Most of these reviews are in the vein of "Oh what a great job you guys did for such a low budget. Way to go, little guys, hey your movie is in focus and well lit, so I give you nine stars". Sorry if I don't jump onto the band waggon. In the interest of balance I will now tear the movie apart.
While the shots are properly lit (overall a little flat, betraying it as video), there is barely ever any movement in the interior scenes. Some of it is very weak. The concert scene lit day for night (?) or possibly under lit. The framing is often pretty boring which carries over to the cutting. The editing really has no rhythm. The film (already at 83 minutes) could easily be cut down and made tighter and funnier. (In the commentary the film makers admit that they had a lot of seven pager scenes in the script which you are not supposed to do, and they cut down to four on set. "We make our own rules" one of them brags). The sound is flat and un enhanced. It has no depth with practically no effects to deepen and create ambiance. There is very little underscoring. Music is used for transitional effect or for the montage sequences.
The direction lacks inspiration from a technical standpoint. There are a lot of annoying amateurish details that jumped out at me. The actors are framed head on, which is visually uninteresting. Notice all the closed doors in the background of corridors of the office scenes. The location would have benefited being opened up and given depth. Same location too obviously re-used as a gym five minutes later when Katie and her friend are working out. The bar scene at the end is excruciating.
I guess establishing shots and reverse angles would have required more money.
The film needed a stronger director to stand up to the actors and push them further along. They obviously have potential and sometimes come up with truly inspirational moments but at least half their performances are either pedestrian or "actorish". It looks like they would do two or three takes and then say "good enough lets move on".
Some of the "guy buddy ensemble scenes" should have been trimmed in the editing and at least two of the characters cut out completely at the writing stage. They add nothing to the movie. Its educational to listen to the audio commentary. These guys think their (awfully bad) montage scene is good because the dinky little sight gags they improvised go "great with the music".
The film struggles between over the top sight gags, caricatures and more naturalistic, topical humour. It cannot make up its mind between the two and in the end should have gone for the latter.
Bad sight gags... The guy who feints when he finds out Jason is dating Katie. The introduction of the female protagonist in slow motion with wind blowing her hair back. The blah office co-workers, again too many of them get too much screen time. In the commentaries the two main actor-producers admit there was too much nepotism. The whole scene when Katie's friend introduces the two guys in the bar. And on, and on, and on...
Best stuff: Almost everything involving Jason Schaver. He comes up with little gems in almost every scene. The book end hammer scenes are wonderful.
Too bad the movie is in fact about Ken Gayton's character. He doesn't come across as the really "average guy". Meanwhile Erika Walker doesn't come across as the super hot chick. They both look good enough and at the same time ordinary enough that they look suited to each other, which doesn't fit with the theme.
You can tell they were learning as they went by comparing the ending they re-shot and added with a lot of the earlier scenes. It plays a lot better that most of the rest of the movie.
I took the time to write this very long review out of respect, not contempt. So four stars for actually getting it done and adhering to the first of Billy Wilder's ten commandments of film making. "Thou shalt not bore".
