Sunday, August 27, 2006

Swinging the Hammer



Tangled up in blue? Why am I blue? Hammer, please don't hurt'em. Wha?

So why am I blue and swinging a hammer. That's me acting in a indie feature called "Cold Readings" IMDB listing that premiered at the Virginia Film Festival back in 2004. Doug Bari wrote, directed and starred in this satirical look at the world of commercial psychics. I had a very small part as a murderous drifter named Bickerman, who (in a flashback, hence the tinting) kills an old man with, you guessed it, a hammer. I also got to do a little voice over work and run the camera a couple of times. It was a fun experience that delivered my first IMDB credit Unfortunately I missed the mentioned premiere as I was living in Ireland at the time and after that I heard nothing else about the project. Recently I contacted actor/writer/director Doug Bari to see what was going on and ask for a copy of the film as I still had not had a chance to see it. A few days later, I had a freshly burned copy spinning in the DVD player. So how is it? Not bad, in fact, much better then many direct to DVD efforts that I have paid to rent or buy. The story is interesting, entertaining with decent photography and generally very fine acting. "Cold Readings" breaks many of the no-budget rules, featuring a large cast and many locations. I wish I could link you to it's Netflix listing so you could check it out for yourself, but as far as I know, "Cold Readings" isn't available, in fact hasn't even been screened again publicly since 2004. And that is a damn shame as it is worthy of a bowl of popcorn. Maybe one day.

OK HW