28 Slices Later (2007) (V)

Director:

Rob Shan Lone

Writers:

Scott Daniel Crittenden (co-creator)
Scott Daniel Crittenden (co-writer)

Genre:

Short | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Slice It To The Limit!

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Monkey Island | Pop Tart | Hologram | Fame | Apocalyptic

Cast

Dan Bolton	...	Lazarus
Naveed Khan	...	News Reporter
Thor Knai	...	Austyn
Joelle Jane Marshall	...	Gwendolyn

Runtime:

24 min (approx.)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:12A

Filming Locations:

Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Neo-Steampunk

Trivia:

During the making of this film; the cameraman responsible for principle shooting left the project after the first 2 days in protest of "apparent" damages caused by the actors. The director had to hire new crew; runner to provide a car, arrange and pay for new accommodation for the actors and crew and, find new film locations and request his father and best friend to come all the way from Kent to Bradford to complete the film.

Quotes:

Austyn: [Looks at Laz after he gives him a device to keep him in sync with the slicer, their world and time zone] You got this off the back of a Plastic Man comic didn't you?

Movie Connections:

References "Sliders" (1995)

A 28 Slices Later movie review from the guy who held the boom mike, moved stuff about, generally helped out during production and came up with the "Pumpkin Pie, Bitch" line

OK, for those of you who don't know I admit I was involved with making this movie, so I'm going to have a slightly biased opinion of it. Trust me however when I say, this movie is enjoyable.

The basic premise sees two guys trying to track down a girl through multiple parallel universes, through the aid of an amazing toaster, otherwise known as the Slicer. Universes visited include everything from realities where aliens have invaded Earth, to worlds where everyone speaks backwards?!? Many different parallel universes are glimpsed, some very briefly, including a rain world, and even a world where the two lead characters find that reality looks like something out of an 80's point and click game. As you can probably tell the movie is somewhat random in its depiction of parallel universes, and people who grew up in the 80's and 90's should have fun spotting references to more famous movies, games, comics and TV Shows (including Back to the Future and Sliders) that the film both homages and pokes a little bit of fun at.

The two lead actors Thor Knai and Dan Bolton were great fun to work with, and have a real chemistry on screen, which is quite an achievement, as principal photography of this movie only took place over a month of weekends. Dan Bolton plays the somewhat serious inventor of the Slicer, but has amusing lines, the best of which I have to say is "He doesn't like pumpkin pie, bitch", a line which I'm proud to say I came up with. Thor Knai plays his more fun loving friend, who is a fan of comics, and kind of plays the Marty McFly role of the movie of the ordinary guy stuck in a somewhat extraordinary situation.

There also supporting characters such as Gwen, and Lazarus father that have some interesting scenes, but I have to say the two main guys are the fun part of the movie for me. I also appear for about five seconds as the uncredited "Papparazzi Photographer", but we won't mention that! The film also has a cool montage scene similar in style to the kind you will have seen in both Scarface and Ghostbusters, which features the catchy song "Slice It To The Limit".

The film is quite fast paced, with the two leads only staying in each universe for a minute of screen time most of the time, so it keeps you interested where they will end up next. Gwens extended time in the backwards universe, also makes for some interesting scenes as she initially encounters two parallel versions of Lazarus and Austyn that not only speak backwards, but also turn out to be gay.

Without giving things away, the film also has a bit of a brave ending, which had to be changed slightly at the last minute due to problems that occurred at the time of shooting. Although I know personally the director wishes the ending had turned out as originally planned, I think the modified version is actually better, because it has more of a twist, and leaves the audience wanting a sequel more. Hopefully a sequel with a bigger budget might get made one day, but as this was such a struggle to make as it was, we will have to wait and see! In summary, if you are a fan of anything that explores parallel universes or similar sci fi themes, then you should get a kick out of this. I see this week that the much more highly funded FAQ About Time Travel has been released here in the UK, which seems to have a similar type of humour, so if you liked that, you should love this.