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wweed-1
I have a personal vendetta against an idiot named Mrrockstone.
My regular bio follows:
Some of Wyatt Weed's earliest memories are of the movies. He vividly remembers seeing 2001: A SPACE ODESSEY at age 4 and shortly thereafter turning his living room floor into a moon base. Although his parents indulged him in drawing, sculpture, and photography classes, it was the release of Star Wars that inspired Wyatt to pick up a Super 8 mm film camera. Soon after, an obsession was born.
Moving from his hometown of Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis in 1980, Weed attended Webster University for film production, Meramec College for still photography, and Southern Illinois University for acting. He dabbled in American Cablevision's "public access" opportunities, introducing him to the growing field of video as well as live television. After a string of short film and video projects, Wyatt landed his first film job in 1986 on the St. Louis portion of the Taylor Hackford-directed HAIL, HAIL, ROCK AND ROLL. 


Longing for bigger and better opportunities, Wyatt took the trek west to Los Angeles in 1988 and soon found himself working as a jack of all trades in a variety of television shows and feature films, including FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, STAR TREK: VOYAGER, LORD OF ILLUSIONS, JAY-JAY THE JET PLANE, MUPPETS FROM SPACE, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2, and RED PLANET.
Wyatt soon moved from building miniatures and art department work into second unit directing and visual effect supervision on the features KUNG FU RASCALS, GUYVER: DARK HERO, and DRIVE. He also directed STAR RUNNERS, a science fiction television pilot. The pilot was purchased by Universal but unfortunately was never aired.


Wyatt met fellow filmmaker Robert Clark while working on long-time friend Ted Smith's GUARDIAN OF THE REALM, and joined Pirate Pictures after the completion of that feature. He recently returned to St. Louis permanently, writing and directing the short film TIMELINE, the music video RECAP, and the award-winning 48 Hour Film Projects BAG OF TRICKS and LOVE BYTES. He is currently finishing up distribution duties on his feature directorial debut, SHADOWLAND.
Reviews
World War Z (2013)
This is the film Zero Dark-Thirty wanted to be
I haven't read the book, and yes, I hear it's brilliant, but the people I know who have read it think it was unfilmable. There are also critics who suggest this is a fine film that should have been called something other than World War Z.
Maybe so.
Regardless, I thought this film was tense, smart, real, and thoroughly engrossing.
The action starts about 3 minutes after the opening credits and doesn't let up. Brad Pitt reminded me of John McClane from Die Hard in his inventiveness and smart, straight-ahead thinking. He is very practical and logical in his actions - he just doesn't have the clever one-liners.
This film has a high opinion of the human spirit - higher than I do - and a keen sense of politics. It doesn't feel rushed, even though it clocks in at a brisk 116 minutes.
I enjoyed Star Trek, This Is The End, and liked Man Of Steel, despite that film's problems. This is the only summer film so far that I have admired.
Rock of Ages (2012)
If you liked "Mamma Mia" or "Glee", go see this. (Very minor spoilers)
Usually I steer clear of IMDb reviews, because it can quickly become a battleground, but after the horrible abuse that John Carter suffered (a good film beat up before it had a chance) I can see "Rock of Ages" as a possible critical target and felt I needed to jump in.
As a 48 year old, the film represents some of the rock that I lived through in the 80's, and that's almost always fun. The music has an overly polished, edited-down feeling like Glee sometimes has, but you have to smile when everyone on the bus to LA starts singing "Sister Christian". You're either into musicals or you're not, and if that opening scene doesn't make you smile, it's not your kind of film.
I understand that the film has been cleaned up from the stage version, but it still has some sex and innuendo. Tom Cruise examining the inside of Malin Ackerman's thighs while singing "I Want to Know What Love Is" made me laugh out loud, and it was steamy.
I felt the two young leads were lacking in charisma, and for a "Dancing with the Stars" champ, Julianne Hough didn't get to dance much, but she is really nice to look at - like a teen Jennifer Aniston. I also felt that their vocals couldn't hold up to the more mature performers, even Tom Cruise.
Speaking of Cruise, love him or hate him, he walks away with this movie. I'm talking Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom, possibly. There's still a bit of that Tom swagger in there, but he becomes Stacee Jaxx. He is not worried about his image beyond looking and sounding like a burned-out rocker, and he's really good because of that.
My few quibbles aside, it's just fun, fun, fun. If you don't like any of the recent musicals and Rogers and Hammerstein were never your thing, this isn't for you. But if you do, don't listen to the critics. You will enjoy this film.
P.S. It is technically an impeccable film - stylized lighting, camera-work, and effects are awesome, maybe flawless.
The Master of Disguise (2002)
This has become one of my guilty pleasures!
Relax - enjoy this film. It isn't sophisticated, it isn't art, but everyone involved goes for it full speed, and it is really pretty funny. You either get the joke or you don't, but it isn't the horrible train wreck that some are making it out to be, one of the "third worst comedies of all time", as has been quoted. And contrary to some other reviews, Dana Carvey does spend a good amount of time in disguise throughout the film. My particular favorites are the Turtle Man and Gammy Num-Nums.
I will admit that some of the disguises will go over the young one's heads, but the adults will get it and the kids will still laugh.
This film is best described as being many of the things you never thought someone would have the guts to do - and then did. I can't wait for my son to get a little older so I can show this to him.
Hunter Prey (2010)
A good film that looks and feels like it was made in the 70's - in a good way!
Full disclosure - Sandy Collora and I go way back, and have been struggling film makers for most of our adult lives. Also, I was not that big of a fan of "Batman: Dead End" - you throw The Joker, a Predator, and an Alien into a short film and show it at Comic Con and the fanboys were bound to loose their minds. However, I thought the trailer for "World's Finest" rocked - it looked like a trailer for an actual feature and was far more refined than "Dead End", at least in my opinion.
As a filmmaker, you dread watching a friend's movie because if the movie sucks, you don't know what on earth you will say. Well, after finishing "Hunter Prey", I breathed a big sigh of relief because the movie is good, solid and strong all the way through. It looks and feels and sounds like a movie shot in the late 60's or 70's, and I mean that in a good way - the compositions are widescreen and flawless, the story is character-driven, and the effects are used when needed. The music is also rich and orchestral, a feature sorely lacking in most low-budget features. The movie takes an inspirational page out of "Planet of the Apes" and goes from there.
I won't give away any plot details, but don't go into this looking for rock-'em sock-'em "Avatar" action - this movie is mature and evenly paced, and uses its wares sparingly, surprising and twisting as it goes. If you are looking for gore or an "in your face" music- video style, go rent a modern horror re-make. But if you like kickin' your Sci-Fi old-school, then the line for "Hunter Prey" forms to the left.
Good job, Sandy!!
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
What are you people bitching about? Have you seen the last batch of sequels that we've been force fed?!?
"A Sound Of Thunder" the WORST thing you've ever seen? "A Sound of THUD?"
Please. Sometimes it's just easier to tow the line than buck the reviewers, isn't it?
Fun. Well paced. Exciting. A child-like sense of wonder captured on film, and yes, it's OK if an adult enjoys a child-like sense of wonder once in a while.
It's good for ya. Relax.
I found this film a pleasant surprise. No, it isn't brilliant, and that's OK - it's ENTERTAINING. Good old fashioned Hollywood stuff. I actually liked Ed Burns in a film for once. If you liked TIME COP, see this film. The two movies could play on a double bill, with "Thunder" being the sequel.
Relax about the special effects - they aren't all going to be at ILM level. Not everyone can AFFORD ILM. Bitchy audiences. You'll sit through the next 10 summer movie sequels and have your plot and CGI expectations handed to you on a platter, but give you some effects that merely exist in service of the story - SOMEBODY'S HEAD HAS TO ROLL!! I want my fake computer illusions to look better than this!! I paid good money to look at the same CGI crap again!! WHERE'S MY CRAP?!?
The effects SUCKED? Really? What do you KNOW about effects? Do a lot of dinosaur animation in your free time, do you?
What I'm saying is this - did you really expect them to NOT make the movie because they couldn't do every effect better than all films that had come before? Do you know how hard it is just to get a film completed? It would be like Joe Average walking out to his driveway and saying, "Hey, I'm not going to work today if I can't drive there in a BMW, so I'm not going..."
If EVERY production that didn't have enough money to do everything perfect EVERY TIME shut down, there wouldn't be A SINGLE FILM MADE. Ever again. Period.
Me personally? I'd rather be entertained. Hell, I say we get Ray Harryhausen back out of retirement. Bitch about that, CGI addicts...
By the way, NO, the title, "A Sound of Thunder" isn't directly explained in the dialog of the film, you have to actually THINK about it. And if you are even remotely clever, you'll figure it out by at least the time Ed Burns and Catherine McCormack are looking out the window of her apartment, watching the time distortion effect "thunder" toward them...duh.