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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible waste of time, March 2, 2006
This review is from: THREAT (DVD)
'Threat' is a movie that I've been hearing about forever. It's a movie that has had me interested in it from the first time I saw the trailor. The music seemed amazing, the concept amazing.
The reality...
A friend calls me and tells me that Hot Topic has 'that movie' that I've been waiting to see. Which I think is weird because I know it never opened in Chicago, but he was right. So we go, I pick it up.
Here are a few quotes from the case...
"Makes 'kids' look like an after-school special"
"Fierce, Fervid, Lyrical, Incendiary"
"Unflinching, Scathing...just the opening independent film needs to regain its independence"
Well I wish there was an ounce of truth to any of those. I'll never get that hour plus of my life back.
It's not a deeply profound written film about the ills of society, it's not a philosphical masterpiece about the state of the world or music. It's not realistic commentary on the state of music scence.
It's a movie filled with typical cliche DIY ethics and a poorly written script.
Some examples of how terrible this film is:
At one point in the movie a 'straight edge' kid is at work as a barback. He's complaining about people drinking and his friend, another straight edge kid asks
"if you hate the alcohol industry so much, why do you work here?"
after looking like he was just asked the meaning of life...his response...
"uh...know your enemy"
This is the same straight edge kid that works as a barback who starts a crew called 'One less drunk' and later is part of the finale where kids are fighting everywhere. The same barback shooting people for being drunk.
Jim's character isn't a revolutionary, neither is his friend Fred. They're both ridicilious jokes.
Here's another great example...
Fred and Jim both work at a comic book store. It seems that Fred is some sort of security guard. early in the film Fred watches another black man attempt to steal a comic book. He takes him into the back room and lectures him, and lets him leave and when leaving he throws the comic book at the kid and lets him take it anyway. Yet in another scene Fred searches Jim's back to make sure he's not stealing....What? What the hell is going on here...is he against stealing from the store or not?
This movie was poorly written, poorly filmed and poorly edited.
If you're interested do yourself a favor and try to rent it somewhere, but do not pay for this film. I don't care if it was shot entirely by a cast and crew in their early and late 20's.
This film is awful.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Makes Fight Club look like Disney Channel, February 8, 2006
This review is from: THREAT (DVD)
I saw this movie when it played a theater in LA. We drove out to see it because we heard Bleeding Through is in the movie (they're not, just a couple of their songs). I had no idea what I was in for and I was totally blown away. I rushed out and bought the DVD and was really impressed with the extras. The coolest thing is what they've called "mob tracks" which are musicians playing music over the movie. One of them distorts and edits the talking in the film, the other eliminates the talking altogether. It was a really surprising and cool bonus and I've never seen that on a dvd before. The music is really good so I can play the dvd in the background while doing other things.
As for the movie, like I said I rushed right out to buy the DVD when it was released, but I'm not the best in the world at writing movie reviews. I cam across this review online and I think it pretty much perfectly sums the movie up. I really recommend this, it's not like anything else out there these days. It reminded me of Easy Rider but angry like Fight Club. Check out this review
All hell breaks loose on the Lower East Side
By Jon Handelman
The McGill Daily
Visionary director Matt Pizzolo takes a harsh look at what it means to be a disaffected youth in his new film Threat. Pizzolo's world shows that the promised land of opportunity and the American dream are relics of the past. Society, according to the film, has devolved into a chaotic animalistic reality, where rage, not logic, colours everyday life.
Although it may sound akin to similar independent films (think Kids), Threat is unique in that violence is portrayed to a degree that would make even the most iron-stomached viewer wince.
Threat follows Jim (Carlos Puga), a suburban-bred homeless youth just trying to get by. He sleeps in washrooms, crashes on friends' floors, and aimlessly walks the streets of New York City. Jim is homeless because he chooses to be. He knows he has other opportunities in life, but he chooses a life others fear. Threat examines Jim's interactions with his friends, other troubled youths, and the conflicts that arise on streets that have their own laws.
Throughout the film, Jim expresses his feelings of rejection and anger against a culture that he believes has cast him away. His friends are similar in that they all feel forgotten. Looks of anger and frustration are ever-present among Jim's crowd, a group that, for all its education, lacks hope.
Jim's friends and acquaintances represent a cross-section encompassing different races, nationalities, and ethnicities. From Jim's friend Kat (Katie Nisa), who is discriminated against continually because of her gender, to Fred (Keith Middleton), an African-American man tired of being stereotyped, the people Jim meets along his journey all have feelings of anger and disenchantment.
Threat depicts a generation of youth who are fed up with being treated as less than human. Usually, these feelings burn just under the skin and are never exposed to the outside world. Threat presents a different scenario where, one night, the rage bubbling underneath the surface turns into horrific violence. Jim and his friends are at first innocent commentators on the ills of society; the eruption of violence makes them willing accomplices.
It is not clear whether Pizzolo is trying to glorify violence as a means of change or trying to vilify it. What is clear is the film's message regarding the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots. Threat explores the possible violent results of this growing disconnect. There is a great deal of gratuitous violence in this film, but it helps demonstrate the level of anger that exist in today's society and the possible consequences of that violence. By no means is Threat a public service announcement trying to make people more aware of societal woes. Instead, this film can be viewed as an urban allegory in which the final is message not completely clear.
To create a snapshot of the Lower East Side, Pizzolo creates a film that is not only emotionally but visually raw. In crafting a world that comes alive when the rest of us go to sleep, Pizzolo uses colour film for the night shots, while depicting the boredom of day with black-and-white. Towards the end of the film, animation is skillfully inserted to further blur the boundaries of reality. Although Threat is often too philosophical for its own good, it is a unique film that tries to give a voice to a group that is often overlooked.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
gut wrenching and hilarious at the same time, April 11, 2006
This review is from: THREAT (DVD)
i finally saw this movie and i must say people are missing something. it's actually really funny, intentionally funny. there are a lot of gags in the first half that work surprisingly well for such a low budget effort, and that humour makes it all the more gut wrenching when the real power violence kicks in at the end.
i wasn't sure if this would be worth the money so before i bought it i looked for some critic's reviews. this quote from montreal film journal is the best thing i've ever seen in my life:
"Films like "La Haine", "Menace II Society" or "Fight Club" also portray people raging against the machine, but they ultimately show that violence doesn't solve anything. Whereas Matt Pizzolo's flick openly glorifies murderous revolt, literally telling the audience to go out and beat up random people, just because."
after seeing the movie i don't agree with the quote, but that's what i read that made this thing sound crazy enough for me to take a chance on. btw- it's nothing like "kids", i don't know why the two are getting compared. but it's still highly recommended.
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