User reviews

I have watched hundreds of independent films and have come to prefer their pure, sometimes harsh and grainy, view of life to the gloss of big Hollywood productions. For an independent movie to succeed, it has to have a spark of brilliance, a ray of fundamental truth, a brief glimpse into things we all know exist, but generally do not see in routine Hollywood fare. Those that succeed are wonderful; those that don't are simply bad movies. Sadly, I must say that Icharus Broken falls squarely into the latter category.

Here are some "highlights": Interminably long scenes where characters mumble incoherently and endlessly to each other, generally set against a solid, brightly colored wall or riding in a car. Sound quality that is the absolute worst I have ever (almost) heard, with unintelligible dialog drowned out by the creaking of a wood floor, or simply waxing and waning due to lousy equipment and poor direction. Hand-held camera work that is so unsteady it causes motion sickness, like a poor quality 8mm home movie. Terrible, inappropriate, discordant, clanging music that (mercifully) distracts from and drowns out the mumbling of the characters. Amateurish cuts and editing that interfere with comprehension of what little is not already incomprehensible. In short, I have seen surveillance video from 7-11 stores that had far better production values and far more entertainment quality than any moment in this film.

The DVD label boasts of victories and commendations in two obscure film festivals. I shudder to think of the quality of the competition, if indeed there was any. The label also suggests similarities to the infinitely superior movie, 21 Grams. This comparison is not only wildly inaccurate but probably libelous. Finally, if my opinion has not convinced you to avoid this train wreck, then I direct your attention to the Product Description provided by the producers and posted with the DVD listing. Try this experiment: read it aloud many times, alternating the volume of your voice from low to inaudible, ignoring punctuation, jerking up and down uncontrollably, and scratching your nails on a blackboard while banging on your desk. If this seems like great entertainment...this is the movie for you. If not, then take my advice and run. You have been warned.

I saw this on net fix. What in the hell is all this nonsense about it being on DVD...???!! That surely must be a lie. I see there is someone on this board claiming to be the director of the film. If this is the director you should stop thinking that if someone does not like the smell of your excrement(your film) then they like Norbit, as if you operate in this grand echelon of brilliant film-making where sound is not recorded properly and the camera man does not know how to use the manual controls on the video camera you used. In fact, Norbit is superior to this garbage in every aspect.

Anyway- the DVD issue, it must have been self published as not even a 7 year old entrepreneur with pennies to burn would waste them on this fruit loop.

About the film: it is REALLY BAD. The crew have no idea how to light, frame, block scenes or record sound. The editing was abysmal too. What was most distressing, apart from the really bad acting, was the total lack of suspension of disbelief throughout the whole film. It was so unconvincing and obvious that you could see the actors struggling with the concocted scenes and settings (how many scenes in a car or a kitchen Jesus Christ).

Film shouldn't by any means be original- make what you want as long as you do it well and with some gusto- but one should strive to be exemplary and create a credible cinematic world with some interesting motifs, ideas and themes. This film shouted out vanity and rhetoric on behalf of the maker with there being no reason for the smugness.

Talent is evident in a film (not a director's deluded comments on a message board or web page)- and there is zero semblance of any of that in this vile 'work'.

For the sake of us all, I really hope this director/clown stops trying to publicise and distribute his movies. Of course he is free to make them- but for all of us baby, please stop it. If not you shall be in the dock charged with crimes against film-making, and humanity. If you have taken my advice, I hope to see you at the next circus where you will be dressed up as yourself- a clown.

I just finished watching this movie on NetFlix. How it ever made it out of the creator's basement, I'll never know. Hopefully I can save someone else the 90 minutes this film takes to suffer through.

I realize that this is a low budget film. Sure, the acting isn't top notch, the camera work has occasional problems, and the sound track leaves something to be desired. I can look past all of those things. However, the unforgivable thing about this film is the horrendous storytelling. I wouldn't trash a film because the plot is lame, but this is a plot that is totally unintelligible for the first 45 minutes. You literally cannot tell what is going on. For the first 5 or 10 minutes, you find yourself asking "Who is that?" "What are these people doing?" "What's going on now?" But after 15 minutes it turns from intriguing to irritating. Then you just begin to laugh at how poorly done the whole thing is. Its really bad. Its not that a film has to be done in a totally linear way, but it needs to at least make a little sense. You just can't expect people to sit through 45 minutes worth of nonsense, that add literally nothing to the film, before you start telling the story.

The sad part is that the film actually becomes tolerable in the second half. Its never exactly what I would call good, but it at least resembles an actual movie.

Don't waste your time.

I'm not even going to go into how utterly terrible the 'plot', the acting, directing, writing, etc is. This film has the production values of a high school drama, but even then I'm sure the teachers wouldn't release such undercooked vile dribble to the unsuspecting parents. How this got released on DVD I have no idea, the DVD label obviously works under some 'pity' clause where they only release movies from filmmakers destined never to make anything but amateur nonsense. In that respect, it is a nice thought to aspiring filmmakers that a charity DVD label exists and even to the most talentless wannabe there is still hope.

I'm sure this film will never make it onto TV, the quality is just too low. But if you ever see a film listing for "Icharus Broken" then avoid it like you would avoid having sex with a prostitute infected with aids.

Man, those are two kick-in-the-balls responses right there.

Let's set out a few things - firstly, I'm not going to try and defend some of the heinous comments about sound quality and shaky camera-work. That's just bogus, stymied and plainly untrue.

If I set out to make a film that everybody was going to love, I'd be setting out on an impossible task and sitting on the fence. Instead, I shot a film that I wanted to make and many, many, many people have loved. Of course, I know you guys aren't in that group, but then, I'm not losing sleep.

The way I look at it, find the movie on your own terms, and if you like it, great. But if you don't like it, I hear Norbit is also on DVD...

This is a small, indie film shot in eight days with pretty much zero budget and minuscule crew, so don't expect a highly polished, flawless product (vitriol about the production values in other posts seems rather unnecessary comment to me). I too had a bit of a problem hearing some of the lines and I agree that there was too much dialogue; some of the lines-seemingly included for exposition purposes-were a bit laboured and probably unnecessary. But if you're ready to look beyond the flaws, you'll see a film that has imagination and emotional depth. Three inter-linking stories about people whose lives have been knock off course by tragedies, there are indeed echoes of 21 Grams and Babel (though comparisons with big budget movies are pointless really). The plot isn't linear, so it takes a bit of effort to work out the sequence of events, but it's all nicely pulled together in the closing scenes. I liked the music; though it was used to good effect to establish the mood of the film. In summary, not without flaws, but there is much to like about Icharaus Broken. It left me wondering what the director could do with the time and space that a proper budget allows....I'll be looking out for his next film.