One sick and twisted Sunday By Angela Espinoza ith the excitement of the Winter Olympics behind us and exams finally done, we have to wonder where those thirty April days went. If you’re anything like me, you went down to The Rio and saw Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. If you aren’t, it ran from April 1 to 21 and you should’ve gone anyway. On that particularly bright Sunday afternoon, I took my unsuspecting better half to see what I hoped would evidently traumatize us beyond repair. As one can expect no less from Craig “Spike” Decker and the late Mike Gribble, we were indeed horrified, however, not to the extent that I had perceived. It wasn’t until the second clip that the show really got going; a beautifully executed piece inspired by Hansel and Gretel called Who’s Hungry? by David Ochs. Drawn in stunning black and white pencil, it tells the story of a little boy and girl as they find themselves captured by a monstrous, cannibalistic ice cream man—with a blender. Soon came one of many in Greg Ecklund’s disturbing Lloyd series; this one entitled How to Get Pronged. This, for me, was the second most disturbing short in the entire line-up. From a male perspective, however, this was the worst for my partner, who now cringes whenever I speak of it. It’s very graphic, and that’s all I'll say. Snowman by Thaddeus Jaworsky is an epic music video to the song of the same name by Daiquiri. Through the use of fast-paced stop-motion and Lego, our protagonist goes on a cocaine binge, which results in sex, murder, necrophilia (in that order) and a final epic coke heist. Two shorts later came my pick for the most disturbing clip of the night: Chirpy by John Goras. The This animation festival puts the S&M back into Spike & Mike three-minute sample clip (the actual short is 12 minutes long) features a little yellow bird named Chirpy who unintentionally consumes magic mushrooms. The remaining two minutes and 30 seconds involve a very excited horse. About half way through we came to Canada’s only entrant, Skylight by David Baas. In a nutshell, it’s a CGI anti-global warming short that bluntly explains that the sun’s rays are going to cook all the animals on Earth into meat products. Afterwards we were treated to the beloved Internet classic, Dr. Tran: Quiet Log Time by Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson. I won’t say too much about this one since the name of Dr. Tran should already have you searching YouTube for the clip. Next came the festival favourite from Japan, Chainsaw Maid by Takena Nagao. It’s a gory, gruesome claymation zombie short that features one badass maid. Gradually we came to Oktapodi by Julien Bocabeille, a CGI short from France. Nominated for an Academy Award in 2008, this clip was one of the most innocent in the whole festival: a cute love story about two octopuses. The show closed with a clip from the full-length feature, A Town Called Panic by Vincent Patar and Stephen Aubier. The film was in consideration for an Academy Award nomination just this year, but is instead gaining popularity through festivals and, in this case, short Robot Chicken-esque clips. The festival featured a wide variety of shorts, from traditional 2D animations to awkward, jagged stop-motion. The variety of content also greatly differed, from children- aimed innocent shorts to graphically disgusting clips. Never have I felt so many extreme emotions in one night, and I can’t wait to go again next year! ‘Pid. Gunless misses its mark Half-hearted lectures about identity are buried under this slapstick heavy anti-western By Angela Espinoza ast December I treated myself to a copy of Inglourious Basterds. When I got home that evening to watch it, I found only two ‘coming soon’ trailers: an intense, overblown showcase for the musical Nine, and a very simple, amusingly dry one for a Canadian film called Gunless. In the months following, I noticed how heavily Gunless was being promoted; sadly, that’s something I rarely see for Canadian films, even in Vancouver—one of the world’s top filming locations. Opening night came, and as I walked past the full theatre of screaming teenagers for yet another Michael Bay-produced movie, I knew I was making the right decision. The film opens with the slogan, “Once upon a time in the North,” where moments later we are treated to our first run in with The Montana Kid (Paul Gross), an American gunslinger. This guy isn’t your average, “For America!” type of cowboy though, which is actually surprising once you meet the rest of the cartoonish and/ or stereotypical, one-dimensional characters. For the first hour, the cinematography was just enough to remind me that I wasn’t watching a play. I say this because within minutes, you'll note that almost every actor in this film relies on theatre- style acting, which is one of the worst things you can do on film. Looking at the résumés of these actors though (Graham Greene’s containing an Oscar nomination for Dances With Wolves (1990)), it’s clear that the result can be blamed squarely on the director, William Phillips. You would think someone who worked on the Canadian cult masterpiece Cube (1997) would know better, but I guess not. With a wide abundance of slapstick humour and one-liners we’ ve all heard a thousand times, you start to wonder when all this comedy will find purpose. Is it in the romantic subplot? No, because that was settled the split second we saw love interest Jane (Sienna Guillory). Even when we’re introduced to the potential runner for a love-triangle, Corporal Jonathan Kent (Dustin Milligan), it seems the movie is done with this tension after maybe seven minutes of footage. Once Gunless reaches the last half-hour though, it suddenly turns into the movie it should’ve been all along. Just saying they have a shoot out does not do this epic scene justice. Granted, once this is all over, the film reminds us that it’s solely relying on the driest of dry humour, finally wrapping itself up like a Disney movie (namely 2006’s Cars). That was another issue with this film. It’s meant for an older audience, but its reliance on guns is probably the only thing making this film PG. Only in the credits blooper reel do we hear swearing, but it’s all clown-horned out. As a devoted follower of Brent Butt’s Corner Gas, frequently hear how much people hate that show, but can’t pertain as to why. It feels as though the contents of Gunless are maybe what the average person sees in Corner Gas. To be fair though, in all the tired jokes, there are plenty of funny moments, and like Army of Darkness (1993), you’re there simply to see the main character; everything else is placed to make the hero more interesting. What it all comes down to is, if you feel like enduring a parody of Canada, then go see this film. 5.5/10