Assassidate ~ New Webseries from David & Kate Hewlett!

David Hewlett hard at work on set of Stargate

David Hewlett is perhaps best known for his role in the Stargate franchise, notably Atlantis. His sister, Kate, also acted alongside him in a few episodes but she is not as well known. David is also known for his writing and acting abilities in the beloved cult Canadian indy films, Cube and Nothing; I beg you to see these two movies if you have not already! Recently, David was cast as the angry neighbor in Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie that was released in the summer of 2011. Privately (or perhaps not so privately), David is known for his consistent Tweeting about his son and their geekish adventures of making lightsabers and learning the inner mysteries of comic book lore. Suffice to say, David is one beloved icon of geekdom! 

Just this week, David and his sister Kate released the first episode of their webseries entitled Assassidate. The first episode is just over 3 minutes long and focuses on a skype conversation between the brother and sister where David reveals that his wife just left him. Within three minutes I managed to laugh more frequently and harder than I have at most of the tv shows aired this season! The premise is unique and filled with geeky references -if you're not a geek, make sure to look up what LARP is before watching this! The comedic timing is also spot on, with juicy punches being jovially thrown between the two siblings. I highly recomend watching this webseries and I hope to see more episodes in the near future!

Geekdad has a good article about this webseries, and the original vid can be found on youtube here.

Kevin Smith's Red State

Kevin Smith has gone on tour showcasing his latest movie, Red State. For the tour he personally introduces the movie, sits at the back of the theater to watch alongside the audience, and then performs a Q&A. He admonishes that this is nothing new as movies such as Gone With the Wind were handled in a similar manner, although he is perhaps the only person in my lifetime to have done so.

Red State was not picked up by a movie studio. Instead of selling his movie for very little and having a third party represent it, Smith opted instead to showcase his movie in the same style that he has been providing his stand-up and Smodcast tours for the past 5+ years. At first Smith had toured extensively across the United States, leaving myself and others wondering if he would ever grace his audiences in Canada with the movie. Sure enough, on August 17th 2011 he did just that in the city of Calgary, Alberta.

I follow Kevin Smith's career with a level of regularity that fits somewhere between the obsessed and the curious. I love pretty much all of his movies equally and for that I am easily pleased with anything he produces. Not surprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is not a laugh-a-minute movie like Clerks but more akin to Dogma with a little more dry humor and levity. The story revolves around a hard-lined biblical group in the United States that kidnap three teenagers and as a result the FDA are called out to end the situation, ala Waco. The acting is excellent, which is not surprising as Smith bring out the best in his actors. The storyline is for the most part quite original and engaging with some very memorable moments. The only downside I wish to point out is that (and this is not a spoiler) the preacher has a very lengthy sermon that needed to be edited down. At some point during the sermon I believe the audience was beginning to get lost, however, the sermon does add a great element of fear and trepidation for what would come next. A positive note is that this movie feels like an indy art-house flick, with frayed edges and a richness that can be studied and discussed ad nauseum.

Following the movie Smith entertained the audience with over 2 hours of great commentary on everything from what occurred while and following the filming this picture to events in his personal life, along with answering numerous questions from the audience. In the early phase of this tour Smith was sometime accompanied by actors in the movie, but in this case it was solo Smith. It is hard to not like Smith because he is incredibly personable and real. There is not a moment when you feel that he is up there only for the money or that what he is doing is an act. This is a rare quality that is a driving reason as to why Kevin Smith has become so popular over the past two decades. 

I wholeheartedly recomend anyone reading this blog to go see Kevin Smith on his tour or at the least watch his latest movie Red State once it becomes available on DVD sometime later this fall or early winter.