Post by Dale on Nov 10, 2010 11:31:18 GMT -5
Mitchell Judd: Private Eye
It’s hard not to be a fan of Blg’s, when his Movie Reels writing credits include the Captain Scarlet trilogy as well as the much praised Ufology. When you can legitimately say you have three of the best films this site has seen, I think you’re doing something right. So when the Film Festival came around and Blg’s committed to be a part of it, I was very much looking forward to seeing what he would deliver. Unfortunately the Film Festival failed, but fortunately for us, Blg’s was one of the few who turned in an entry; “Mitchell Judd: Private Eye”. And seeing as Movie Reels is in the midst of yet another small revival, I figured somebody should break the ice and review something. And seeing as I’m one of the only active admins about, it seems right that it should be me.
“Mitchell Judd: Private Eye” opens in a very comedic manner as a supposed man in a suit and tie follows a shabby teenager who is littering. Only we then discover that’s not the case as Mitchell himself is a teenager and his attempts at stopping this fiendish litterbug fail almost as much as Natalie trying to identify the English flag. This opening scene kind of caught my attention quickly cause I’ve wanted to see Blg’s tackle something a little more comedic for a while. He’s obviously a very funny bloke, with a keen sarcastic wit that’s very, very English. And he’s only every committed to one full blown comedy in “g” which I’m sure he won’t mind me saying, was a tad underwhelming for what it was.
Very early on, I get a slight sense of “Brick” about the short, with the noir-ish voiceovers; but with more comedic over tones. Mitchell is presented as a rather geeky (in the eyes of everyone else, maybe not himself) individual with an over inflated sense of himself. We delved right into the story with the set up for the case I’m assuming will take up the majority of the short. The flashbacks were interwoven well and helped flesh out the story in a quick fashion, forgoing exposition to explain the story in great in detail. And for the most part, they were amusing and I liked the almost stereotypical detective lines cropping up only for Rachel to shoot them down and be ignored.
The montages leading to Mitchell’s first interaction with Floyd Bellamy were nicely done and the follow up with Mitchell and Floyd himself were hysterical. The insults got more and more ridiculous and Mitchell’s line about Bellamy changing his name to “Bellafree” was awesome. Mitchell is just so preposterous in a really loveable kind of way.
One of my favourite things in pretty much all of Blg’s works, is that there’s always a character or two that just absolutely leaves its mark on you by how well they’re written. It Ufology it was Dr. Connelly, in this, it had to be Leroy. Leroy the teenage crime lord was very funny and his little speech about Mitchell turning a blind eye to his “legitimate business operation” ending with an over long “playa” was just chucklesomeTM. The little jokes to Norman, who is in the year below by three days also helped to add another laugh to the scene and the recurring joke regarding him was utilized very well.
The twist with Rachel supposedly being the “femme fatale” and working for Leroy was funny and Mitchell’s reaction to it and the flashback’s were a nice touch. “The mad cheddar, yo” line made me smile every time and I can’t explain why. The scene where Mitchell sits Rachel down to talk to her was a good follow up, and Mitchell keeping apple juice in a whisky bottle works nicely with his preposterous self.
The showdown if you will was great, the bickering about whether or not Mitchell had a gun and the way it’s all worked out in the end was again rather humorous. The final scene with Rachel and Mitchell was a great call back to an early scene and completely undoes Mitchell’s “achievement” which I thought was fantastic. He may feel like he achieved something, but to all the sane people in the world, nothing has changed at all.
Overall, this was incredibly fun. What else could you expect from Blg’s really? It has some really fun characters, from Mitchell himself, Leroy the crime lord and Floyd Bellamy the bag snatcher who spouts off the most ludicrous insults you’ve ever heard. The little noir detective story homage’s were all pretty good and the story itself was well paced and executed. A lot of time with shorts I feel as though I’ve missed something, that stuff has been cut out to keep the length down. I didn’t get that feeling here as the characters were suitably fleshed out, we got the information we needed to make the personalities and jokes shine through without the excess. The dialogue was great, from Mitchell’s ridiculous, over the top monologues and Leroy’s “street talk”. It was all distinctive and helped to establish these characters all the more. The plot moved at a pretty brisk pace but I never felt like there needed to be more exposition to explain what was opening. It just all clicked and came together very nicely. This is just another fine piece of work from Blg’s and I feel a sense of achievement myself, banging out a page long review for a short that’s only twenty six pages long.
*** ½ out of ****
It’s hard not to be a fan of Blg’s, when his Movie Reels writing credits include the Captain Scarlet trilogy as well as the much praised Ufology. When you can legitimately say you have three of the best films this site has seen, I think you’re doing something right. So when the Film Festival came around and Blg’s committed to be a part of it, I was very much looking forward to seeing what he would deliver. Unfortunately the Film Festival failed, but fortunately for us, Blg’s was one of the few who turned in an entry; “Mitchell Judd: Private Eye”. And seeing as Movie Reels is in the midst of yet another small revival, I figured somebody should break the ice and review something. And seeing as I’m one of the only active admins about, it seems right that it should be me.
“Mitchell Judd: Private Eye” opens in a very comedic manner as a supposed man in a suit and tie follows a shabby teenager who is littering. Only we then discover that’s not the case as Mitchell himself is a teenager and his attempts at stopping this fiendish litterbug fail almost as much as Natalie trying to identify the English flag. This opening scene kind of caught my attention quickly cause I’ve wanted to see Blg’s tackle something a little more comedic for a while. He’s obviously a very funny bloke, with a keen sarcastic wit that’s very, very English. And he’s only every committed to one full blown comedy in “g” which I’m sure he won’t mind me saying, was a tad underwhelming for what it was.
Very early on, I get a slight sense of “Brick” about the short, with the noir-ish voiceovers; but with more comedic over tones. Mitchell is presented as a rather geeky (in the eyes of everyone else, maybe not himself) individual with an over inflated sense of himself. We delved right into the story with the set up for the case I’m assuming will take up the majority of the short. The flashbacks were interwoven well and helped flesh out the story in a quick fashion, forgoing exposition to explain the story in great in detail. And for the most part, they were amusing and I liked the almost stereotypical detective lines cropping up only for Rachel to shoot them down and be ignored.
The montages leading to Mitchell’s first interaction with Floyd Bellamy were nicely done and the follow up with Mitchell and Floyd himself were hysterical. The insults got more and more ridiculous and Mitchell’s line about Bellamy changing his name to “Bellafree” was awesome. Mitchell is just so preposterous in a really loveable kind of way.
One of my favourite things in pretty much all of Blg’s works, is that there’s always a character or two that just absolutely leaves its mark on you by how well they’re written. It Ufology it was Dr. Connelly, in this, it had to be Leroy. Leroy the teenage crime lord was very funny and his little speech about Mitchell turning a blind eye to his “legitimate business operation” ending with an over long “playa” was just chucklesomeTM. The little jokes to Norman, who is in the year below by three days also helped to add another laugh to the scene and the recurring joke regarding him was utilized very well.
The twist with Rachel supposedly being the “femme fatale” and working for Leroy was funny and Mitchell’s reaction to it and the flashback’s were a nice touch. “The mad cheddar, yo” line made me smile every time and I can’t explain why. The scene where Mitchell sits Rachel down to talk to her was a good follow up, and Mitchell keeping apple juice in a whisky bottle works nicely with his preposterous self.
The showdown if you will was great, the bickering about whether or not Mitchell had a gun and the way it’s all worked out in the end was again rather humorous. The final scene with Rachel and Mitchell was a great call back to an early scene and completely undoes Mitchell’s “achievement” which I thought was fantastic. He may feel like he achieved something, but to all the sane people in the world, nothing has changed at all.
Overall, this was incredibly fun. What else could you expect from Blg’s really? It has some really fun characters, from Mitchell himself, Leroy the crime lord and Floyd Bellamy the bag snatcher who spouts off the most ludicrous insults you’ve ever heard. The little noir detective story homage’s were all pretty good and the story itself was well paced and executed. A lot of time with shorts I feel as though I’ve missed something, that stuff has been cut out to keep the length down. I didn’t get that feeling here as the characters were suitably fleshed out, we got the information we needed to make the personalities and jokes shine through without the excess. The dialogue was great, from Mitchell’s ridiculous, over the top monologues and Leroy’s “street talk”. It was all distinctive and helped to establish these characters all the more. The plot moved at a pretty brisk pace but I never felt like there needed to be more exposition to explain what was opening. It just all clicked and came together very nicely. This is just another fine piece of work from Blg’s and I feel a sense of achievement myself, banging out a page long review for a short that’s only twenty six pages long.
*** ½ out of ****
