Actor's Day

There's crazy. There's kooky. Then there's Dan Martin. The king of random entertainment himself surprises us (well most of us anyways ;-)) with a short that takes a look at the lives behind the default characters in 3dmm. A loosely connected plot and smooth animations create the hectic atmosphere that form the heart of this 10 minute action romp.

The one thing you can definitely tell when you watch Actor's Day is that Dan is heavily inspired by Maltby. If you haven't figured that out by JDR by now, this movie definitely shows it. From crazy car chases involving that loveable red car to explosions showing off the usefulness of Frankie's expansion textures, this movie seems to have it all action-wise. Being the type of movie that it is, I felt that Dan did a superb job in a mindless but ultimately entertaining movie. Some scenes that come to mind that show this well would have to be the Jeremy/Patrick chase as well as the hilarious taxi/cop side story. Which brings me to the comedy aspect of the movie.

Now as a movie that emulates Maltby's style there must be some sort of comedic element. As a natural fan of random crap I rather enjoyed myself with this one. The one gag in particular that I couldn't stop laughing at had to be where the cop and the taxi driver were headbanging to the Imaginopolis theme. Gags like this served their purpose well in the movie because in a way they showed the point of the movie, to get into the heads of the actors. Another gag that was well used was Jeremy shooting Patrick was the 1997 clichéd 'L' off of the SALE sign. Though the motion happened so fast and you barely have time to register it you can't help but smile at Dan's wittiness, though sometimes fast paced nature. This happens to also be the downpoint to the whole movie.

Aside from the action and the comedy we are given a movie with very little plot other than "let's check out what goes on on a normal day for default characters." Ok seems like a neat little concept, which it is except for the fact that well Dan needs to learn to control his pacing. There were times throughout the movie where I wished things would slow down and kind of get drawn out, even if it was a little bit. Another problem with the story was that there was three, though they all blended together so well and the movie moved so fast it was sometimes hard to tell where exactly the movie was. I'll forgive Dan for this though since he wasn't really trying to go for plot and the ending concept is brilliant.

To sum it up, Actor's Day is a semi-brainless, nearly plotless, too quickly paced short movie whose downsides get mostly overshadowed by its ability to entertain. Aside from the little bitching I've done I seriously enjoyed watching this. If not for the action, the comedy. If not the comedy, the animations. There's definitely something in here that everyone can find enjoyeable. I know I did.

7.5/10