FRANK DANCOOLO: PARANORMAL DRUG DEALER

FRANK DANCOOLO: PARANORMAL DRUG DEALER (2010)
US
Directed by Andrew Jones

CAST:
Hidekun Hah - Roderick Watanabe
Priscilla McEver - Holly Malone
John Charles Meyer - Frank DanCoolo

PLOT:
     In the annoyingly sparkly future-scape of Neo-Mega-Ultra Tokyo, reporter Holly Malone tracks a murderous urban legend.

REVIEW:
     I've been reviewing a lot more shorts this year than last due to that there is a plethora of films out there. I actually had this review done for about four months, I just decided to wait to post until now considering it fits perfectly into this month's review line up of more mythos inspired films and shorts. One of the differences in this one is that this focus's more on comedy than anything else.

     I'm trying to decide how to put the acting the acting in this. It's not that the acting was atrocious, it's just that it was so over the top that throughout the whole eight minutes of the short I was wondering what happened to subtlety. Priscilla McEver is the perfect example of the overacting in this. Her character Holly Malone is a private investigator and reporter and with that embodies the worst of both that we have seen throughout various films and movies. McEver says every line as if she was from a Dick Tracy cartoon panel. John Charles Meyer as the the title character Frank DanCoolo plays his character like a burned out hippie, which is pretty much what he is in the movie. And then out of nowhere Meyer's character becomes this zen samurai and starts playing hacky sack with his sword.  If you can get past the acting in this from all the characters, trust me it's bad, you start listening to the lines they spew from their mouths and I promise you have more stop in your track lines in the short run time in the film than the most full length features can ever hope to have.

     Now I have to talk about the special effects in this short. Most of it is so terrible and sticks out that you would think that you're watching something a 10 year old made on an old computer from his grandfather's garage. Every scene was filmed on a green screen and it shows as the proportions are off in every shot. Something the director did do right though  is his angles are actually very interesting and looked as if they were from a modern comic and the actions done by the actors match the look of that as well.  The one time the special effects actually work is when DanCoolo injects his own spinal fluid (Oh, did I mention the drug he sells is his spinal fluid!) and allows him to see past the divide between this world and that of the dimension that occupies the same space. The best reason to watch this is the dialogue that flows fast and free from the two main actors though as it is non-stop one liners, with most them being actually really funny. If you want to watch something that has great special effects, this isn't for you. But if you want watch a actually very funny comedy that doesn't take itself seriously you just might be in luck.

BEST DEATH:
     Watanabe's sharp chest intrusion.

BEST LINE:
     What powers?

     The powers of my FUCKING UTERUS! 

FUN FACTS:
     John Charles Meyer's nickname is Floppy.

     Priscilla McEver and John Charles Meyer also star in director Andrew Jones' short Doctor Glamour.