Ed's Review Dot Com

BorderLine Films, Hidden St. Productions

Paul Sparks, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ezra Miller, Addison Timlin, Emory Cohen, Harrison Lees, Christopher McCann, Alexandra Neil, Jeremy Allen White, Lee Wilkof, Dariusz M. Uczkowski

Robert (Ezra Miller) is a shy introverted student at a private boarding school. His roommate is the opposite, wildly outgoing and a ladies man. Robert lives his life on the internet and likes to watch videos, but especially violence and porn. All students are required to take an extracurricular activity, either a sport or a club, and since Rob is interested in video, he joins the video club. He is attracted to a fellow student, Amy (Addison Timlin), who likes him as well and they become partners, filming everything that happens. By accident (?) Rob catches a drug overdose of two very popular twin girls in the hallway of the school from some bad cocaine. This turns the whole school upside down and all the students react in their own way. Some become loud and obnoxious, and others like Rob, go further into their shell and seem to lose a grip on reality.

This film is SLOW. It’s amazingly slow. There is also a “documentary” feel to it with fuzzy focus, strange shots and camera angles and weird editing. But that’s all in the purpose of the director to get us into this film. But that’s not the only thing that’s wrong with it. This is typical independent film making with no resolution and not nearly enough facts. It purports to have a shocking twist ending, but I just don’t get it. So what? I suspected it all the time, but I expected some kind of “A Beautiful Mind“, “Shutter Island” kind of ending, but it wasn’t. We really don’t know if what was real and what if anything wasn’t. It was never clear if this boy was just messed up or really nuts. It is hinted all along that he is not right, that he’s off his medication, but we don’t know if it has any meaning or relevance to the whole thing anyway. The movie just ends with an attempt to shock you, but it fails and truly doesn’t have an ending. It’s a lot like the film just ran out or the rental came due on the camera so they just wrapped it up and put it away. For these reasons, I can’t recommend this film except for true fans of slow moving independent films with no real resolution. They just did like he did, turn the camera on and let it run. Also, there is a couple scenes in the beginning of the film that are very artsy, plus a porno clip that has no bearing on the film really at all. It’s just there for the tease and is out of place in the rest of the work. In fact, the whole montage thing in the front made no sense to me. Very strange film.

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Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Michael De Luca Productions

Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones, Brenda Song, Malese Jow, Joseph Mazzello

The Social Network is a biographical drama of the rise of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a Harvard sophomore who becomes an Internet superstar. Also it examines his relationships with co-founder and friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). Also a major player is Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). This film covers a pair of lawsuits facing Zuckerberg and the claims that he stole the idea for facebook. Also the relationship with his co-founder and a bit of jealousy over his relationship with Sean Parker causes a lot of grief for the partners.

Sometimes a movie comes out with a lot of hype. This is a good example. I was very anxious to get to see this film, and I was quite disappointed. I expected a rollicking good story, and instead I got the documentation of a bunch of smart, geeky, jerks and their no so exciting daily romps with mediocrity. No doubt Mr. Zuckerberg made a lot of money, and there’s not a doubt that he has a lot of talent. But that does not make his story interesting nor is it in the least bit interesting. I read the biography of Bill Gates which was a bit of a fascinating story, but these guys are mostly jerks. Saverin was a pretty decent guy, but Zuckerberg did not come out looking very good in this film. He was a jerk to everybody and deserved to have his butt handed to him. We don’t really get the resolution of how things turned out, but of course Facebook is a phenomenon that may be slightly more interesting than the Zuckerberg story. All we get here is a wise ass college kid stomping on everybody to get what he wants and it just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t see his genius in this story, and he’s not the kind of person I would have wanted as a friend.

All in all, the movie let me down and I was really disappointed. I had expected a bit more interesting stuff and I didn’t get it. Not highly recommended if you ask me.

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Twisted Pictures, A Bigger Boat, Serendipity Productions

Sean Patrick Flanery, Cary Elwes, Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Dean Armstrong, Chad Donella, Gina Holden, Chester Bennington, Rebecca Marshall

The SEVENTH in the SAW series and Jigsaw, John Kramer (Tobin Bell) has been dead for a long while. But he still figures prominently in this film. That is because it is largely told by flashback. Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) is a self help guru who is a self proclaimed survivor of Jigsaw. He is using the experience to sell books and offer seminars. He has a group of survivors who tell their stories in flashback. But Jigsaw’s not through yet. He’s passed on his mission and his secrets to some other folk, and they are continuing his legacy. Adding to the fun is some visits by some characters from the past. Long past.

The Saw series has certainly run it’s course. The first one was full of holes, but quite shocking and unique, but it’s been done to death. I guess this film wasn’t as bad as some of the previous ones. I’ve gotten really tired of the whole thing. I stopped going to the theater after the 3rd one, but still feel a need to watch them on DVD. The problem with this film is that they simple connect together a bunch of clever traps and try to use as much blood and gore as possible to try to shock you. But after a while it doesn’t work anymore. I do have to admit, there are some clever puzzles in this one, but there isn’t anything new, really. This particular film is hard to follow. There are so many characters from the past that I’ve long forgotten that crop back up here. Like Trekkers who learn to speak Klingon and know every star date in history, there are Saw fans who know this series like that, and for those, they won’t be disappointed. From what I hear the story is wrapped up quite nicely. But unfortunately I can’t remember so far back as to the original film to remember who these characters are and how they fit in to the whole story. If you’re a fan of the Saw franchise, then go for it, but I’m sure you already have. If you’re not, but wondering if you’re missing anything, I don’t think so.

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Paramount Pictures, Mallick Media, Oxymoron Entertainment

Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, Gabriel Macht, James Caan, Jacinda Barrett, Kevin Pollak, Laura Ramsey, Rade Serbedzija, Terry Crews, Kelsey Grammer

Buck (Gabriel Macht) and Wayne (Giovanni Ribisi) know that everyone is addicted to porn, and in this time frame the only way to get it is to walk into a sleazy theater or go to some dive rental store and rent a video tape. The internet is here, but no one has a way to use it. These guys write a program that allows you to bill a credit card on the internet, and can put their meager collection of porn on the internet and charge for it. Jack Harris (Luke Wilson) brings the two guys together with a brilliant idea. Leave everyone else to develop the content and setup the web site and develop a system of 3rd party billing. Take a cut, and send the rest to the content provider, and provide the customer with a generic billing charge that does not give away the secret of what they’ve been watching. So the first internet billing clearinghouse was born. Justifying it like all the cable companies and hotels that provide the service but have nothing to do with making the product. Problem is that everyone wants in on the action from the DA to Russian mobsters to the FBI. Gangsters and Porn, what a concept.

This is a mediocre film. It’s not that bad, but it’s not great either. Luke Wilson is actually pretty good with a leading role, and carries it off pretty well. The rest of the cast is not bad either. For a movie that is about the porn industry, it’s highly sanitized. There are some topless ladies running around, but nothing gross. All the rest of the stuff is talked about but not shown. There also are no good guys in this film. Everyone is bad in some way or another as all of us are flawed. Jack is a pretty decent guy, but the money gets the best of him and ruins his home and life. He has his epiphany and the “who am I really” moment, but is it too little too late. There are some funny scenes here, but all in all it’s mostly dramatic. James Caan is a son of a ***** in this movie. He’s one of the sleaziest of the bunch, but he’s pretty decent in this role. All in all, it’s not a great film which is why it got such a limited release, but it’s not that bad. Just a mediocre crime drama with some decent acting and a half way decent script. And the soundtrack, although not always being on target with the film, has a collection of classic rock that is a pleasure to hear and fits the time period.

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MPB Collective

Annabeth Gish, Steve Guttenberg, Christine Elise McCarthy, Robert Romanus, Tinarie Van Wyk Loots, Kevin Rahm, David Deluise, Missi Pyle, Joy Gohring, Larry Poindexter and Jacleen Haber

Yes, there was a Mojave Phone Booth.  Unlike some other flicks which setup fake websites and the like, there was a project in California at one point to provide phone service to the entire state including very remote locations like this.  Located in the middle of the Mojave Desert near Baker, California, gateway to the Death Valley area at the crossroads of two dirt roads stood a phone booth.  Originally setup to allow communication to the outside world long before the cell phone days, it was a way for miners and workers to reach out.  But somehow in the late 90’s it ended up on a web site.  The founder of the site saw they symbol on a map for this remote site in the desert and made a field trip.  Then he started the web site and listed the phone number of the booth on the site.   Suddenly it hit big and hundreds of people were calling it daily from all over the world.   People would visit the booth and camp out, hoping that it might ring to connect to someone unknown somewhere in the world.  It became a phenomenon.

Well, the National Park people didn’t care for that one bit, especially the treks people were making to the booth.  It became riddled with bullet holes and covered in graffiti.  So they, in cooperation with Bell, removed the booth and all traces of it.  Next step was for someone to erect a tombstone for the booth to mark the spot which was also removed.   Even the phone number was permanently retired.

Well the web site got someone thinking in terms of making a film based on this unique story.   The movie features a booth in the middle of the Mojave, but isn’t really about the phone booth.  I was really anxious to see this when I learned of the booth first, and then the film, but the movie is a fairly artsy independent film that typically is long on drama and short on any excitement or real character development.   Multiple stories all loosely tied to the phone booth and therefore to each other featuring such classic characters as lesbians on the rocks because one is haunted by aliens, a guy in depression over losing his wife, a South African girl thinking on selling her body to raise money to get out of her desperate situation, and a lady who can’t seem to straighten out her love life who is being tortured by petty thieves.  They’re all finding solace in the voice of a stranger on the phone.

It’s a bizarre mishmash which, at least, I didn’t waste a spot in my queue for.  I watched it on NetFlix Instant view instead.   I’m glad I didn’t wait for this to be mailed to me, as it was not really very exciting.  If you’re into independent films with very, very slow pacing and not much going on, ok, but for me it was really hard to stay interested in any of these characters.  I didn’t really like any of them.    There is a whole big thing about the tangles of magnetic tape that blow around in the wild and what’s on it?  It’s not something that I really thought about, and I have no idea what they were trying to say.   The point is that if aliens arrived back in the time when everything was on magnetic video and audio tape, they could have gone away, and we moved everything to digital and now they’re trying to contact us via magnetic tape.  It’s a bizarre though, and really doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but I’m sure the “true art snobs” are tapping their pipes on the ash tray and murmuring,  “Brilliant!,  Just Brilliant!!!”

Who cares?  I didn’t.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog