This is one of those times when you discover that you don't need a big budget to create a Cinematic masterpiece. Kingdom of Ultimate Power (K.O.U.P for short) is a perfect example.
Meet Arch (played by Jeremiah Clancy), he was the darling of his film school class, a gifted screenwriter with a golden touch who seemed destined for Movie greatness only to end up as an insufferable know-it-all with a dead end office job who can do everything in the realm of screen writing except write a script. One day while sitting on a park bench giving some of his "Cinematic" sermons, enters Vlad Rifka (Played by Dutch MMA star Bas Rutten), A.K.A. "The Bringer of Death", a retired ultimate fighting champion, who is drawn in by Arch's words of "Cinematic Wisdom" and with cinematic dreams of his own. Like many (real life) ex-athletes, Vlad has his sights set on a Hollywood career and he has come up with an idea for movie, which he believes would be the perfect vehicle to launch his Hollywood career, a religious propaganda action sci-fi epic called "The Kingdom of Ultimate Power" (You know the same kind of stories that you find in B-Movies?). And Vlad is looking for someone to write the script and he picked... You guessed it, Arch. Only one problem (especially for Arch), its one of the "Worst Movie Ideas Anyone Can Come Up With". Any respectable writer would say "no thanks", but not Arch, its just not his style to flatly refuse to write the world's worst script, not that he's actually planning on writing it. The temptation to keep an "interesting" character like Vlad around for his own condescending amusement is too powerful to resist. However, that source of amusement increasingly becomes a source of anxiety and pure insanity (and comedy) as Vlad makes more and more uninvited visits to his writer's apartment and Arch's running out of excuses for not having written a word. This brings out Vlad's serious side that terrifies Arch. No, he doesn't become a serial killing stalker (It's a comedy, you crazy slasher fans) but he does order Arch to write the script or "else" and nobody wants to hear that word especially from an ex-fighter, who had "The Bringer of Death" as his nickname. So now Arch must force himself to summon the creative powers that deserted him long ago. How does it end? I can only tell you this, this movie pure comedy classic from beginning to end.
Done by independent film company Pilot Light Pictures and directed by Pilot's founders Jeremy Buhler and Gustavo Rodríguez, K.O.U.P is one of the best Short movies I've ever seen and should be considered a Cinematic Masterpiece. Directors Buhler and Rodríguez did an amazing job directing this movie and are destined to be Hollywood A List directors. Clancy did a great job playing the now-it-all Arch, director Buhler also did great job playing Arch's film editor friend Jimmy but the real star of the movie was Mixed Martial Art Legend, 3 time King of Pancrase, former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Bas Rutten as the ever annoying and determined Vlad. What Bas does here is pure comic genius that you can't help but love the character, Bas Rutten has proved in this movie to be one of the few athletes who can "ACT". My only disappointment was the ending as I felt it left an opening for a follow up but thats okay especially since Buhler and Rodríguez are currently working on a feature length version of K.O.U.P, which would have a definite conclusion to the story. You can say the short was like a pilot but for a feature length film instead of a TV show.
If you want to see a well made Short movie, a comedy that doesn't go overboard or just plain good movie without the overblown Hollywood touch, then K.O.U.P is the perfect movie to watch. A pure 10 out of 10.
Meet Arch (played by Jeremiah Clancy), he was the darling of his film school class, a gifted screenwriter with a golden touch who seemed destined for Movie greatness only to end up as an insufferable know-it-all with a dead end office job who can do everything in the realm of screen writing except write a script. One day while sitting on a park bench giving some of his "Cinematic" sermons, enters Vlad Rifka (Played by Dutch MMA star Bas Rutten), A.K.A. "The Bringer of Death", a retired ultimate fighting champion, who is drawn in by Arch's words of "Cinematic Wisdom" and with cinematic dreams of his own. Like many (real life) ex-athletes, Vlad has his sights set on a Hollywood career and he has come up with an idea for movie, which he believes would be the perfect vehicle to launch his Hollywood career, a religious propaganda action sci-fi epic called "The Kingdom of Ultimate Power" (You know the same kind of stories that you find in B-Movies?). And Vlad is looking for someone to write the script and he picked... You guessed it, Arch. Only one problem (especially for Arch), its one of the "Worst Movie Ideas Anyone Can Come Up With". Any respectable writer would say "no thanks", but not Arch, its just not his style to flatly refuse to write the world's worst script, not that he's actually planning on writing it. The temptation to keep an "interesting" character like Vlad around for his own condescending amusement is too powerful to resist. However, that source of amusement increasingly becomes a source of anxiety and pure insanity (and comedy) as Vlad makes more and more uninvited visits to his writer's apartment and Arch's running out of excuses for not having written a word. This brings out Vlad's serious side that terrifies Arch. No, he doesn't become a serial killing stalker (It's a comedy, you crazy slasher fans) but he does order Arch to write the script or "else" and nobody wants to hear that word especially from an ex-fighter, who had "The Bringer of Death" as his nickname. So now Arch must force himself to summon the creative powers that deserted him long ago. How does it end? I can only tell you this, this movie pure comedy classic from beginning to end.
Done by independent film company Pilot Light Pictures and directed by Pilot's founders Jeremy Buhler and Gustavo Rodríguez, K.O.U.P is one of the best Short movies I've ever seen and should be considered a Cinematic Masterpiece. Directors Buhler and Rodríguez did an amazing job directing this movie and are destined to be Hollywood A List directors. Clancy did a great job playing the now-it-all Arch, director Buhler also did great job playing Arch's film editor friend Jimmy but the real star of the movie was Mixed Martial Art Legend, 3 time King of Pancrase, former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Bas Rutten as the ever annoying and determined Vlad. What Bas does here is pure comic genius that you can't help but love the character, Bas Rutten has proved in this movie to be one of the few athletes who can "ACT". My only disappointment was the ending as I felt it left an opening for a follow up but thats okay especially since Buhler and Rodríguez are currently working on a feature length version of K.O.U.P, which would have a definite conclusion to the story. You can say the short was like a pilot but for a feature length film instead of a TV show.
If you want to see a well made Short movie, a comedy that doesn't go overboard or just plain good movie without the overblown Hollywood touch, then K.O.U.P is the perfect movie to watch. A pure 10 out of 10.
