6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tom is the ultimate office superhero!!, March 23, 2005
This review is from: Waydowntown (DVD)
The film starts off being narrated by Tom (Fab Filippo), as we are first introduced to him on Day 24, smoking weed in a parkade to pass the time. We soon learn that in his meaningless cubicle Dilbert job, he is involved in a contest with 3 other employees to see who can stay indoors the longest in a downtown network of office buildings, shopping malls, food courts, apartments, and skywalks. The one who stays in the longest, will win a months salary.
The name of this place is not mentioned in the film, but for those who can recognize it, it is Calgary's downtown network. I guess due to it's size and huge facilities that it is attached to, you could practically spend the entire time never having to step outside, going from work to home and everything you need in between. Heck doesn't sound that far fetched, I even heard one person can spend their entire life in Chicago's Sears Tower and have everything they need. Needless to say the bet starts to take its toll on the characters sanity, and our lead hero Tom starts wondering what he is to make of his career and spiritual life, as his mind is slowly falling out of his body.
This movie was a lot of fun for me. I totally identified with Tom, who is trying to find something else meaningful in life, and work-hell being the catharsis for it. The movie is funny, and even has 3 particular gut busting scenes (which I won't give away). It's easy to see why Tom is so disenchanted, the place he works at is dull and boring, a firm named what else (Mather, Mather & Mather) headed by an octogenarian. We run into his other co-workers like Sandra who is in on the bet and at wits end. She is under her supervisor orders to follow Mr. Mather around the network cause he's a serious kleptomaniac (he goes around to all the stores and shoplifts like crazy!). For Tom to pass the time, he starts playing mind games on Sandra telling her the air is constantly being recycled and filthy, and it feels stuffy. As a result we see Sandra running around the network constantly gasping for air, loosing her mind, and then even resorting to ripping out perfume inserts in a book store and sniffing them like a drug addict. Tom's other problems are 2 cubicle mates, Brad (Don McKellar, not in on the bet) a long standing employee who's been around TOO long and gone nowhere a ticking time bomb waiting to go off (everyone calls him Sadly Bradley), and Curt (who is in on the bet) a cocky arrogant, turtle neck wearing thinks he's cool but is not type of guy, who only refers to Tom by calling him `Dinkus'. Fun fun fun... who wouldn't be loosing their mind in a place like this?
This movie reminded me a lot of another film called Office Space, where the characters are similar but different. It's different cause the film has some neat editing scenes, and goes into some fun philosophical points as Tom describes his non-existence while swimming around the downtown area. This makes the film more reflective and poignant, where Office Space is more goofy and fun. Also while Office Space has more cartoonish like characters, these characters are a little more complicated. But the similarities are the same in that the characters are both trying to figure out some type of meaning in their life in their HORRIBLE MEANINGLESS jobs. One thing though about both those great films is the characters are all VERY real.
This is just a well done, good unique film. It is not BRILLIANT, or REVOLUTIONARY, but the story is memorable, and the film should definitely be seen by more audiences. Due to the nature of Canadian films being distributed, the chances that you may see this film are probably small and that's a shame cause it deserves a bigger audience. But now...
It's on DVD!!
Enjoy!!
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1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Obnoxious Nonesense., November 11, 2007
This review is from: Waydowntown (DVD)
Grrrr!
This was a frustrating movie. I am not going to say "don't rent or buy it" because according to the other two reviewers (as of 11/11/07) they seemed to have gotten something out of it. I can see a parallel to an early 1970's movie called "Thx-1138" but perhaps this was supposed to be a comedy.
All I saw in this movie was a bunch of people acting stupid, maybe that was the way it was supposed to look with the characters betting who can stay indoors for a whole month when outside was only steps away. I could not follow all the disjointed scenes and seemingly pointless activities. What was with the making out in the Ladies Room? You have the Ditzy soon-to-be-married woman and the paranoid woman who I guess is almost totally insane from being told the air is recycled and polluted. The main character does not make much sense to me either. I cannot follow why he seems to be flying around the place. I guess he imagines the city being lifted lifted into the air and domed. But then there is an earthquake and the power goes out and I guess he is hallucinating that the building he is in is taking off like a space shuttle with the rest of the buildings around dropping away.
In the end I guess the silent "Sadly Bradley" commits suicide by jumping out of the building. Speaking of jumping, what is with the flashbacks of someone falling that pepper the movie?
Perhaps in some jumbled sort of way, this movie has some rhyme and reason but watching it was just frustrating.
The DVD's bonus features did not have much to offer. The behind-the-scenes was really "behind-the-scenes" with just the mundane shooting of the movie, no commentary, no interviews, nothing to help make sense of what kind of movie this is supposed to be. "B-Movie" did come to mind while I was watching this and it was funny that another reviewer mentioned this exact term. Was this an "Art Movie"? I do not see the "Sundance" logo.
You may like this but to me it was a waste of time.
If this review seems confusing and nonsensical perhaps you won't like the movie, but than again, it may be your cup of tea.
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3 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Waycoolflick, August 28, 2001
Yet another movie that's been sitting on Blockbuster shelves for months in Quebec, and not even released yet in the good ol' US of A. This is a wild indie that knows what it's doing. Even though the production looks a little cheap at times (the visual effects sequence of the building moving up is pretty B MOVIE), the story is told amazingly and the flick is pulled off wonderfully. The fantabulous Don McKellar co-stars as "Sadly" Bradley, and makes this movie even better than it would've been. You'll probably hafta go way down town to see this flick though, for it's not directed for a main stream audience, but all the same, it's worth the detour.
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