MovieChat Forums > Smiley (2012) Discussion > Twice as good as expected!..the Hallowee...

Twice as good as expected!..the Halloween replacement for Saw is here

posted 12 years ago by rjwilli1414
52 replies | jump to latest

Why this movie is getting bad reviews from ppl I do not know..Personally I think the incredibly cheesy sounding title and no name actors have a little to do with it. Or they watched the first few minutes and quit, thinking it was just a cheap teen scream. However, I recommend you stick with it. With a bunch of nobodys on the cast (except for some with Youtube fame), of course there are some flaws but also suprising performances most notably by Roger Bart (Professor Clayton), the lead Caitlin Gerard (Ashley), and Andrew James Allen (Zane).

This is the best horror movie I have seen in a while and was especially impressed by the psychological aspect and theories brought on by Professor Clayton. Another great thing about the plot was that you were never confused with what was happening but also couldn't predict an ending and when it came, I was like.."Ooooh, hahahaha i get it now, very clever...O *beep* nevermind, Damn!"

The content of the movie was a little different than expected too, I believe it will be a PG-13 assuming they are allowed to have roughly 5 memorable F-bombs and very modest gorey images..no sex or nudity despite some very attractive characters, but while I'm normally disgusted with what they hold back to keep a horror movie PG-13, I wasn't with this. Very well done.

All in all, this will make some money this Halloween and will have no problem producing sequels. This movie is not a waste of time at all so dont judge this movie by its cover because I almost did and I would have regretted it.

I give it a 8/10

Predicted ImDb rating: 6.2

[–] snowleopard 12 years ago

You sound like you worked on the film.

[–] ofumalow 12 years ago

And it's notable that the OP has never commented on anything but..."Smiley."

[–] btc8 12 years ago

This movie was a disaster.

[–] rjwilli1414 12 years ago

haha didnt work for the movie..new to imdb and felt like reviewing this since i saw it before its release and nobody had a decent review of it yet

[–] rjwilli1414 12 years ago

and go ahead and call it a disaster but when this becomes the yearly halloween movie for the next few years, just remember i told you so

[–] CyberGhostface-1 12 years ago

I doubt it. If anything, the film is ten years too late. A "hip" teen slasher film would have benefitted more during the Scream years. Plus there's been virtually no buzz and little awareness for this film. Compare all the hype surrounding the first Saw film.

[–] wayofthejeep 12 years ago

Its not even getting a theater release, so I don't your prediction is going to come true.

[–] Michael-Hallows-Eve 12 years ago

I'm with you rjwilli1414. You are allowed to review any film you want, and if people don't agree then that's their choice. But for them to have a go at people who like a movie shows that they are just being dicks. Not everyone has the same opinion, and that's why we have critics. I thought this film was fun to watch too, and I've seen worse that's for sure.
Folks, if you don't like or agree with what's said, then so be it. But don't go and belittle someone for speaking their mind on something that they felt strongly about - enough to make them actually want to post a review. Because now some of you have been tools about it to the point that this person may not want to post another review ever, and you have no right to do that. Just sayin'.

Michael Hallows Eve

[–] yaktheripper 12 years ago

Ahh the butthurt continues. Let it flow through you Mike.
The problem with your attempt to get the heat off your back is that your in the kitchen.
We review here, we give opinions, and then we ridicule what are commonly agreed to be invalid, ridiculous, or just piss poor opinions or what you like to think of as a "review".
I can come on here and say oh this movie is freaking just terrible. Objective minds, people with rational attitudes will want to know...why I thought it was bad. Then it is up to myself to explain what I did not like about the movie.
When we hype a movie and say oh, it's enjoyable and well made and it's the replacement for Saw...well, many of us would like to know why? What is it that makes this movie so good in your opinion.
So opinions are the basis of reviews and are then expanded upon with some sort of base of knowledge.
When you come on here and cry that you got a whuppin for pumping this movie up yet couldn't state why it was good then you are being a baby and it proves that you are not a reviewer..your just a fan who wants to be heard. There's nothing wrong with that. But stick to facebook with it please. I'm a movie junkie; I've been a loyal horror movie fan for over 30 years. I've seen a lot. Your cheerleader who has a horny crush on Smiley "review" was pathetic. I've asked you to expand the borders of your review and explain why you found it good. Instead you whine, and cry and boast and shake your fist. That's not really objective now is it Mike?
Go read Mike's "reviews". No objectivity and no formal structure as to why or why not he thinks the movie works or doesn't. He's quick to boast of his facebook fans and followers though...but can't give us WHY or WHAT makes Smiley a good movie.
So whut's really good dawg?

[–] coreytbyrne 12 years ago

You sir, are an idiot. The director has made it pretty far for some 25 year old guy rooted in youtube, that is not something anyone can argue. The issue that I'm seeing in what you say here is that you are comparing this to other films. I hate that more than anything else. To truly "review" a film you have to look at it as its own entity. You have to look at the seemingly irrelevant details that most people would overlook, but show the director/writer's Witt when creating what he believes to be the perfect Mise en scène. You must also look at what the director has to work with/is coming from. Michael Gallagher is an extremely talented guy who, as I said, originates from youtube. He is taking a dream of his and is running with it. He is young, and he has NO experience making films, and he is self-taught. When taking all of this into consideration, the movie is not all that bad. When I watch a movie I like to look for what makes it bad, but what also makes it great. Yeah, Smiley isn't even in the same league as the top grossing horror films of the century, but it is far from the worst film. For a low-budget horror movie, I am impressed. From what I am seeing in your comment, you are the big-budget, mainstream film kinda guy. Do us a favor and stick to reviewing movie that you understand (although based on your lacking ability to provide critical analysis, I advise you to find some other hobby).

Also, funny thing...Smiley's about "internet trolls." You're trolling so hard right now that it actually takes away from the point your trying to make.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] yaktheripper 12 years ago

Idiot or not....new film maker or not..."blah blah blah" or not. The movie stinks. If I read a book that's a rip off of two or three other books that I've read, BUT it's by a new writer...I don't think.."oh, geez, he's a new writer cut him some slack"
I think. This stinks.
So be the tool Corey. Tool for the movie. Troll or not, the majority of people have spoken and we find this to not be a good movie. It's not the worst, but it's below a 5. Suck it.

[–] zipdraw 11 years ago

No, he was right, you're an idiot. Eat it.

[–] BigHairyFenian 12 years ago

I thought the movie was.....well....if there was one word i could use to describe it, it would of simply been, meh. I see you stating (and i knew this anyway) that it was directed by Michael J Gallagher, who by all accounts started off on Youtube. My problem with this is that the movie comes across as a Youtube video, in fact the only part of the movie i actually enjoyed was the last 10-15 minutes of it, which as you know, is the average length of a Youtube video. During the entirety of the movie i found it hard to pay attention to. Not because it had a hard to follow plotline or because it was scary, but because it just didn't hold my attention long enough for me to care, i spent half the time more interested in scratching my balls and journeying to the fridge to restock on beer, which incidentally is less than 5 miters away and within earshot and eye distance of my monitor. Basically what I'm trying to say is, it should've been a Youtube video or maybe videos, it surely would've cost a lot less to produce and would've cut out a lot useless dialog.

[–] Holy-Fire 11 years ago

I agree with some of the points, but you are being an hypocrite when you say 'you have to look at it as its own entity' then go on to say 'for a low-budget horror movie, I am impressed.. you are the big-budget, mainstream film kinda guy, etc'.

Right there you contrasted budgets. It is okay to compare and contrast films, but it should be done fairly in terms of all the things you said.

I thought the film was good, it held its own, BUT, this past year we've had some fantastic low-budget films 'American Mary' being a stand-out. And I think people tend to forget the original Saw movie didn't have a massive budget, the production value behind that was fantastic considering the budget. Neither did Insidious or Sinister. Oh, and the first Paranormal Activity had a 15k budget.

When it comes to the horror genre there is very little excuse for budget issues. Hitchcock proved that you can make a great horror with very little money, and it continues to remain a fact.

[–] juliandc142 11 years ago

You can't be serious. If you look at the fact that he has no experience at all and is a low budget horror film , it's STILL a bad horror film. There have been many great low budget horror films by people who are barley starting their career and this isn't one of them imo.

"I'm afraid i just blue myself"

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Holy-Fire 11 years ago

Great minds think alik.. rip the ideas off of other great minds and make them more concise, haha.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] shaunallenmeyer 12 years ago

Obvious plant. The OP has only ever commented on things on the Smiley board. And, they said they're new to imdb but it says they joined in 2007 on their profile. Also, it's not possible that anybody could ever like this atrocious mess of a "film". Don't watch it.

[–] misterultrasheen 12 years ago

Nobody's had a decent review of it yet because it's awful.

[–] Eve_of_Destruction 11 years ago

rjwilli1414 I personally dislike listening to negative reviewers. All in all why would I care what some nobody thinks? Why would I choose NOT to see something based on a guy who has nothing to do with my life? The only thing that I may be swayed by is whether I want to see the film in the Theater or on Netflix. Other than that who cares?

We all need to use our own brains. I get forums, such as this, where we share opinions. But some dude who affects the livelihood of many? No.

My history: I have worked in the Performing Arts behind the scenes (technical) for over 10 years. I have seen reviewers crush people's dreams and they have been wrong. Sometimes they are correct but for the most part - wrong.

Lastly - I was on the admin side of an Acting Class and a NY Newsday reviewer took the class so he could see what the other side was like. He said he felt bad for what he put people through. **He said he did not realize how difficult acting and production is.

Had he known how difficult it was he would have been different with his judgement. Take that how you want but it makes sense.

[–] PhilKill 10 years ago

Member since 2007...hmmm...

[–] winzentween 12 years ago

lol agree, always so obvious and never a history so its not like they even care about film if they never manage to end up on imdb, even once before.

[–] street-x-brat 12 years ago

Why this movie is getting bad reviews?
...because the story line is weak....not gonna say bad acting but dude seriously WEAK STORY!!
1 ADVICE FOR SHANE....STICK WITH COMEDY BRO...like those crazy stuff you do over youtube but errrrr here....not so much :/

"Another great thing about the plot was that you were never confused with what was happening but also couldn't predict an ending and when it came"

DUDE THE WHOLE THING WAS A DISASTER...WHEN LIMO WAS SCARED BY CHATROULETTE URBAN LEGEND....LMFAO!! SERIOUSLY??!!??? I knew from that time this will be a disastrous ride for 90 mins....yet I stayed to see Shane act...but whatever man that was a waste of time -____________________________-

[–] yaktheripper 12 years ago

Well, to each their own I suppose. I highly doubt this will be a replacement to anything, certainly not the 2 movies it's stolen most of it's material from. Nightmare on Elm Street and of course Scream.
This is a bomb. It's a dud.
It is slow, uneventful, unimaginative, and boring as hell.
Saw is not my favorite movie of all time but jesus dude, give the franchise a little freaking respect. Let's see if it can even sputter out a Smiley part 2 before we go overboard.

I give it a 4/10
Predict 4.6 IMDB

[–] themightyfjord 12 years ago

You are absolutely 100% affiliated with this movie in some shape or form! There is no way in hell any sane person would write a review even half as decent as yours about it, even when looking at the movie as objectively as possible. No way!!
Clearly this movie was made with little care and a very low budget, purely with the intention of making a quick buck at the expense of others. I'm guessing as low as a low budget can be too. I mean aside from diabolically poor dialogue (throughout the entire film, and yes, unfortunately I sat through til the end somehow) in easily sort locations, from mediocre actors - the very few laughable "horror" cliches that do take place in the movie, look like they could have been created with a 1 dollar box of face paints, and a few props from the joke shop..

Clearly the trailer on youtube was cleverly put together to make it look far better than it is, and again, I suspect this was all part of the "let's make a quick buck and sacrifice/ignore artistic integrity in the process" ploy. Inception like sound, suspense/drama, scary looking bad guy (that only appears in the movie briefly what, once/twice in that particular form?).

Then there's the exposure the trailer's benefited from. I don't know about anyone else, but over the last few months I've conveniently stumbled across that video over and over when searching various things on youtube. Always there, always insinuating that maybe, just maybe, there's a half decent film in there somewhere..
17 million people so far have also stumbled across that particular youtube video and many of them too will likely be curious as to the quality of the movie itself. I'm guessing many of them will unfortunately check out the movie as a result, and I'm also guessing that the vast majority will walk out of the theater feeling like they've been completely ripped off by a very greedy person or people that will no doubt be making easy money from the misfortune of others.

And then there's this. Your "review" of the movie here on imdb. Just a normal guy that's checked out the movie and wants everyone to realize it's seriously not that bad!!
No way! Just no way! 8/10 you say.... As objective as I truly try to be, I cannot possibly understand how any human that has ever seen a half decent film in their life, could give this film 8/10.
I'll state it again with as much faith and conviction as I can muster: You are absolutely 100% affiliated in some shape or form with this abomination of a movie and should be ashamed of yourself for everything this movie represents..

1/10 (and that's being generous)

[–] JazukaiX 12 years ago

This

--
"If I don't understand it, it's a plot-hole!"
-Typical Reviewer

[–] briny7777 12 years ago

Uhmm..Really? Smiley was bad and that's being nice. The main character was awful in it..completely non believable almost like she tried to hard on being a nutjob.. Sorry this movie gets a 3/10 for me tops. The ending was blah it was all a game and so on...oh yeah Cry Wolf was about a game too i forgot..this movie was NOT original in any aspect.

[–] thepinkrabbit 12 years ago

oh come on dont exagerate ! how dare you compare Saw and this crap?! I mean Saw was intented for boys , this movie is for girls who loves shane dawson and all this crap. The script is a rip off of 2 wes craven and from another one about cyber kills. ( I think the name was something like" the chain letter" ) so nothing new , and nothing added to reused material. of course bad acting.. just watch scene 1 : the blond girl says goodbye to her father : horrible acting..

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hotcandicenice 12 years ago

Agreed on saw. Saw 1 was what I'd call a real horror film, the gore didn't drive the film but rather the detail and the crime investigation. The puzzle that needed to be solved. Here's the part I don't agree with in your post. You're setting up a label. The wannabee hardcore horror lovers. I know these types and understand what you mean. But then you go on to define what true horrors are. By the sounds of it, no popular film can ever be a true horror, which makes no sense. The whole indie scene etc is also dominated by many of those wannabe types and that second part of your post ironically comes across that way :) Some indies such as gumo or whatever suck completely. I haven't even watched it, only clips because it isn't even a movie. As for the party, this film had way more wrong with it than that. It lacked direction and pathetically enough even pace as a 1hr 30min movie, which is very sad.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hotcandicenice 12 years ago

After reading your reasoning, I can't agree more! Some of the films you mentioned I have seen, The woman, eden lake and martyrs. All 3 of those were weird as fk and I wouldn't watch them again XD I haven't had the stomach to check out serbian film ever since I heard about its reputation. Cannibal holocaust is a classic. Looking through all the titles you mentioned I can compare and contrast and come to the same conclusion. Horror is dead. The only reason people still watch is because we cling to the genre. We're desperate and eat anything they throw at us, kinda like junkies. This is why I regularly scour around looking for japanese, thai and other asian horrors. You guys over in the US are used to the prime cut. Black christmas and all those originals are the best horrors ever made. But sadly, the modern horror scene is all foreign. Without Hitchcock, Craven, Carpenter and all the old legends the genre will never work again. These old guys knew what they were doing. Once they stop, I think that will probably be the end of horror films as we knew them.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] yaktheripper 12 years ago

Excellent points. I wasn't a fan of Wolf Creek but it worked for a lot of people so maybe it was just me. The Woman, Dead Girl, Kill List, and Martyrs are all excellent modern horror movies or movies with horror backbone at the very least. Yet, nobody has heard of them. The studios don't get behind these at all so they move to Netflix and Redbox to build any type of support.
Hollywood is all about the dollar. The PG 13 movie can get almost everyone's money and this was you don't have a limited audience due to restrictions. It makes perfect sense from a buisiness perspective.
Unfortunately it leaves, in most cases, a watered down horror movie.
Love your signature too... IASIP is genius.

[–] pinkturtles99 12 years ago

how did you get to see it

[–] notmortal 12 years ago

I found the movie to be not so good, the main lead at times to me overacted. The ending was meh...... after watching the movie i realized, I only did it for the lolz

[–] zaroba 12 years ago

The bad outweigh the good.

Thanks for all the comments people. I had been thinking of watching this movie after seeing the dvd at work, but forget that.