Actor's Day

Daniel Martin's movies are nothing if not entertaining. Sure, they tend to lack any type of plot that you can follow (or would dare attempting to follow) and are weird beyond belief - but this is actually part of what makes them so fun to watch. Anything can happen, so you can never guess what's coming next. This worked to make JDR Revival one of summer's best movies (if not THE best). It works here for "Actor's Day" as well- although here, the great concept makes the lack of any plot more distracting.

"Actor's Day" asks the question "What would the actors (and even props) of 3dmm act like if they were actual people living in their own world.". This is a great idea, and it's pulled off very well. There are some extremely clever jokes here, many of which I know that I would have never thought of had I been making a movie with the same concept. For example when the guy pulls the "L" off of the sign and uses it as a gun, or when Willy (or whatever the scientist guy's name is) starts throwing expansion textures all over the place- almost destroying the city. The idea behind the ending was completely brilliant also!

I have to say though, "Actor's Day" feels more like a collection of skits or short films than an actual movie. It kind of reminds me of the episode of "the Simpsons" where it jumps around to various people living in Springfield and what's going on in their lives, this is done much in the same way. The episode of "The Simpsons" worked because you already knew the characters- here your just meeting them, and the introduction lasts about 20 seconds and then the character disappears for the rest of the movie. Still, watching what goes on in the lives of all these actors we know so well is fun enough that you don't really mind.

Okay, being as this is a "Dominator Dan" movie, I probably don't even have to mention how INSANE the animation is. However, it would be doing Dan an injustice to not mention it...this stuff is unbelievable. Dan just focuses on making his movies fun to watch. If your eyes are enjoying the show, he's done his job. The animation in this movie is fluid, full of inventive effects, and looks great! Also, Dan joins the ranks of the few 3dmmers that have truly mastered the use of the new expansion packs. All of the textures used are expertly chosen, and handmade scenes look flawless. Dan's animation style goes hand-in-hand with the sense of humour he has in all of his movies- they're both fast paced and crazy, and suffer from a form of attention deficit (sp?) disorder. It's like this guy can't go twelve seconds without something blowing up, or collapsing, or shattering, or being shot at. It makes it great fun to watch, and hilarious in a "WTF?!" kinda way.

The sound department is good all-around also. One thing that may irk some people is the fact that Dan plays absolutely everyone here. I had no problem with it, it actually had a kind of nostalgic affect on me, as it brings back memories of my old pre-community movies where I played everyone. Actually, now that I think about it...I played a huge amount of characters in every movie I released up until "Teh Epic"....I suck. Anyway, yeah, Dan's voice acting is actually pretty good. The part where Dan flips out while talking to the screen in the "JDR Requiem" teaser cracks me up every time.

Still, it's hard to not think of this movie as kind of a missed opportunity. I love the idea behind this movie, and it wasn't really carried nearly as far as it could have been. If this were the first episode in a new series, it would work very well, but as a stand-alone movie it leaves you wishing there was some actual story being told here and not just a collection of comedy sketches. You can't deny that this movie is entertaining though, and for that I give it a 83% out of 100%. It's a great idea that deserves more, but still manages to stand on the strength of its entertainment and comedic value.

83%