Touted as the first feature-length action film made in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada, Bay City has all the right plot ingredients: amoral, ruthless characters each trying to get a fortune in money and/or at each other, with enough weaponry to equip a regiment in Afghanistan. Or, Bay City is the first feature-length comedy etc etc, with all the right ingredients: dimwitted characters who constantly blunder and/or find themselves in ridiculous situations with liberal amounts of clumsy slapstick.
The trouble with Bay City is, it's both, and neither.
Producer/director/screenwriter Rodney Dwira produced a visually interesting film, with excellent use of some of Thunder Bay's gritty factory-floor and junkyard locale. Young composer Jonas Shane Meekis put together some fine, atmospheric music to underscore the menace in the narrative. And actors Marshall Erickson (chillingly creepy hit man), Robin Frigeri (Smith Teasdale, a cop), Neil Green (Kevin Tate, another cop), and Tony LaChimea (Lexi Ruben) turn in mostly good performances in the film, while Tracy Sadgrove struggles valiantly to realize her role as the police captain.
But while Sadgrove worked very hard to be a believable boss lady of the two marginally-competent detectives, her presence is undercut by a gratuitous scene in which her two underlings ring her doorbell in the evening when her character is off duty. Naturally, she has her hair in curlers and a mask of some porridge-like concoction on her face and looks something like a zombie deer caught in headlight glare. As well, a completely unnecessary sound effect is added when a portion of the porridge falls off.
Crude, unfunny comedy occurs throughout the film--Neil Green's character (or was it Robin Frigeri's--no, this is otherwise not memorable) slowly devours a local confection called a Persian in another scene: for no good reason other than an opportunity for further unnecessary sound effects.
Michael Picard's performance as Uncle Lou is all but wasted--he just isn't funny. Loopy, missing a couple of cards from his deck, yes, but his character misses laugh generation by a kilometre. There are plenty more instances, and far from wringing out a laugh, the effect is like having someone yell a second-rate joke in your ear while jabbing you with an elbow to make sure you laugh in the right places. Less would have been more.
Between the sound effects and the so-so comedy, there is an action film. Sort of. Unfortunately, the plot is very hard to follow, as though the writing was made up as each scene was shot. Only when the climactic junk-yard shoot-out occurs, followed by the speedboat chase, does Bay City actually get into third gear. A cleaner plot with fewer complications (and more character explanations, please!) would have worked better. Less would have been more here, too.
This may have been intentional on the director/writer's part, but it seemed to me that unless they were firing at point blank range, nobody seemed able to hit the broad side of a barn door with their incredible array of weaponry. Then again, a high body count doesn't necessarily a good action flick make; besides, on a tight budget, less stage blood is maybe better than more. Who knows?
That said, two scenes stand out: the execution of a minor character by a henchman of Lexi Ruben near the beginning of the film, and the torture scene by high voltage of another character about halfway through the film. These work: they're well timed, they reinforce the ruthlessness of the characters involved. But that's pretty slim pickin's, though.
Ultimately, Bay City won't be remembered. It has the distinction of being the first feature-length action film created and shot in Thunder Bay. After all, the area is brimming with talented film makers, composers, actors, photographers, artists of all types. It has both urban decay and natural beauty, sometimes side by side. So why not a "good" feature-length action film?
Start with some essential ingredients, beginning above all with a good script. Good casting and acting. Atmospheric cinematography. Lean, tight editing. The rest will follow. Oh yes, and keep the Foley in storage unless it's absolutely necessary to use it.
Less is more.
The trouble with Bay City is, it's both, and neither.
Producer/director/screenwriter Rodney Dwira produced a visually interesting film, with excellent use of some of Thunder Bay's gritty factory-floor and junkyard locale. Young composer Jonas Shane Meekis put together some fine, atmospheric music to underscore the menace in the narrative. And actors Marshall Erickson (chillingly creepy hit man), Robin Frigeri (Smith Teasdale, a cop), Neil Green (Kevin Tate, another cop), and Tony LaChimea (Lexi Ruben) turn in mostly good performances in the film, while Tracy Sadgrove struggles valiantly to realize her role as the police captain.
But while Sadgrove worked very hard to be a believable boss lady of the two marginally-competent detectives, her presence is undercut by a gratuitous scene in which her two underlings ring her doorbell in the evening when her character is off duty. Naturally, she has her hair in curlers and a mask of some porridge-like concoction on her face and looks something like a zombie deer caught in headlight glare. As well, a completely unnecessary sound effect is added when a portion of the porridge falls off.
Crude, unfunny comedy occurs throughout the film--Neil Green's character (or was it Robin Frigeri's--no, this is otherwise not memorable) slowly devours a local confection called a Persian in another scene: for no good reason other than an opportunity for further unnecessary sound effects.
Michael Picard's performance as Uncle Lou is all but wasted--he just isn't funny. Loopy, missing a couple of cards from his deck, yes, but his character misses laugh generation by a kilometre. There are plenty more instances, and far from wringing out a laugh, the effect is like having someone yell a second-rate joke in your ear while jabbing you with an elbow to make sure you laugh in the right places. Less would have been more.
Between the sound effects and the so-so comedy, there is an action film. Sort of. Unfortunately, the plot is very hard to follow, as though the writing was made up as each scene was shot. Only when the climactic junk-yard shoot-out occurs, followed by the speedboat chase, does Bay City actually get into third gear. A cleaner plot with fewer complications (and more character explanations, please!) would have worked better. Less would have been more here, too.
This may have been intentional on the director/writer's part, but it seemed to me that unless they were firing at point blank range, nobody seemed able to hit the broad side of a barn door with their incredible array of weaponry. Then again, a high body count doesn't necessarily a good action flick make; besides, on a tight budget, less stage blood is maybe better than more. Who knows?
That said, two scenes stand out: the execution of a minor character by a henchman of Lexi Ruben near the beginning of the film, and the torture scene by high voltage of another character about halfway through the film. These work: they're well timed, they reinforce the ruthlessness of the characters involved. But that's pretty slim pickin's, though.
Ultimately, Bay City won't be remembered. It has the distinction of being the first feature-length action film created and shot in Thunder Bay. After all, the area is brimming with talented film makers, composers, actors, photographers, artists of all types. It has both urban decay and natural beauty, sometimes side by side. So why not a "good" feature-length action film?
Start with some essential ingredients, beginning above all with a good script. Good casting and acting. Atmospheric cinematography. Lean, tight editing. The rest will follow. Oh yes, and keep the Foley in storage unless it's absolutely necessary to use it.
Less is more.