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doggie_rodriguez
Reviews
Glitch (2015)
What a terribly written film...
I was on an indie kick yesterday so I thought I'd give it a shot b/c it had some people in it that I had heard of. But what a stinker of a story. I am surprised I made it through the whole thing. I'm not going to give you a synopsis of the film. I'm just going to tell about the parts that were awful. You're already here on IMDb, so you'll probably already know a little bit about the film before reading my review.
The film starts badly, has the two main characters sitting on the couch, improvising some very unfunny stuff that goes on way too long. Then the second scene, outside of a club, was very good. So I thought "Okay, this will get better once the video game gets stolen." Then that was followed by a scene at a coffee shop where "Will" meets "Sophia" for the first time.
For some reason, after several minutes of flirting badly, Will follows Sophie out to the back alley to help her with the garbage. No employee would ever let this happen. Especially a female employee. Alleys aren't the safest place for women. Also, since Will doesn't work there he's probably not on their insurance, so it's an unnecessary liability for him to "help" with anything. After he throws garbage at her...instead of getting mad she thinks it's "super funny" and they have a garbage bag fight. *sigh*
In typical Rom-com fashion we later find out that "Sophia" is dating "Keith" who (is supposed to be a "douche bag" lawyer type) is "Will's" long time friend. "Keith" and "Sophie" have been dating for 3 years, but apparently "Will" did not know about this. They were supposed to be friends, right? Didn't hang out once in the past 3 years? Just a poorly written oversight I suppose. One of many.
And the "douche bag" lawyer (Keith) was actually not a douche bag at all. They kept trying to make him one but he was just coming off as kind of nice. I feel they purposely tried to made him worse in the 3rd act to make up for the fact that they had done a horrible job at making him unlikable for the first 2/3rds of the movie. But honestly, all he came off as was a hard worker.
If anyone was the "douche bag" it was "Will" for continuing to pursue "Sophie" once he knew she was dating his "douche bag" lawyer friend. And to miss meetings with the lawyer to hang out with the lawyer's girlfriend was an awful thing to do. And we're supposed to root for this guy? He's an awful human being. Hard to get into a movie when you dislike the lead. (the un-likability is in the writing, not the actor who played the character. It's not his fault this was so poorly written).
Also, if "Sophie" has a boyfriend, why is she calling "Will" all the time to hang out? How would she feel if "Keith" became friends "Sophie's" hot roommate and hung out with her all the time? Oh wait, "Keith" couldn't do that b/c he's working all the time so he can PAY for everything. What a "douche bag".
This is without a doubt one of the worst screenplays ever written. I have no idea how this got green lit, got funded, got names attached. Any of the "names" reading this script should have passed on it immediately.
Swooped: Based on a Real Life Occurrence (2011)
Unlikable lead characters.
I'm not sure why, but I recently had this film pop into my head the other day so I came here to see how it's done since I saw it at the 2011 Houston Comedy Festival.
I wasn't going to leave a review, but then I saw a misleading review so I kind of feel obligated. The review by "moviewatcher53" implies that there was a large audience in attendance for the film and that they loved every second of it. However, this is not the case at all. There were only about 20 people in attendance. Most of which were cast/crew from Swooped.
They also take an unnecessary shot at the film that played just prior. The audience (of non-Swooped cast/crew) seemed far more into that film than Swooped. In fact, many people left after the first film. I wish I had been one of them.
My review of Swooped is simple. It's shot well. The sound is good. The story is weak. The main characters are completely unlikable. They have no character arc. They are exactly the same at the end as they were at the beginning. The acting is okay, but the characters are so unlikable that the acting doesn't matter.
Anyway, I felt like IMDb deserved an honest review of that night in Houston. I see now they are remaking this film. The tagline should be "Swooped: The remake no one asked for".
Warren (2014)
Very pretty movie about people I didn't care about.
I wanted to watch this movie b/c I am a filmmaker so I was very excited to watch an undiscovered little indie gem.
Needless to say I was very disappointed. While the cinematography was excellent the film itself was very boring.
The sound was kind of bad too. They would often speak so softly that I couldn't hear them and then the very next scene would have ridiculously loud montage music. The music was very good and went with the film, however, it was so loud that I kept having to change the volume while watching it.
The main problem with the film was the writing. I did not care about the main character or a majority of the characters in the film. It's hard to get into a film when you don't care for the characters. "Warren" was kind of a jerk + he wasn't good looking enough to act this way and get away with it. I couldn't imagine a world where his "love interest" would even be the slightest bit interested in a below average looking guy with nothing to offer who was this unlikable.
For the entire movie I just kept waiting for something to happen, and eventually it did. It ended. I just didn't care about the main characters. It feels like it was written by a 25 year old that thought he was a lot smarter than he actually is. The only redeeming quality about his film is the shots of the beautiful city it was shot in, Chicago.
Other than that, nada. I have no idea why this film had "stars" attached to it. Unless they got paid a ton, there was no reason for anyone to read this script and think "Wow, this is something I need to be in!"
Boys of Summerville (2008)
The Stakes Have Never Been Lower....
I don't think I've ever seen a movie where the stakes were so low. Softball? Who cares, not important. Will he sell his dad's house? Probably eventually, but no real urgency there either.
Let's throw in some daddy issues and a predictable love story just for good measure. Get some "indie" cred. Half this movie is song/montages. That's lazy story telling at its finest. And the characters seemed like clichés of things that don't even exist.
Basically I just spent the entire movie waiting for something to happen. Well, what finally happened was.........the film ended.
They needed to raise the stakes somehow. I just didn't care at all about these people or this world. I do think Wes Murphy has loads of talent though. But it's hard to shine when the material is so awful.