Season 2, Episode 10 (1/28/07)

Hi everyone!

Our final volunteer shift was full of fun and excitement. Our first screening was scheduled to be the Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner. Unfortunately, the award ceremony was going on while people were lining up to get into the movie. Everyone in line was wondering what movie they were about to see, but we couldn't tell them until we got official word from the ceremony. Definitely a silly scheduling mistake. Most people took it in stride, but some were getting quite upset that we wouldn't tell them. (If we knew, we would tell you. We're not just holding out on you!) Most of the people were in the theater by the time the winner was announced - "Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)" (I guess it was good, but I didn't see it.) Only one person came out for a refund, because he had already seen it.

The final movie of the night was called "Fido" and I was able to watch that one. This is one of those movies with a great premise, but poor execution. It is a zombie movie, but not in the traditional vein. The zombies in this one are all domesticated by a collar that they wear that suppresses their urge to eat living flesh. Many households in this 50s-set story have zombies as their servants and many of the menial jobs around town are held by zombies. There are many comic scenes of zombies not learning their jobs too easily, and even when some zombie suppression collars are deactivated and they start going on a killing spree, it is with comic overtones. However, the movie overstayed its welcome and became tedious near the end. This is the type of feature that would have worked much better as a short film. 2 1/2 stars.

And with that, my 2007 Sundance experience came to an end. In the next couple days, I'll send out a final missive to recap my experience and rank the movies that I have seen.

Until the epilogue...

Your Sundance correspondent,

Ted

PS -- I've attached a couple pics from my last day - one with me and a bear statue in the middle of town and one with me and part of the crew from the Prospector Square Theater -- Jeromy and Vicki (my cohorts in the "John Henry" experience) and Jeromy's Mom, Karen (my box office partner).