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I'm Your Man

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Review by Jeremy Kleinman | posted December 4, 2000 | E-mail the Author
The Movie

When it was initially released, "I'm Your Man" was a bit of somewhat revolutionary filmmaking. Allowing viewers to choose which characters to follow and what to do, "I'm Your Man" is a bit of a "choose your own adventure" movie. Featuring Kevin Seal, Colleen Quinn and Mark Metcalf (Niedermeyer in "Animal House") star as Jack, Leslie and Richard, the three central characters between whom the viewer may choose to accompany.

While the birth of the concept demonstrates tremendous inventiveness, unfortunately, the story of the film (with any of the characters) is less than compelling. The movie itself lasts only about 15-20 minutes, and the story is only mildly entertaining. The film follows Jack's attempts to meet a girl at a party, Leslie's attempts to meet up with a Agent to turn over information which would implicate her supervisor, Richard, and Richard's attempts to prevent her from doing so. The film offers many opportunities to choose to continue with each character as well as a few opportunities to tell the character to do one thing or another. At times the choices lead to somewhat disjointed segments, but the concept itself is fun and promises good things for the future as the concept is mixed with better overall product.

Now that other titles are being released which actively let the viewer control the outcome of the film, this film, due to its length and the fact that the story of the film is a bit flat, is less worth checking out, but for those who want to just see what the format is like, the DVD is fun. Although not part of the film itself, there is also, amongst the extras, an introduction by A. Whitney Brown to the format and the film itself and its characters which is a nice treat for those not previously exposed to the format.

The Picture

"I'm Your Man" is presented in full screen projection. The picture quality is decent throughout the film. The picture is not particularly sharp, but there are not any major imperfections in the film. The picture reflects the rather low-budget nature of the film.

The Sound

The sound transfer on this DVD is decent. It is presented in 2 Channel Digital sound, and the dialogue and the film's music, provided by Joe Jackson are adequate without any adjustment in volume.

Bonus Materials

The "I'm Your Man" DVD is supplemented by Audio Commentary by the film's director, Bob Bejan, a 10 minute featurette on the film, a collection of outtakes, story boards for additional scenes which were going to be added, trailers for two upcoming interactive films, A. Whitney Brown's original introduction to the film, and notes from Interfilm's original mission statement.

The trailers, for "Bomb Meister" and "Ride for Your Life" the latter including Adam West, the actor who played Shrug on "It's Like, You Know" and a couple other notable actors, are fairly entertaining and suggest that InterFilm has progressed in their creative efforts after "I'm Your Man."

The Director's Commentary included on the DVD is interesting and enjoyable and it accompanies all three character story lines. The commentary track includes extensive discussion of the process of making the film, and the use of interactive film, and his experiences with the actors. Bejan is fairly colloquial and constantly refers to Metcalf as "Neidermeyer."

Among the other features included on the DVD, the story boards for additional commissioned scenes are all a bit outlandish, and the outtakes are mainly scenes in which someone messed up a line or if there was a boom mike in the scene. Finally, the featurette, is a bit like a long commercial for the film but does feature interviews with the cast, the director and the producer of the film, and it is enjoyable to hear their comments about their experiences making this film.

Final Thoughts

While the idea of choosing one's own adventure on a DVD is both novel and fun, this DVD, while showcasing the format well, fails to back up the experience with a fairly enjoyable film. For those who are fascinated by the notion of interactive DVD, I would recommend renting this film, but I would suggest trying an alternate Interfilm title.

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