Customer Reviews

Restitution

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Why all the hate? I found this a pretty entertaining independent film. You can see lack of budget in a few areas, but still better then half the stuff you see in theaters nowadays.

Who what a movie and all the Action I can handle so if you like me like Acton movies this is the on to see 4 times I did.
Erick

Very taut and exciting thriller with excellent direction from Lance Kawas! Some nice twists and turns keep you guessing 'till the very end. Very enjoyable entertainment for the thinking person!

Good story line...bad wig. For a low budget film I would highly recommend it. It will keep you entertained and guessing throughout the movie

I had to stop halfway through this movie and go check it on the internet. It was impossible to figure out what the director was trying to do with it. The evolution of my reaction went thus:

(1) Yow. How did this sophomoric stuff get to the screen?

(2) Hmmm . . . maybe it's supposed to be funny. Tongue-in-cheek?

(3) Twin Peaks?

(4) No . . . just really, really bad.

(5) Maybe I'm just missing something here in the art venue?

(6) Wow. This is SO bad, it's almost good.

I'm going to guess that, from the DVD jacket design on down through the actual film, the director was trying to do this on purpose. Maybe eventually . . . a cult classic in its awfulness?

The lead actor was so out of shape and such a really!really! bad actor that we had a great time laughing at just how bad it was, like we were being punked! The girl who is suppose to be in love with him doesn't recognize him when he comes back after a year (she thinks he is dead) even though as soon as he opens his mouth he sounds the same. All he did was shave.
OMG & LOL Watch it till the end when he takes off his shirt with man boobs and beer belly...oh and the music score has to be stolen from a lifetime channel movie, it is that sad. Poor Tom Arnold at least he appears to know he's in a comedy. The worst movie but a good laugh because it is so bad. Watch it only if it's free!!!!!

I had ordered this title since it was getting some major coverage in the distributor magazines, plus I am always looking for a director to finally get that break and make a good film (especially since his last three were so bad). And add into it that Monterey Media was giving it their listing, I went into this really wanting to like it...so with sad hesitation I must say this was a good looking film that in the end I could barely watch.

The story follows an author as he pursues big city corruption and a simultaneous murder frame of his good (and now dead) buddy. Tom Arnold plays the comic relief/sniper neighbor, Mena Suvari the hot girlfriend (highlight of the movie) and several other recognizable faces in forgettable roles.

I really do not want to harp on this too much as I support independent film wholeheartedly, but when the acting, writing, cheesy lines, pulled punches and no-way moments keep getting thrown at you in almost every sequence - you almost want to give up. I made it to that clichéd and moronic ending, hoping to then find some redemption in the one supplement. The making-of is a 20-minute director's commentary on top of irritating handheld behind the scenes footage. So you do get to hear about how the film was made but I prefer to get that in an actual commentary. The fly-on-the-wall filming of several scenes would have been more fun to watch if you could hear what was going on instead of the director droning.

The video clarity is outstanding and they obviously had some nice cameras to work with, but the sound was dubbed so poorly at times it became laughable (really bad punching sounds, dialogue blatantly not matching the actor's mouth, made-for-TV-score music, etc). The 5.1 was intermittent, region 1 coded, rated R for violence and one bedroom scene. I cannot recommend it, but if you are looking for a light Sunday evening rental to see one of your favorite actors that might be in this, I am sure the disappointment won't be that bad...but this really felt like a thrown together crime farce. One star for the film clarity and one for Suvari.

Reasons to not waste one's time:
(1.) This Kiosk rental rating is less than one because it's not worth the dollar it cost to rent.
(2.) IMDB rating was 2.3 out of 10.
(3.) Most of the actors, writer and director have to their filmography credits either movies no one's ever heard of or lots of TV videos and shorts you've never heard of.
(4.) First 20 minutes consisted of some guy driving around and then getting out to then walk around with a cheap camera and take pictures. That's it.
(5.) The editing and cinematography were so bad I thought a high school student was practicing on creating a collage for art class. Poor editing, very choppy, no flow and when it did have flow it would barely beat out molasses flowing across a winter Canadian prairie.
(6.) Acting, was this artificial, e.g. stare at the person in front of you and read a line then camera pans to that person who reads their line, and back and forth ad nauseam. You would have sworn their was a teleprompter off screen. Also seeing that Tom Arnold was a main character, poor soul, didn't help.
(7.) Most parts of the story were just not believable: e.g. recently dug grave doesn't have grass above it and looks like the decades old surrounding grass; some guy is tossed into the ocean with feet and hands bound with heavy chains and head in a hood while his captors are still above him in a boat yet he manages to escape from them. Must be those fish gills we didn't see. Then for revenge he spends a year getting in shape, practicing martial arts and pistol range shooting to come back and kill dozen or so highly trained killers. Unfortunately he looked like the same skinny, beer belly non-athletic person that he was before the training. The worst part was seeing an equally middle aged out of shape Tom Arnold act like a Marine sharp shooter and nail three bad guys perfectly from a mile away. His most remarkable shot, for some unexplained reason, occurs when he's in a bumpy rent-a-copter with a very shaky rifle. Just laughable.
(8.) Overloaded with uncreative stereotypes such as inept police; crooked police; business that does some drug dealing on the side which supports the mansion of the son who wants to take over dad's business; cute blond girlfriend who works in the local pub; the usual few innocent people die (poorly explained reasons) as appetizers.

Heads up: this is an indie flick. Highly recommended for anyone making movies. If you aspire to create a hollywood grade movie, watch this with film friends so you can share what you notice and at least have fun. You'll see how difficult it is. You can do a lot of things well, but wow, so many things to go wrong... lighting, scenes falling flat, actors missing the beat... or missing the boat, little distractions, sound, etc. How did they get Mena Suvari??

"I liked him, I just can't believe he killed those people." After an insurance investigator is killed and blamed for a string of murders a writer comes into town to write a book on the events. Talking to his girlfriend and his new neighbor he begins to uncover secrets that may lead to his innocence. This movie seems better then it is. The acting is passible...but with Tom Arnold giving the best performance that should help you with the quality involved. Besides the performances the editing was very strange and seemed very choppy. But all that aside this movie was very ordinary and kinda boring. For an action movie this was not full of action and was rough to get through. All that being said I have seen worse. Overall, worth watching only if you love action movies more then any other genre. I give it a C-.

*Also try - Blood Out