Word Of The Day
I watched Space Milkshake this week. It’s a Canadian made production, a sci fi comedy, filmed in Saskatchewan if I read my sources correctly. It stars a number of well known actors, Billy Boyd from The Lord of the Rings, Kristin Kreuk from Smallville and Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne from the TV series Sanctuary.
While I liked the movie and it passed the time, it got me thinking about filmmaking. Sure, it’s easy to criticize when you’re not doing any of the work, so this is just me shooting off my mouth having only graduated from film school.
I’m a visual person, and have always enjoyed the visual atmosphere in movies. You look at the old Hammer horror films, with the black shadows adjacent to rich, lavish colours. You have decent wardrobe and props. And sharp editing. Space Milkshake does not have these. To be fair, it’s a Canadian production, and we’re not well known for our big budget action flicks. One day, maybe. So we get shots of a brightly lit, clean space station, where the camera lingers on the jokes a little too long.
But even if that’s not to your liking, at least the actors seem to be having fun. Billy Boyd plays the captain who finds fault in everything and glaring at everyone. Robin Dunne is pleasantly appealing as the hero, a guy out of his depth who has no materials to make repairs on all the equipment. Although there is electricians tape somewhere. Kristine Kreuk gets to play two sides of the same coin with her character, and made me forget about Lana Lang of Smallville. And then there’s Amanda Tapping doing double duty on her own as not only actor but as one of the executive directors. And last but not least, internet sensation George Takei as the monster, who really went through the difficulty of travelling 12 dimensions just for his ex-girlfriend.
It’s a low budget film, not much atmosphere, loose editing, but it’s Canadian, so if nothing else, I’ll support the home team.
Besides, it’s not like Telefilm is offering me cash for my latest opus - Invasion of the Ninja Wombats vs. The Angry Archer of Tuktoyaktuk!