Having missed Project Greenlight ONE, and it's movie Stolen Summer, I happened to get addicted to part 2, and religiously, obsessively watched it. so in this HOT SUMMER day, I headed to the Loews Cineplex in Lincoln Center to see it.
What Miramax feeds us, is just one of the most horrendous teenage films, I have ever seen. It doesn't have a personality. It seems to want to please everyone. But in the process manages to please no one. it's like a sequel to Mandy Moore's How to Deal, only without the heart that Mandy Moore brought to it. Mandy Moore's How to Deal, understood, that it was a drama with light moments, and gave in to it's dramatic moments. Shaker Heights ran away from it's dramatic moments, moments, that I think would have served the movie well.
And so many of the slower scenes reminded me of a wonderful television show called "Once and Again" except that the writing in "Once and Again" was top notch. The comedy includes all the cliches: The teenage rebel (been there, done that), who has a bully after him (ooohhh the originality), and who goes off on teachers who are dumber than him (well, I haven't seen that before. NOT.) The rich friend, he falls in love with rich friends sister, he has his heart broken, he grows up a little bit, and then it all comes to it's oooohhh so bland conclusion.
two things I really find fascinating: Chris Moore states that, The Hollywood system probably does work, keeping the talented in, and the non-talented out. One has to wonder, why Chris Moore is IN. American Pie is not exactly something to build an artistic career on. The last one, Ben Affleck on the phone gives advice and talks about what it takes to make a good film. At the very same time this took place, I can only imagine that Gigli was in post-production.
Project Greenlight is a failure only because of the people leading it. Not because of the people who enter it.
What Miramax feeds us, is just one of the most horrendous teenage films, I have ever seen. It doesn't have a personality. It seems to want to please everyone. But in the process manages to please no one. it's like a sequel to Mandy Moore's How to Deal, only without the heart that Mandy Moore brought to it. Mandy Moore's How to Deal, understood, that it was a drama with light moments, and gave in to it's dramatic moments. Shaker Heights ran away from it's dramatic moments, moments, that I think would have served the movie well.
And so many of the slower scenes reminded me of a wonderful television show called "Once and Again" except that the writing in "Once and Again" was top notch. The comedy includes all the cliches: The teenage rebel (been there, done that), who has a bully after him (ooohhh the originality), and who goes off on teachers who are dumber than him (well, I haven't seen that before. NOT.) The rich friend, he falls in love with rich friends sister, he has his heart broken, he grows up a little bit, and then it all comes to it's oooohhh so bland conclusion.
two things I really find fascinating: Chris Moore states that, The Hollywood system probably does work, keeping the talented in, and the non-talented out. One has to wonder, why Chris Moore is IN. American Pie is not exactly something to build an artistic career on. The last one, Ben Affleck on the phone gives advice and talks about what it takes to make a good film. At the very same time this took place, I can only imagine that Gigli was in post-production.
Project Greenlight is a failure only because of the people leading it. Not because of the people who enter it.