A Lot to Talk About VIII

Yep, as predicted, both ladies went home. While they did have the least successful films last week, I am struck by how fickly the public votes on a week to week basis. No thought seems to go into the filmmaker’s overall body of work, only the last thing seen. It should, perhaps, come as no surprise to me that America has the attention span of a gnat.

Sam’s Key Witness was a sloppy mess. When you have to say, “Ug, I got shot in the leg!” instead of just showing it, you’re in trouble. The bit with the dumpster was funny, but came on the heels of way too much gunplay. I liked the “looks like you missed a spot” moment, but overall, this was one short that went on for far too long.

I’m no sure how action-packed Jason’s Sweet was, but that didn’t stop it from being one of the most pleasing and enjoyable films of the night. I still say he needs to cut back on his over-stylized elements, though.

Andrew’s ZERO2SIXTY desperately needed some tighter editing, and I could have done without another Ford commercial, but I’ll certainly give him kudos for doing it in such a way that made it both comedically organic and genuinely funny.

Kenny, the loser…er, excuse me…Kenny’s The Losers was just that. An action movie with a kid on a skateboard who’s largest stunt was falling into a portable swimming pool of suds (oh wait, excuse me, there was that much maligned jump over the car door…how could I forget that!?) — come on! While the line, “That's alright son, I know physics” was great, that was about the only thing.

If Mateen hadn’t pulled one off this week, he would have been going home. But pull one off he did with Catch, quite possibly my favorite he’s done in fact. Extremely well edited (contrast his car-into-pedestrian collision with Jason’s), and with a nice twist, the film’s premise may not have had enough weight to support its action, but it worked in spite of it.

So, my predictions for the next two going home are Sam and Kenny (please let it be Kenny — I don’t know what is worse, seeing him again week after week, or realizing that he’s there week after week because someone…a lot of someones…out there actually think he can direct.)