LKMYNTS: Unknown.

So a few years ago, I believe, I see this trailer in theater and think it looks pretty awesome. I saw the trailer in theater maybe twice ever. And then I never hear anything about the movie again. I never saw it released to theater. I never heard it advertised for DVD. I’ve never seen it in a store. Almost as if the movie itself is defined by its title, the thing is freakin unknown. And it was so strange, as it has a pretty decent cast and is even relatively well-scored on imdb. So now that I got Netflix, I was able to track the dang thing down and finally watch it after all this time. So was it all worth it? I think so.

The movie kinda reminded me somewhat of Reservoir Dogs, but only if it were hostages instead of a robbery, and all of the involved was stuck in the warehouse all together without remembering who they are or what’s going on. Like I said, five seemingly random men wake up in a very secure warehouse with short-term memory loss and no idea what’s happened or who they are. The first is Jean Jacket (Jim Caviezel), who soon discovers a man tied to a chair (Joe Pantoliano). But before JJ can untie him, Rancher Shirt (Barry Pepper) shows up and says they might not want to trust him because he is, after all, the only person tied up so he has to be on the opposite side of whatever side they’re on. Then there’s also a man with a broken nose (Greg Kinnear), and another man who is shot and bleeding to death while handcuffed to a rail (Jeremy Sisto). After working together a few clues, the five men realize that two of them are hostages while the other three have to be the hostage takers. Unfortunately, none of them know which is which. Meanwhile, Eliza Coles (Bridget Moynahan) is working with the police to send out the ransom money for her husband and track the people who kidnapped him, two of which are played by Peter Stormare and Mark Boone Junior.

So with that lengthy plot description given, let’s first talk about the acting, since we have quite the cast. Everybody does really well, honestly, but the two best were Barry Pepper and Jeremy Sisto, which is almost ironic. It’s ironic because, even though Jim Caviezel is clearly the main character, Barry Pepper almost has the most screen time (or at least the better presence), while Jeremy Sisto has the least screen time and fewest lines. Though the performance Sisto is able to give is a really, really good one.

The plot, on the other hand, can be a bit confusing. It moves very fast, so if you even blink or you have trouble with auditory learning (say, if they do the plot exposition really fast and only in one scene, leaving you behind on what you just heard), you’ll miss it. I was able to catch the gist of it (hostage situation), but the whole scenario behind it with bankers or whatever was totally lost to me. I’ll have to watch it again to catch it. And then comes the ending, which has so many twists you’ll be lucky not to have your neck snap. And this is where I have my almost-issue with the movie. It has those types of twists where they just kinda pull them out their ass in order to pull one on the viewer, and never really sets up any clues whatsoever. So within the span of about 5 minutes, you’re thrown fifty ways from Sunday and have no idea what to think about what just happened. But at the same time, I still found the twists to be pretty cool (for the most part). I don’t know. I was really close to just having this be an ‘un-scorable’ movie because I was left unsure of how I actually felt about it.

But I think in the end, the acting and the basic story won me over. It’s a good little thriller/mystery piece that almost feels like a heist-gone-wrong film (a la Reservoir Dogs), but without any actual heist. So I guess I’ll just leave it at that. It’s just one you gotta see yourself.

I Am McLovin!

(P.S. Coincidentally, this is the second LKMYNTS I've done that involves both Jeremy Sisto and Peter Stormare).

LKMYNTS: The Movie Hero.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Little Known Movies You Need To See, and I figured this would be as good of an opportunity as any. I first saw this movie months ago, though I had missed the first 30 or so minutes. I just got around to seeing it again, this time the entire thing. And now I feel I can write a full review for it.

Most would see Blake Gardner (Jeremy Sisto) as insane; after all, he goes around talking to his ‘audience’ as if he’s the star of his very own movie, and titles other people with generic character names as he meets them. For instance, upon seeing a man in a trench coat with a guitar standing at a street corner, he dubs him The Suspicious Character (Peter Stormare) and basically stalks him to find out what’s going on with him. He ‘hires’ a Sidekick (Brian J. White), and labels his newly given therapist as his Love Interest (Dina Meyer), telling her that she must eventually get over her Doomed Fiancé (Carlos Jacott) in order to be with him. But the more that he insists that he has an audience watching his every move, the more he talks to this apparent audience, the more he follows The Suspicious Character and deems him a villain, the more he looks insane.

I have to say, this movie is brilliant. It does get cheesy at times, and some of the acting (especially toward the end) is questionable, but the story and the overall product given is great and fun. To start with the camera work, because that’s the big thing with this film, I have to say that even though the main character looks directly into the camera for the majority of the movie, it works. Every angle of the camera has its purpose. Blake goes into details of why his audience is in a certain place at a certain time (different emotional effects, to avoid boredom, etc.), which, in effect, tells anybody interested in film-making how to use a camera and even setting for different effects.

But the movie would have fallen apart if it weren’t for Jeremy Sisto. This whole movie rides on his charisma and believability as the Movie Hero, Blake. His pure, unwavering devotion to the fact that he has an audience that nobody else can see, along with his brilliant love of cinema and everything it does, makes him a great character, even though the character’s biggest flaw (in the film) is that he has nothing going for him and he’s not the best leading man whatsoever. But Sisto rolls with it all, making what could have been horribly cheesy into great comedy and real fun.

But he’s not the only actor that pulls through. Brian White as Antoine the Sidekick has some great charisma, as well, and he and Sisto pull off some really good chemistry. Dina Meyer (almost indistinguishable from any other recent role) also has some pretty good chemistry with Sisto, knowing when to pull back in emotion and when to go all out. Peter Stormare is a bit over-the-top, and his character adds more of a fantasy aspect to the film, but it works for what it is.

But what I love about the film the most is what I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago, which is its self-consciousness toward film. If a character or scene is being cliché, Blake won’t hesitate to point it out and try to remedy the situation so that his audience won’t be bored or annoyed. If a certain character is having a specified ‘moment’ that occurs in every movie for that type of character, he will make a brief statement to his audience (the camera) before letting it continue. And then, like I said, all the work with the camera as the audience taking different angles, etc., was a brilliant part of the story.

The one part that bugged me a little bit was the inclusion, toward the end, of an actual theater setting for potential audiences. It was slightly cheesy and took me out of the moment. But otherwise, the movie was great. There’s even a great message to go along with it (make the best of your life and do good). I really recommend this film, especially to people who are interested in film-making and/or how films are made in general, because there are huge nods to true fans of cinema.

A Keanu 'Whoa'