Jay and Fooka-who?
Fenster from ,
3rd February, 2010
Richard Fitzpatrick, that's who – and, according to one particular and frequented internet encyclopedia, he died in 1813! But he came out of said retirement to perform in ‘Bitten’ with Jason Mewes as a pair of paramedics working the night shift. (Actually to be fair to the relative unknown Mr. Fitzpatrick, he has had some feature film experience, most notably in the post Weller Robocop franchise - but you can’t expect an encyclopedia to know everything...) The movie (in all honesty) is quite terrible; however, it does have enough in its under-firing arsenal to provide a few lines of good writing, some scenes of average acting and generally sufficient punch and humor to hold an indie/gothic enthused audience. Some parts are actually quite cleverly amusing and Erica Cox is the perfect eye candy. It’s a shock reversal of roles for Mewes, who finds himself holding a disdain for the dope-fiends he rescues from near death every night. ‘Jay’ (the usual sidekick for Silent Bob AKA Kevin Smith) has cleaned himself up to become ‘Jack’ the paramedic who finds he is dealing with an alternate junkie – a patient who has a penchant for blood (a condition for which a re-habilitation group is more like a buffet than an aid!) To make matters more complicated, the ever caring, ever swearing Jack falls in love with the girl he rescued from the gutter beside his home (though you couldn’t blame him: she is hot, deadly and dosed with innocence). Then he finds himself in that oft, all too familiar circumstance where he discovers that the beauty he’s shacked up with is nothing more than a life draining, severely high maintenance, moaning wench who has fits when she doesn’t get what she wants – namely an ever hungry vampire with a deep dark craving …and who’s not been there before? Jack copes as best he can in the bizarre situation, even to the point where he willingly serves up a few of the local riff-raff for her insatiable needs. But things inevitably go downhill when Jack realizes that (here comes the vampire cliché) love really does suck. His clash between his conscience and that of his estranged love, forces him to turn to his co-worker and overly crass, anal infatuated friend – you read right – (played by the aforementioned Richard Fitzpatrick) to find an answer. Though this is a pretty poor movie that won’t appeal to all, it does have a quaint charm about it. There have definitely been some elements of sound script writing involved and a promising concept betrayed only by its low budget and somewhat unusual casting. This said, however, I was impressed with Mr. Fitzpatrick’s contribution. I’ve not ever noticed him before in the world of movies, but he played his part well and you can see that he has weathered into a fairly able actor – wouldn’t be surprised if I see him turn up again in a Tarantino or Scorsese flick. If you have a lot of time on your hands and want to view a bit of an improvised almost theatre-style movie with a few attempts at off-beat dark humor then give this title a try. Additional Note: I have absolutely no idea what all the bright red 70s Mexican style credits intro was about… if you watch it perhaps you can shed some daylight?
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