pat Laprade.
Pictures from the show. More Pictures.
*****
NCW very smartly gave Lufisto an opportunity to bring back the best of the late lamented Association de Lutte Femenin promotion and pair them with the best Ontario and US joshis for a show. They drew about 150 which is about capacity for the church hall at Des Erables. I hope they made a profit.
Addy Starr was announced as "Barely Legal" Addy Starr which makes me happy.Being used to IWS and ISW start times, I showed up just as Portia Perez was winning her match.
The Four-Way Elimination match featured two heels and two baby-faces. They are introduced Japaneses Introduction style which is completely silly. The whole point of doing Japanese intros is to make the match seem special. Doing it every match ruins the effect. Plus it makes it difficult to do the match where the wrestlers start fighting as they are being introduced. Can't interrupt the introductions when they haven't started yet, after all.
The first heel: Anna Minoushka, who has at times been cruelly mocked by the fans as Obelisk's twin sister. Anna was wearing a purple wrap-bra and black pants with dinosaur footprints on Anna's ass. Because we are supposed to be intimidated by the fact that Anna survived a dinosaur stampede or something.
Her ally, Kalamity was dressed in a black and silver pant-suit with the silver mostly on the flared legs. She started out wearing long black gloves but ditched them before the match started.
Roxie Cotton is the face from outside of Quebec. She is wearing an azure blue "Valley Girl" shirt and black skirt. Her leggings match her shirt colour.
The home-town hero is Mary Lee Rose in a jean jacket covered with buttons, purple highlights in her hair and a black low-cut shirt and shorts combination. The highlights on her shirt and her belt match the highlights in her hair.I have been very critical of Anna Minoushka in the past for not using her weight to bully girls in the ring, but someone has been working with her because she was much better in the first part of this match quite literally throwing her weight around. Kalamity plays the early part of the match smart, allowing Anna to do most of the heavy lifting.
The faces try to team-up but they don't quite clique. Early on, while trying to double-team they accidentally bang their heads together. Anna's lack of a killer instinct betrays her here as rather than making their mistake look real by attacking Anna waits for them to deliver the planned move. Much better is Kalamity: when Marie Lee Rose does a flippy neck-breaker thing and rolls into the corner colliding with Kalamity's knee, Kalamity immediately jumps on her taking advantage of the mis-cue.
Anna gets DQed for excessive violence, excessive only by the standards of Anna. Mary Lee Rose takes advantage of the DQ to eliminate Roxie who turns slightly heelish by decking Mary Lee Rose in retaliation. Anna stays on the outside and is fed Mary Lee Rose, at which point the wagons completely fall off. Holding Mary Lee Rose in her arms, a tired Anna weakly pats her into the side of the ring rather than strongly bashing her into the corner of the ring. Mary Lee Rose doesn't help a tired Anna, quite the opposite as she sandbags her a little.(Pat Lono beside me gets incredibly frustrated when the female ref comes outside to rescue Mary Lee Rose and Anna meekly submits. Given that this is the same ref that DQed Anna, the proper heel response would have been to slug the pip-squeak.)
Kalamity is by far the best wrestler in the match, not that there is much competition.
Sara del Ray is wearing a black and white (mainly white) sports bra and shorts combo while her opponent Cherry Bomb is wearing a leopard top with pink trim and black pants with strategic cut-outs on the sides of her legs. She is announced as "the cutest girl who could kick your ass" and "she breaks hearts and faces".Sara del Ray is very generous with Cherry Bomb, but easily outclasses her winning with a modified Fisherman's suplex.
At the end of the match, Sara grabs the mike, "I did not come here to face Cherry Bomb! I came here to face the best! Cherry Bomb, yeah she came close, but she is not the best. I am going to be watching the rest of the show from the back to see if tehre is anyone that can give me some competition."
Kacey Diamond is doing a whole Quebec Hollywood star gimmick. She comes out wearing a tiara and black diaphanous cape, waving to the crowd oblivious to the boos. She is wearing a black and silver shirt and connected shorts ensemble along with long black gloves that she wears throughout the match. She is accompanied by her manager who has a blue-tooth connected to her ear that the manager calls our attention to by constantly touching during the match.
Karen Brooks comes out to Maniac and bounces around like Tigger wearing a reddish pink t-shirt with a stylicized KB on the front and "Brooks 1" on the back plus matching reddish-pink sports shorts along with white sweat head-band and sweat wrist bands.Kacey warms up the crowd by telling us that we are not worthy to watch her. Brooks has her own idea on how to warm up with a stretching routine that keeps luring in Kacey Diamond for a sneak attack only for Brooks to change position just in time to foil Kacey's attack, like Lucy snatching the football from Charlie Brown.
Kacey's eventual response is to pull out an honest-to-God red carpet that she rolls out to do her Oscar trot on. Kacey Brooks attacks her on the red carpet, then rolls her up in the red carpet for a pin that Kacey Diamond somehow wriggles out of. Karen foolishly unrolls the carpet freeing Kacey Diamond, and promptly loses the match. To add insult to injury, Kacey Diamond poses for non-existent photographers using the dazed Brooks as a prop.
Misty Haven is (aside from Lufisto) Quebec's best Joshi and her match with MsChif was proof positive. Misty's color scheme is purplish-pink with white and she is wearing a sports bra under a shirt and skirt combo. MsChif's favourite colour is obviously green as green highlights her black hair, and her black pants. (Her top is green with black highlights to switch things up.)
Bakais, Quebec (and perhaps Canada)'s best indy ref, is in charge of the match and the reason for that becomes apparent as Bakais searches a grumbling Misty Haven and then moves to search MsChif only for her to scream him away. Misty offers to search instead of Bakais, thinks better of it and then pushes Bakais at MsChif to search her - and both are screamed into the corner. (MsChif is apparently related to Black Canary.)
While the match continues on the comedy line, MsChif proves that she has real wrestling chops with a very nice flip into a bridging pin. Later when Misty has MsChif twisted into a pretzel, the green screamer holds the shape when Misty steps away to admire her handiwork and then rolls out of the Escher shape she is holding.MsChif continues the screaming Mimi motif after winning the match by drpping Misty on her head.
Cheerleader Melissa is wearing a dark azure blue and black sports bra and shorts combo.Lufisto is wearing a plaid skirt and tunic. She is doing her goth anime schoolgirl gimmick complete with her doll/manager Pegaboo.
One of the ways that I judge the quality of matches is how many notes that I took. Four pages of notes means that this was a very good match. The first match between Cheerleader Melissa and Lufisto was voted SHIMMER's match of the year for 2008. I can't speak for this match being that good, but it was pretty damn good.
The early part of the match focuses around Pegaboo with Cheerleader Melissa being dismissive and abusive of the doll and paying the price for it.The match spills to the outside where Melissa shows a real vicious side using a wheelbarrow hold to scrape Lufisto's face along the floor, then stunning Lufisto with a chair-shot, giving her time to grab one of the ring barriers, drop it on top of Lufisto and then walk across it while jawing the fans.
After rolling Lufisto in, Cheerleader Melissa goes for a series of pins broken up by Lufisto grabbing the ropes either with her hand or foot. Dragging Lufisto to the center for the pin, Melissa is frustrated when Lufisto bridges out of the pin. Frustrated Melissa turns to submission wrestling, but Lufisto again is able to grab the rope for safety.After a long forearm exchange sequence, Lufisto takes back some contrao of the match with a German Suplex, but quickly falls victim to an absolutely brutal Curb Stomp. Escaping that predicament, Lufisto goes up top, gets caught by Melissa into an Electric Chair, only for Lufisto to flip out of it into a pin that nearly ends the match.
A desperate Cheerleader Melissa tries to finish Lufisto up with a move that is half sidewalk slam and half piledriver, but Lusisto manages to kick out and then bridge out of the follow-up pin. When Lufisto has her chance in turn to drop Melissa on her head, she makes no mistake and gets the pin.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Sara Del Ray breaks up Lufisto's celebrations and the locker room empties to keep the two apart.A good first show, building on the strengths of ALF. Unfortunately, the follow-up show isn't scheduled until January.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Hardcore Heat Rough Draft Results
Hardcore Heat 2009 Results
These are just notes for a more formal write-up later in the week. Or I may just use this because I am lazy.
Set-up for the show was a little trickier than we expected, partly because of the flooding during the Vans/Warped show that affected our tear-down and partly because the venue only let us in after 2PM and only let us set-up the ring at 5PM.
That said, the Just for Laughs Studio is a sweet venue. Someone (may have been Dre-Nuke) called it a mini-Medley and that description fits.
Six-Man Scramble match:
Jagged vs. Mike "Speedball" Bailey vs. Pauly Platinum vs. Alex Silva vs. Urban Miles vs. Izzy Deadyet
Jagged pins Urban Miles in 11:25.
Urban Miles lost the match because he froze like a deer in headlights. The kid id talented and really charismatic, but you would never know it from this match.
Filling the charisma vacuum left by Urban Miles was Pauly Platinum who started the match trading gear with Jagged. Pauly practically had a stroke when Jagged elbow-dropped his vest and was then disgusted when Jagged completely no-sold Pauly stomping his bandanna.
I have real issues with Alex Silva's behaviour backstage, but in the ring, he is becoming a real threat.
Izzy Deadyet is always solid and entertaining. This match was no exception.
There was a great little pyramid spot about halfway where Mike Bailey used two guys in the corner as a platform to go nuts. No less than Ron Hutchison, the Toronto promoter singled out Bailey as a wrestler to watch.
The other guy on Ron Hutchison's list? Jagged, who proved that he doesn't need a partner to excel.
WonderFred beat Sunny D in eight seconds.
Kevin called him Chinese, but Sunny D is actually Korean.
Kevin Steen beat WonderFred in 8:48
Kevin Steen interrupted Fred's gloating and came out to essentially kick Fred's ass. Fred put up a good fight, but his ass was definitely kicked. At the end of the match, Kevin taunted Fred with a chant of "Dance Fred Dance" and then pulled off a few dance moves of his own. Just when it looked like Kevin was going to help Fred up to shake his hand, Kevin kicked Fred in the gut and left.
Nic Paterson (in a wheelchair and neck-brace) introduced "Canada's Gretest Athlete" Shane Matthews and Shane's "Main Squeeze" Olivia. (She is already being described as one of the prettiest IWS valets ever and I would have to agree.)
Shane explained to us the "Things you people don't know about Shane Matthews!" including that he was a two-time All American at Rutgers and that he graduated with honours with a diploma in International Affairs.
Shane then recognized Calgary Stampede wrestling legend Kodiak Jack in the crowd and invited him into the crowd. Shane told us that he uses to watch Kodiak Jack on TV every Saturday and thanked Kodiak for inspiring him to become a wrestler. Shane then pitched a fit that Kodiak Jack was stealing Shane's spotlight, kicked Kodiak's cane out from under him and put the boots to the old-timer.
Shane Matthews - Massive ass-hole. Who knew?
The Untouchables (Dan Paysan & Jimmy Stone) beatThe Rock N' Roid Express The Clean and Mean Machine (Twiggy and Franky the Mobster) in 15:19
Before the match started, Franky demanded that instead of being called the Rock N' Roid Express to the Clean and Mean Machine. (Twiggy, "You're Clean!?!" Me, "No, he's mean. You're clean.")
Really good match that really picked up when Franky started using Twiggy as a missile and pitching him around the ring to knock down the Untouchables.
Also, on really great moment where Franky gave James two chops that James sort-of no-sold and Twiggy came in and just nailed Stone with a knife-edged chop so perfect that James Stone's eyes crossed - caught somewhere between surprise and pain.
Shayne Hawke defended his Canadian Title beating Sexxxy Eddy after 10:24.
After the show, Eddy was being actively mocked by Beef Wellington for losing this match to a guy that Beef and Eddy helped train.
What Beef doesn't realize is that the student is now at least as good as his teachers. If Beef isn't careful, he is going to talk himself into a match against Shayne Hawke. a match that frankly I am not sure that Beef can win.
Beef Wellington defended his title, beating El Generico in 14:05.
El Generico dominated this match, but Beef was able to wriggle out of every danger. At the climactic moment, El Generico motioned for the Brainbuster, only for Beef to escape again and then mace El Generico in the eyes with Ax body spray, blinding the Generic Luchadore long enough for Beef to hit the E. Coli for the win.
(One unintended casualty of this was El Generico's romantic life. Kevin Steen had set up his running buddy with a "Sure Thing" date, but she was completely unimpressed by El Generico's uncontrollable weeping during their date from his reddened, amced eyes.)
I talked to Beef backstage about his latest shortcut to victory and he reacted with indignation, "How come when the Green Phantom spits Green Mist at people, that's cool but when I spray people with a colorless mist, I am being evil? If it had come out of my mouth would that have been ok? If I had used the Chocolate spray to have some colour would that have met with your approval? You're a hypocrite Llakor! What you object to isn't that I misted El Generico, it's that I did it with a hand-held Caucasian mist. You know what that makes you? A racist, Llakor. You are a racist!"
The Green Phantom lost the Burning Tables match in 9:36 and was fired.
Nic Paterson watched the match from ringside in his wheelchair. My suspicion of Nic malingering was confirmed when the Green Phantom looked poised to win and Nic snuck into the ring to hit the Green Phantom from behind with a chair. He wasn't quite quick enough to make it back to his chair before the Green Phantom spotted him though.
Technically, Manny went through a flaming table first, but the ref was unconscious when it happened. The Green Phantom was celebrating his "victory" when Beef and Eddie hit the ring, attacked the Green Phantom and put him through a second Flaming Table.
Nic, Beef and Eddy continued to attack the Green Phantom after the bell until he was rescued by his fellow "Brother of the Mask" El Generico.
I guess it is pretty clear now that Nic Paterson orchestrated the power outage at the Skratch that led to Beef Wellington beating Kevin Steen for the title in the first place.
These are just notes for a more formal write-up later in the week. Or I may just use this because I am lazy.
Set-up for the show was a little trickier than we expected, partly because of the flooding during the Vans/Warped show that affected our tear-down and partly because the venue only let us in after 2PM and only let us set-up the ring at 5PM.
That said, the Just for Laughs Studio is a sweet venue. Someone (may have been Dre-Nuke) called it a mini-Medley and that description fits.
Six-Man Scramble match:
Jagged vs. Mike "Speedball" Bailey vs. Pauly Platinum vs. Alex Silva vs. Urban Miles vs. Izzy Deadyet
Jagged pins Urban Miles in 11:25.
Urban Miles lost the match because he froze like a deer in headlights. The kid id talented and really charismatic, but you would never know it from this match.
Filling the charisma vacuum left by Urban Miles was Pauly Platinum who started the match trading gear with Jagged. Pauly practically had a stroke when Jagged elbow-dropped his vest and was then disgusted when Jagged completely no-sold Pauly stomping his bandanna.
I have real issues with Alex Silva's behaviour backstage, but in the ring, he is becoming a real threat.
Izzy Deadyet is always solid and entertaining. This match was no exception.
There was a great little pyramid spot about halfway where Mike Bailey used two guys in the corner as a platform to go nuts. No less than Ron Hutchison, the Toronto promoter singled out Bailey as a wrestler to watch.
The other guy on Ron Hutchison's list? Jagged, who proved that he doesn't need a partner to excel.
WonderFred beat Sunny D in eight seconds.
Kevin called him Chinese, but Sunny D is actually Korean.
Kevin Steen beat WonderFred in 8:48
Kevin Steen interrupted Fred's gloating and came out to essentially kick Fred's ass. Fred put up a good fight, but his ass was definitely kicked. At the end of the match, Kevin taunted Fred with a chant of "Dance Fred Dance" and then pulled off a few dance moves of his own. Just when it looked like Kevin was going to help Fred up to shake his hand, Kevin kicked Fred in the gut and left.
Nic Paterson (in a wheelchair and neck-brace) introduced "Canada's Gretest Athlete" Shane Matthews and Shane's "Main Squeeze" Olivia. (She is already being described as one of the prettiest IWS valets ever and I would have to agree.)
Shane explained to us the "Things you people don't know about Shane Matthews!" including that he was a two-time All American at Rutgers and that he graduated with honours with a diploma in International Affairs.
Shane then recognized Calgary Stampede wrestling legend Kodiak Jack in the crowd and invited him into the crowd. Shane told us that he uses to watch Kodiak Jack on TV every Saturday and thanked Kodiak for inspiring him to become a wrestler. Shane then pitched a fit that Kodiak Jack was stealing Shane's spotlight, kicked Kodiak's cane out from under him and put the boots to the old-timer.
Shane Matthews - Massive ass-hole. Who knew?
The Untouchables (Dan Paysan & Jimmy Stone) beat
Before the match started, Franky demanded that instead of being called the Rock N' Roid Express to the Clean and Mean Machine. (Twiggy, "You're Clean!?!" Me, "No, he's mean. You're clean.")
Really good match that really picked up when Franky started using Twiggy as a missile and pitching him around the ring to knock down the Untouchables.
Also, on really great moment where Franky gave James two chops that James sort-of no-sold and Twiggy came in and just nailed Stone with a knife-edged chop so perfect that James Stone's eyes crossed - caught somewhere between surprise and pain.
Shayne Hawke defended his Canadian Title beating Sexxxy Eddy after 10:24.
After the show, Eddy was being actively mocked by Beef Wellington for losing this match to a guy that Beef and Eddy helped train.
What Beef doesn't realize is that the student is now at least as good as his teachers. If Beef isn't careful, he is going to talk himself into a match against Shayne Hawke. a match that frankly I am not sure that Beef can win.
Beef Wellington defended his title, beating El Generico in 14:05.
El Generico dominated this match, but Beef was able to wriggle out of every danger. At the climactic moment, El Generico motioned for the Brainbuster, only for Beef to escape again and then mace El Generico in the eyes with Ax body spray, blinding the Generic Luchadore long enough for Beef to hit the E. Coli for the win.
(One unintended casualty of this was El Generico's romantic life. Kevin Steen had set up his running buddy with a "Sure Thing" date, but she was completely unimpressed by El Generico's uncontrollable weeping during their date from his reddened, amced eyes.)
I talked to Beef backstage about his latest shortcut to victory and he reacted with indignation, "How come when the Green Phantom spits Green Mist at people, that's cool but when I spray people with a colorless mist, I am being evil? If it had come out of my mouth would that have been ok? If I had used the Chocolate spray to have some colour would that have met with your approval? You're a hypocrite Llakor! What you object to isn't that I misted El Generico, it's that I did it with a hand-held Caucasian mist. You know what that makes you? A racist, Llakor. You are a racist!"
The Green Phantom lost the Burning Tables match in 9:36 and was fired.
Nic Paterson watched the match from ringside in his wheelchair. My suspicion of Nic malingering was confirmed when the Green Phantom looked poised to win and Nic snuck into the ring to hit the Green Phantom from behind with a chair. He wasn't quite quick enough to make it back to his chair before the Green Phantom spotted him though.
Technically, Manny went through a flaming table first, but the ref was unconscious when it happened. The Green Phantom was celebrating his "victory" when Beef and Eddie hit the ring, attacked the Green Phantom and put him through a second Flaming Table.
Nic, Beef and Eddy continued to attack the Green Phantom after the bell until he was rescued by his fellow "Brother of the Mask" El Generico.
I guess it is pretty clear now that Nic Paterson orchestrated the power outage at the Skratch that led to Beef Wellington beating Kevin Steen for the title in the first place.
Tribute Magazine Best Teen Film Screening
Horaires Festival de Films YoungCuts Film Festival Schedule
Wednesday, September 30th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, mercredi le 30 septembre.
Support the Festival! Buy Tickets or DVDs!
The Tribute.ca Best Teen Film Screening will feature:
La Séance Tribute.ca Meilleur Film d'Ado, incluant:
Listen to This by/par Itay Sasson, Jennifer Sarkar, Gilli Tohar, Mirna Yacoub and Abu Abara, Canada, Palestine and Israel. Two musicians practicing in adjoining rooms have a musical battle.
Winner of the YoungCuts/Directors of Change Frame It to Change It Contest: Dreams Beyond the Border by/par Jessica Szeto, Canada.
The Child of the World by/par Ho Rui An, Singapore. Devastated bu the death of his mother, Kevin creates an imaginary guardian with the ability to materialize Utopia.
What'd ya want, a happy ending? by/par Kyle Kleinbart, USA. Love eludes a lonely young man. Is the red balloon the key?
Roadrunner by/par Zac Wong, USA. A bored young suburbanite dreams of shaking through the streets, using only her shoes.
It Only Takes One by/par Gabe Benjamin, Nick Lieberman, Emily Firestein and Timmy Weston, USA. One person can think about their environment and make a difference in their world.
Sparks in the Night by/par Ben Kadie, USA. Detective Leon Sparks closes in on notorious lawbreaker Jerry Walker.
Birthmarks by/par Phil Hamilton, USA. Jacob leads Kyle to believe that a household microwave holds the key to unleashing his unique identity.
Blackspot Culture by/par Wayne Robinson, Canada. An investigation into the Blackspot anti-corporation and its' newest venture: the Blackspot sneaker.
Stickies and Stones by/par Helen Wong, Bernadette Che and Narissa Shivji, Canada. Every seven minuutes someone is bullied mentally or physically.
One Less Shamrock by/par Nick Kelly, Canada. An Irish immigrant struggles to gain control of his life and uphold his family values in the New York depression.
HUSH by/par Jauvonnie Brown, USA. Four high school students - Four problems. Do they tell their secrets or keep it on the hush?Silent Scream by/par Foundation for the Preservation of Wild Life and Cultural Assets in Armenia, Armenia. Youth filmmakers document animal abuse in Armenia.
Growing Up in India by/par Marc-André Boucher, Sarah Chartrand, Caitlin Chartrand, Florence Fortin-Brunet, Stéfanie Gauthier, Alexandra Hartnell-Godin, Taylor Herrington, Emilie Johnsson, Jenna Monney-Lupert, Laurent Malo, Alexandre Oakes-Câmara, Nathaniel Q, Julie Paquette, Julia Rogers, Kendra Veigh Ryan, Olivia Sheehy-Gennarelli, Michelle Vanderzon, Padmaja Gungun, Rohit Janegar and Mulkesh Nath. In the spring of 2009, a team of high school students traveled to Udaipur in the Northeastern desert state of Rajasthan in India to document personal stories and struggles of young people growing up in India.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Mirror Weekly Best Short Shorts Screening
Horaires Festival de Films YoungCuts Film Festival Schedule
Tuesday, September 29th 9PM Cinéma du Parc 21h, mardi le 29 septembre.
Support the Festival! Buy Tickets or DVDs!
The Mirror Weekly Best Short Shorts Screening will feature:La Séance de l'Hebdomadaire Mirror Meilleur Court Court Métrage, incluant:
The Winner of the YoungCuts Repechage Public Vote: Vigilante by/par Mitchell Arend, Canada. A costumed crime-fighter reflects on his career choice with a TV news crew.
Duplicate Complicate by by Peter Ian Mancao, Philippines. One twin pushes the limits of outdoing the other to get the girl he likes.
The following films in this screening are short-listed for the Mirror Weekly Best Short Shorts Award.
Passé Composé by Alexandre Lynn and Mathieu Grimard, Canada. Félix tente de reconstituer les éléments d'hier. Il fait face à lui-même lorsqu'il apprend la mort de sa mère. Felix tries to piece together his memories of the day before. To his surprise, he confronts himself when he learns of the death of his mother.The Kill by Joe Vea, USA. The boyfriend finds his love slain and seeks to avenge her killer.
Alien Abduction by David Han, USA. A hungry alien tries to bring home a bull to cook and eat.Jalouse by Melanie Delloye, France/USA. As she watches her mother and brother play, a jealous little girl sits by herself on a swing.
1271 by Michael Warczak, Australia. Have you found Jesus yet?
Breathless by Kyle Sandilands, Canada. A man reflects on his destructive actions after vowing to avenge his girlfriend's death.Swipe by Max Blustin, UK. A request to borrow some money brings about unexpected consequences.
The Reel Man by Kieran Heilbron, Canada. A short film about a man, a hat and a fishing rod.
Dogface by Shai Halfon, USA. A world War II soldier, suffering from combat stress, sits alone in his foxhole behind enemy lines.Cogency by Tyler Knell, USA. After her husband locks himself in the bathroom and does not respond, a woman calls the police and explains the events leading to his death.
Le Cou Cou by Zed Bennett Jr., USA. The interaction between a shop owner and a malfunctioning cuckoo clock.Layang-Layang (Kites) by Agnes G. Wiguna, Canada. A childhood story about a boy who wants to catch the clouds.
Tah-Dah by Stacey Chomiak, Canada/USA. One bug. One farmer. And the cello that brought them together.
Estigia (Styx) by Claudette Montero, Argentina/USA. They say that witchcraft does not exist but we must never forget the capacity of hatred and another human being.
Mala Smrt (Little Death) by Claiborne McDonald, Czech Republic/USA. The sexual exploits of a teenage girl manifest their consequences in the death of her father.
Static by Jack Lykins, USA.Doll Call by Sanabel Almomani, Chris Gonzalez and Yesenia Deleon, USA. What happens when the forces of evil are awakened and a doll becomes a mechanical killer?
Joyeux Festin by Sara Dupéré, Canada. Orgie sanglante de sauce à "spag" sur un lit de vidanges. A holiday feast of spaghetti sauce on a litter of garbage.
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