14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hitchcockian?, July 6, 2006
This review is from: Firecracker (DVD)
On the front of the DVD cover you will notice "Hitchcockian - Roger Ebert"
This is clever marketing. Not a lie but misleading. Roger Ebert says
"There is the Hitchcockian scene where the mother asks at the cleaners for an "astringent" to remove the "shoe polish" on her carpet."
OK, so a scene is Hitchockian, not the movie. I have noticed that critics are much easier on indie films and foreign films, I believe this is the case here.
Balderson is a hard worker, a smart businessman, very creative, and I like his directing. As a writer though? That's where I think this movie falls flat. I was into the movie for the first half hour or so, until Mike Patton died. Then, I fell asleep twice after that and was painfully bored.
Visually the movie has some great shots. The burning fire for the opening credits, the bright colors, great landscape shots, shots of the carnival, etc. But, without good dialogue and pacing it just doesn't make a good movie. Some of the acting is too B Movie-ish and I like B-Movies. If it wasn't for the presence of Karen Black this movie would be unwatchable.
I really wanted to like this movie and have been following it for years. I wouldn't have watched it if it didn't have Mike Patton in it. Mike Patton played a bigger role than I thought and it was interesting to see him act. This is a must see for Patton fans.
Balderson is quite young still and I think with a solid and exciting script he could really do something with it. I just hope he doesn't continue to direct only movies he writes. The "making of" documentary of this movie is quite egotistical and winded. That may be the main problem here. This movie to me played like a long student film project with a larger budget. Some moments of greatness but too self-indulgent.
I look forward to see what else Balderson brings to the silver screen and I hope this movie opens the door giving access to a variety of great writers' screenplays.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just Plain Bad, April 14, 2009
This review is from: Firecracker (DVD)
Bill Cosby once had a line about the birth of his first son. He said that he was excited and anxious in the hospital, until he saw his son for the first time. He said he managed to maintain the smile of an expectant father, but he said he was horrified at what he saw emerge from his wife's womb. He said he wanted to turn to the intern who handed his son to him and say: "Maybe we should put him back in and let him cook a little longer."
As a big Mike Patton fan, I anxiously awaited the release of this movie. I maintained my smile to about the halfway point. At that point, I was unable to maintain the smile. I decided that watching a movie of me watching the movie would've been more entertaining. It reminded me of a movie done by a film student. A bad one. I think the class would've called it a worthy effort, but they would've given it an 'F'. They would've said that the acting was stilted, it was poorly cut, and it was confusing in a manner that you were sure that the director had not intended. Patton should probably stick to what he does better than anyone out there right now. Karen Black was good, but her performance wasn't exceptional. The rest were terrible. I normally don't enjoy seeing others slam any project that a person has cut blood over, but if I can save one Patton fan the disappointment of seeing him act I'll consider this a worthwhile post.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing..., June 13, 2007
This review is from: Firecracker (DVD)
I was hoping to really like this movie, but just couldn't. Having Patton and Black take on dual roles was an interesting idea, metaphorically speaking... but in both cases, the need to keep the characters "different" led to one persona being shallow and over-acted compared to the other. The mixing of black-and-white and color is a bit of a cliche, and I felt that it, and the soundtrack, were /sometimes/ used as a replacement for building genuine emotional scenes. There were some truly gripping scenes throughout the film, but the lack of character development hurts the film greatly -- only one character shows /any/ growth throughout the story, and she isn't even the protagonist. The "deus ex machina as a metaphor for... well, what do you want it to be a metaphor for? That? Oh yeah, that's what I wrote it to be. Honest." nature-girl and the ending she brings to the movie cap the entire production with a disappointing ending as well.
2 stars. Not a bad movie, but not a particularly engaging one, either. A few standout scenes, all of which deserve better company than that which surrounds them.
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