Not Bad

Although the commentary explained a lot of things - like the three missing critical scenes - and although the commentary enlightened me on how the creative editing played a strong role in saving a small percent of this film - ultimately the pic suffered from three major factors... The main character was Lee, yet somehow we ended up following the detective - who wasn't nearly as a compelling character as Lee and wasn't set up whatsoever to be the lead. Secondly, the film is promoted as an action, but the action was few and far between... and often intercut and shortened with stylistic edits and flashback montages - which served, in my opinion, only to rob us of the action we were hoping to see from a main character who we never saw. Peter Greene was great, but had no real payoff in the end... and his death (which the commentary explained - and kudos to the creators for taking nothing and making something) was unimpressive and unfulfilling. The movie also suffered from having no (or I should say) a paper thin plot that really didn't stay on its true narrative thread. I feel that it tried to be too much of a lot of things and not enough of a single thing. And in the end, there is really no payoff to any of the characters I had sat and watched for nearly two hours - in particular, Lee... who kind of just got forgotten and overshadowed by a detective who spent most of the movie going around and interviewing people.

That aside, stylistically, it was pretty solid. The director made some creative choices visually (I too also liked the "floating head" in the bar scene with Peter Greene) and such other creative choices as this. The action, when it was on screen, was solid and the dialogue, often times was fresh and realistic. The performances, as a whole, were strong and the sound design was well done. The commentary was VERY enjoyable and enlightening... like I said, it helped answer a lot of questions I had and helped to enlighten me on the struggles the filmmakers had while making this indy film... in fact, after hearing the explanations, I gave the pic higher points - the creative team truly did come up with some amazing ways to save parts or enhance parts of the movie (e.g. splicing together a car scene using completely different clips from different scenes)... that's how indy is done boys, and done right - do what you gotta do and work with what you got.

In the end... not bad. For a Thursday night - with a 4 dollar blockbuster rental and a double cheeseburger, I was entertained... both with the movie and the commentary. I would see another movie from Wayne Kennedy anytime.