Frappinos Wrap Up

"The Frappinos" my ongoing comedy feature film. This is the third time I tackled the characters from this series and I have to say THE BEST! 

I have had constant requests to re-visit Tony Frappino and his family ever since the premiere of the SECOND FRAPPINO film. ( Which was titled THE FRAPPACHINOS back then.) 

I decided to go back and RE-DO the story, yet again, while things for DARK PASSAGES were being  put together. 

So after securing the cast (after several major cast changes) we scheduled the shooting for 9 days. Which is not a lot for an 85 page script but I knew we could do it. (Besides it was only what we could afford!) 

For months the cast and I prepared by rehearsing. We worked on character, dialogue, interaction and scene. So by the time it came to filming we just went right into it. The only thing that took up the time was camera and light set ups. 

The cast was tremendous! They took everything we have worked on made it all happen. They came prepared and ready to rock. This made filming go incredibly fast. Every day we were done at least 2 hours ahead of schedule! 

The crew and I busted our asses to make sure we set up camera and lights as quickly as possible so we can just shoot and move on. 

We did so well we were able to have a day off in the middle of the week! We were also able to finish a day early. So our 9 day shooting schedule turned out to be 7 days. 

I was so pleased and excited about how everything was going, I just couldn't believe it. The cast and the crew were able to have fun and enjoy the whole process so much more since we weren't shooting at ungodly hours. 

This was the best shoot OutWorld Entertainment has ever done. The footage looks amazing and the cast/crew did a terrific job. This will be our best project to date. 

Now it's off to editing and the awesome post production process. I am excited about putting together the film and bringing it all to life in the editing room.  

I'll keep you updated! 

YO JOE!!!

I was able to see the new GI JOE: RISE OF COBRA this past friday with my son and two close friends, Ryan and Bill.

I have to say what an awesome time at the movies it was. The movie was a lot of fun to watch. Lots of action, laughs and hi-tech gadgets! It was everything the cartoon world was. Complete with an UNDER WATER BASE! (You have to love COBRA.)

Was it perfect? No! Did it have a story? Yes. ( Though simple and straight forward, it has a "classic" action feel to it.) It's definitely one of the best 2009 Summer Blockbuster films.

Let me tell you what I didn't like about the film before going into what I liked:

1) Channing Tatum and Dennis Quad! Their acting was flat and emotionless. Channing Tatum plays Duke, GI JOE's greatest team leader. And he was completely boring the whole movie. He hardly gets excited or emotional making him feel like a robot. Especially during the scenes where he should be emotionally charged. Dennis Quad plays General Hawk, another great GI JOE leader who is just flat and emotionless. Quad plays the role extremely cheesy making his lines sound ridiculous. Thankfully he wasn't in the film very often.

2) The love story between the Baroness and Duke. It was pointless and uninteresting. (Forget about it being way off from the Comic and Cartoon. Since Duke and the Baroness never were in love.) But the fact that the love story in the movie between them two just didn't seem to have any real relevance. They tried to make it seem like it did but it fell flat.

3) Cobra Commander's mask! I'm not going to be a purest and say that they should have it like the show, but the mask they designed for the film looks terrible! It just was cheesy and terrible looking. Hopefully he gets an upgrade in the sequels.

4) The lack of background of the GI JOES.

Now what I liked:

1) Most of the back stories of the characters were pretty damn close to the comics.

2) The story felt like it could of been an actual episode of the old show. Cobra trying to take over the world and GI JOE has to stop them. This time though, Cobra is meaner, nastier and deadlier then the cartoons.

3) The story of how COBRA comes to be was really interesting and fun to watch unfold.

4) Despite the fact that the Baroness is lacking her infamous accent in the movie, Siena Miller was awesome as the Baroness. She was merciless, tough, and funny. She really helped bring the movie together.

The movie had a very JAMES BOND and classic action film "Feel" to it. They haven't made movies like that in a long time. Lately it's all about "flash" and these absolutely horrible twist endings to try and make you go "Wow!" THE RISE OF COBRA had a plot that was simple, yet exciting enough to make you want to see what happens next.

Even though the film is a bit "cheesy" at times (it is based off of an 80's cartoon!) it still doesn't treat the viewer as stupid. Which Transformers 2 did. ( And I even Liked Transformers 2 despite all it's stupidness, lack of character and terrible plot holes.)

In GI JOE, director Stephen Sommers has a lot of characters but manages to never forget about them in the film. He doesn't rely on immature jokes to make you laugh, nor does his action feel like it's pointless. Everything in GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA has a purpose and everything that happens has a re-action. Therefore it makes you feel like you had a full experience instead of walking out of the theater asking what the hell just happened?

In closing, I have to say I really liked this film. I thought the trailers looked horrible and pointless. I thought I was going to hate this film. (Especially since GI JOE was my favorite thing growing up.) But, the movie was 100 times better then the trailers and they respected and stayed true to most of the GI JOE world that was in both the show and comics.

After such a horrible summer of movies:

WOLVERINE: ORIGINS

TERMINATOR: SALVATION

and even TRANSFORMERS 2

GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA was a great way to end the summer in a high note for movies!