Windy City Heat, 30 Days of Night

Windy City Heat (2003)

The subject of perhaps the longest running practical joke is a mixture of comedy and disbelief.  Perry Caravello is the ’star’ of this movie, which was directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.  Caravello (in real life) fashions himself as a stand up comedian, who is heavily influenced by Sam Kinison (at least based on his personality).  He’s one of those guys that every group seems to have to some degree.  Anyway, he gets cast as the lead in a fictional movie “Windy City Heat” as a private eye.  He plays to every cliche of the film noir PI, but tries to play them with all the passion he can.

I found it very funny in parts and kind of sad in others.  It sems to go over the top, but Caravello never seems to catch on.  The delusional human nature is very powerful.  Just the other characters names should have been a tip off (Roman Polanski, Ansel Adams, Susan B Anthony and Hiroshima Nagasaki are typical).  There are lots of cameos from people that include Carson Daly, William ‘The Fridge’ Perry, Jimmy Kimmel and Colin Quinn.  Be sure to watch the bonus material, the ‘reveal’ to Caravello is just as good.

40 Days of Night (2007)

OK, so it’s a vampire film.  Kind of interesting to set it in Barrow Alaska during the time that the sun doesn’t rise for a month, hence the title.  Pretty predictable and not to many twists, but reasonable acted.  There are some stretches of over acting.  The story is solid, but just seemed to miss the mark somewhere.  The character development was kind of sparce.  It’s hard to care about people that you don’t care about.  All in all, it is a decent rental, but if you miss it, don’t worry.