HEADRUSH preceeded by THE SEQUEL

MONDAY 3 NOVEMBER AT 9:20PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVE SCREEN 2

Country Ireland Running Time 85 mins Format HD Director/S'play Shimmy Marcus Prod Edwina Forkin DoP Owen McPolin Cast Wuzza Conlon, Gavin Kelty, Laura Pyper, Steven Berkoff, Huey Morgan Print Source Zanzibar Films E zanzibarfilms@eircom.net

Headrush is a comedy adventure that follows the lives of Charlie (Conlon) and T-Bag (Kelty), a couple of lads who are orbiting society in a haze of dope and dreams. But when Charlie gets dumped by his girlfriend Vicky, and kicked off the dole, he crashes to earth desperate to get her back. The boys find themselves working as drug mules for a notorious underworld criminal, The Uncle (Berkoff).

Charlie comes up with an elaborate, 'fool proof' plan to smuggle a consignment of cocaine back into the UK from Amsterdam. Unbeknown to the hapless duo, they are only the decoy, but the drug baron in Amsterdam and his cronies are easily confused and the bag of drugs finds its way into the wrong hands, and eventually onto Charlie's future mother-inlaw's sideboard. The scam involves fake prize-draw tickets, potential in-laws and hand-crafted windmills.

All very silly stuff, but with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, Headrush succeeds as a highly entertaining, pacey first feature from Marcus, whose screenplay won the Miramax Scriptwriting Award in 1999. There is a nice little comic cameo from Huey Morgan of the Fun Lovin' Criminals to watch out for too, as well as tracks contributed by the band. ED

Shimmy Marcus has already been compared to Tarantino and Kubrick, although his film career only started four years ago. An award winning short was his first directorial project, and was followed up with a series of pop promos. His feature documentary Aidan Walsh - Master of the Universe also won awards and theatrical distribution. This is his debut feature.

THE SEQUEL UK | 5 mins | Dir/Prod Mark Williams DoP Ben Smithard Cast Dominic Power, Neil Marken P/S Mark Williams E williamsfilliams@hotmail.com

Extraordinary things happen in a pub on Christmas Eve when a stranger turns water to wine.