Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pointless Dribble, February 13, 2005
There is no true plot to this movie. It is genuinely meaningless. The movie centers around four girls who decide to teach men a lesson by assaulting them at gun point and rape them. Led by the sexual promiscuous member of the group, they set to first get "revenge" on one of the girl's boyfriends who just took her virginity. But here is where the movie comes undone. The guy did nothing wrong. He never raped or took advantage of the girl. She had what effectively amounts to buyer's remorse. Moreover, the promiscuous girl announces that their criminal actions were going to be done for "all women." With equal nebulous mindless indiscrimination, all men somehow become culpable for some baseless reason. The girls bumble their attempts, even somewhat humorously trying to arouse a young gay man. In the interim, the promiscuous leader, while having announced to her friends the worthlessness of the male race, goes out and pursues the worse examples of manhood, getting over her head with one married man, who brutally rapes her in front of his limo driver after throwing her over the hood of the car. The scenes erratically jumped from one to another with no smooth transitions or logical flow. Midway through the movie the original premise that the movie was based, namely punishing guys, disintegrates into a completely mindlessly undirected sequence of events. In one, the shrinking violet who just recently lost her virginity begins to have sex with another guy, but once again she decides she doesn't want sex with him and suddenly pulls out a gun and ends up shooting him to death. Perhaps this chick is just gay and doesn't know it or really is frightened by sex with men. But then again, why is she going with men and pursuing sex with them? The movie ends with the leader of the group burning to death in a comedy of unrealistic errors in trying to set off a fire alarm but inadvertently causes a real fire to rage through a school. That's it. That is the whole move. The whole, worthless, pointless movie. It makes no sense because there was no point to it. None of the female characters are coming across sympathetic. None were victims by anything other than their own stupidities. The leader of the group calls guys "mental midgets" but she ends up proving herself the smallest mental midget of all. The girls get themselves into their predicaments by mindlessly following an idiot and never once thinking or rationally analyzing the reality and truth of their lives in any honestly introspective way. Unlike the girls in the movie Foxfire, who are actually victimized and get revenge on their victimizer, you don't feel any sympathy for these mindless, witless wonders. The movie has no plot, the acting is awful, the editing is even worse, and the dialogue is horrifically unimaginative. The movie as a whole lacks any substance or purpose and never tells any kind of story. This therefore is NOT a movie but cinematographic masturbation.
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Cult Film? Yes, But That Doesn't Save the Project, January 10, 2002
Easily becoming a candidate for THE cult film of 2001, "The Smokers" will shock you; not because it is off-beat, odd, unconventional, or even outlandish, but because it is simply awful. And fans of Thora Birch, please listen.The story is about three girls (its leader, Dominique Swain in "Face Off" and the newer "Lolita") living in a dorm at a school somewhere in country of America, and feeling dissatisfied with their life, they decide to do something radical: so radical that I couldn't believe what I saw. They are sort of intimidated by boys (so they think), who always get what they want in their love and sex with girls, so, the three start their own revolution. Of course, things get out of control, and before they knew it, troubles ensue. Intersting? Only on paper. The result is a mess. It is shot without wit, humor, or sarcasm to sustain an entire film; all boys are hunks who think about nothing but having sex with girls (except an obligatory geek who wears glasses). Dialogues are impossible (one character talks about California as a place where they have "giant mosquitos"... so what?) and irrelevant, but the most depressing thing is its too ridiculous development of story. For example, see those girls, as a revenge to a boy, try to rape him, sticking a gun to his head (on a heap of corn). Reasons? As far as I know, it's because he ditched one of the girls rather unceremonious way. Or watch another girl shoot a gun in a boy's head because he gets too excited during sex at a prom night. What happens next? Nothing. No police. As if nothing happened. Because nobody believed her story!! I know words such as sub-text or irony, but I don't think I can find them here. It is because all things are done most bland way, and you just see the girls swear, cry, complain, and even kill (and in one scene, one of them utters a line that is very offensive after her knowing her prospective love turned out to be a gay), but nothing can be accounted for in a reasonable way. Because of setting of three girls in school, you might be reminded of "Heathers" but at least that film had a certain kind of power and wry humor, thanks to Christian Slater and Wynona Rider. But here ... don't ask me. And editing is bad so sometimes I had a trouble to follow the story. (Believe me or not, I watched it twice.) Finally, about the appearance of my favorite actress Thora Birch. She appears twice as a sister of one of the girls, but too briefly, so fans don't say I didn't warn you. And both times she wears a strange paint make-up on the face, so I first could not recognize her. I like her, I like "Ghost World" (great!), but I couldn't find anything good for her career here. Sorry.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
open minded, August 16, 2003
By A Customer
The Smokers is one of my favorite movies of late.At first I picked it up because I am a fan of Dominique Swain{If you enjoy her I believe this is one her best roles}but after watching it I found that Thora Birch was also great in the few parts she was in. Busy Phillips and Kerri Lynn Pratt were ok but they have played better roles. To everyone who says the personality of the girls and their style is unrealistic, try going to a big city. Many girls act like them.I think teenagers will enjoy this film more. Those of you who keep mentioning that they "smoke too much" are probably too old to get the movie. The Smokers deals with issues such as gun use and rape from a girls point of view. For once instead of acting all scared, pouty, and why me ish like in every other movie, the girls decide to fight back. Though the self defense is taken too far with a gun I believe it is only a representation of the hate and vengeance some women feel after being raped. This movie also ties into the high school issues of friendship and peer pressure. the three girls are very different and come from different backrounds but have similar feelings in that they do not want to be weak women any more. I real enjoyed this movie and think that its a great watch for teenage girls.
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