Science Fiction Shorts Night 1

The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival - This new event connected to the Boston Science Fiction Marathon Feb. 14-15 noon to noon is a wonderful addition. Each night from now until the Marathon there will be a feature or a night of Shorts at 7pm at the Somerville theater. I encourage you to look into getting tickets for these events.

Night One of Shorts...

Theosaurology (2009) - Animated short about the nature of dinosaurs, and their super powers. Yes that's right superpowers, in fact when dinosaurs realized what they were the awesomeness of them covered the planet and set off a superpowers race that eventually was their demise. In an effort to prove their awesomeness the pachycephalosaurus' used their mental powers to pull a meteor to the planet. Unfortunately it meant the end of these Super cool and totally awesome creatures. Alex Austin wrote this cute, under animated short.
Rating (6.3)

Empathy (2009) - Writer / Director Benjamin Pascoe executed this concise story about a man who learns a hard lesson in empathy. Shot in blck and white a father is having an ideal life with his beautiful daughter. Creating the too perfect images is a good turn in this case, forshadowing quickly that things can't be what they seem. When the little girl is hit by a car and killed Stanley must face the grief of loosing his girl. Cut to Stanley in a program that gives him these memories as part of an experiment to Punish(?) people who have killed others while drunk driving.
Rating (7.2)

The Package (2009) - Ah, the days of VHS tape... Dave (Justin Hosking) and Lisa (Liza Catherine-Dennis) are having a horrible fight, well written and passionate by writer Tim Anderson. Director Oliver Waghorn keeps it simple and when Lisa leaves Dave is standing in what could be the aftermath of his relationship. A VHS tape is delivered to the door and Dave immediately plays it. It is him 40 years in the future, future dave relays how this is the moment he makes a string of catastrophic decision in his life. He is sending this tape back to tell past Dave how to avoid them. Good predictable laugh when the tape breaks in the player.
Rating (6.5)

Destination Day (2010) - Tim (Richard Pappas) travels back in time to fix a relationship before it goes wrong. Only can we really change the past and have it come out the way we want in the present? Writer Chris Lassig references Perth's Destination Day where people in the present invited time travellers to a gathering. No one showed up of course which leads one to believe that in the future 1. There is no time travel 2. Human don't exist 3. They have lost records of this event and thus can't visit 4. Have no interest or can't contact those in the past. or 5. anynumber of other reasons. This story though focuses on Tim and Valerie (Audrey Lamont) who work together and have slept together. This is the day after the intimate encounter where future Tim is trying to change the outcome.
Rating (4.9)

Operation Blast (2???) - It is 2017 and the war with the taliban continues, except now little turban wearing robots are attacking us and we are naturally defending ourselves with our own little GI Joe robots. This stop motion animation short by Jeffrey Hollins is cute but sort of pointless.
Rating (3.7)

VHS Reporter (2009) - Stange little film about a group of people coming together and waiting for a ride. Pretty much some introductions to some somewhat strange characters and then the twist that most of them are aliens heading back to space. Nothing really made this stand out.
Rating (3.7)

Dimensional Meltdown (2009) - Parallel universes where a man's girlfriend dies repeatedly and he can not deal. He travels through wormholes to try to change the outcome. Do these things ever come out well?
Rating (4.2)

Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer (2009) - by Writer director Andrew Jones, Neo-Mega-Ultra Tokyo is the setting for this stylish story told through the investigating of reporter Holly Malone (Priscilla McEver). She follows leads at crime scenes to the Super Natural pill Pucher Frank DanCoolo (John Charles Meyer). He is sells his phsycic brain fluid but has to deal with the side effects of creatures from the other side crossing into this reality. A wonderful mix of 1940s style ratatat dialog, CGI and stop motion monsters this over the top short was a great way to end the night. Although I loved it this coul really not hit spots for everyone.
Rating (8.0)