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See This Movie
Ardustry Home Entertainment // R // February 14, 2006
List Price: $24.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
After three arduous days at a fly-by-night film school, Jake Barrymore (Seth Meyers) and Larry Finkelstein (John Cho) are ready to set out and make their own feature film. Thanks to feigned terminal illness and a well-placed ex-girlfriend 
(Jessalyn Gilsig), they even manage to sleaze their way onto a spot at the Montréal World Film Festival. The only problem...? They don't actually have a film...or a budget, a cast, a crew, or a script. But they do have a title and a screening three weeks off, so with their chainsmoking lech of a teacher filling in as editor and a pill-popping wannabe actress in tow, they head to Montréal and try to cobble together something before the lights go down. With a camera crew documenting the process, hilarity ensues.
Well, kind of. See This Movie has a brilliant premise and a solid cast, but the execution is frustratingly okay. It's funny and clever enough to make the movie worth a rental or keeping an eye out for on IFC, but even twenty minutes after the end credits rolled, I'm straining to think of any favorite lines or stand-out moments. The comedy works best when it's lobbing out filmmaking references or reveling in Jake's egomania, but it seems to go more for quiet smiles than big laughs. One minute it'll get a giggle from Jake's misunderstood nods to the Mike Leigh Method or Wim Wenders, and in the next, the humor'll switch to something really conventional like a Canadian who ends every sentence with 'eh?' or Jake acting goofy after accidentally gobbling some drugs. It all builds to an overly formulaic climax devoid of any laughs or surprises.
Aargh. It's horrifying to think that I can effortlessly scribble down a couple thousand words for a flick about killer bees on an airplane but strain to fill more than a couple of paragraphs about See This Movie. I'm so indifferent towards it that I can't think of much to say, and I guess that's the review right there. Festival junkies will probably love some of the filmmaking quips but will wince at the more clichéd jokes, and if you clicked on this review because you recognized that guy from Saturday Night Live or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle on the cover...this
isn't really the comedy for you. Great concept. Good cast. Thoroughly okay movie. Rent it or wait for it to show up on cable.
Video: See This Movie is letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 and is not enhanced for widescreen displays. The quality's pretty much what you'd expect from a quasi-guerilla DV shoot at a film festival: soft, a bit noisy under some lighting, but perfectly watchable.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (384Kbps) isn't that great a mix, tossing the dialogue around all three front speakers and barely using the surrounds and sub. Might be worth sticking with the stereo track that's also packed on here. In case anyone's wondering, there aren't any subtitles or closed captions.
Supplements: Not much -- there's a three minute and change set of outtakes, which is just spontaneous bursts of laughter and some impromptu Foreigner, along with a trailer. Strangely, the movie's website has more extras than the DVD, and after reading the EPK about an experienced documentary filmmaker undertaking this sort of unconventional experiment, I would've liked to have heard a commentary with writer/director David M. Rosenthal. Oh well.
The DVD sports a set of 4x3 animated menus and eight chapter stops.
Conclusion: See This Movie...the title's not bad advice, but rather than shell out twenty-something bucks to buy a copy of this kinda-funny, kinda-clever, uneven mockumentary, Rent It.
(Jessalyn Gilsig), they even manage to sleaze their way onto a spot at the Montréal World Film Festival. The only problem...? They don't actually have a film...or a budget, a cast, a crew, or a script. But they do have a title and a screening three weeks off, so with their chainsmoking lech of a teacher filling in as editor and a pill-popping wannabe actress in tow, they head to Montréal and try to cobble together something before the lights go down. With a camera crew documenting the process, hilarity ensues. Well, kind of. See This Movie has a brilliant premise and a solid cast, but the execution is frustratingly okay. It's funny and clever enough to make the movie worth a rental or keeping an eye out for on IFC, but even twenty minutes after the end credits rolled, I'm straining to think of any favorite lines or stand-out moments. The comedy works best when it's lobbing out filmmaking references or reveling in Jake's egomania, but it seems to go more for quiet smiles than big laughs. One minute it'll get a giggle from Jake's misunderstood nods to the Mike Leigh Method or Wim Wenders, and in the next, the humor'll switch to something really conventional like a Canadian who ends every sentence with 'eh?' or Jake acting goofy after accidentally gobbling some drugs. It all builds to an overly formulaic climax devoid of any laughs or surprises.
Aargh. It's horrifying to think that I can effortlessly scribble down a couple thousand words for a flick about killer bees on an airplane but strain to fill more than a couple of paragraphs about See This Movie. I'm so indifferent towards it that I can't think of much to say, and I guess that's the review right there. Festival junkies will probably love some of the filmmaking quips but will wince at the more clichéd jokes, and if you clicked on this review because you recognized that guy from Saturday Night Live or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle on the cover...this
isn't really the comedy for you. Great concept. Good cast. Thoroughly okay movie. Rent it or wait for it to show up on cable. Video: See This Movie is letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 and is not enhanced for widescreen displays. The quality's pretty much what you'd expect from a quasi-guerilla DV shoot at a film festival: soft, a bit noisy under some lighting, but perfectly watchable.
Audio: The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (384Kbps) isn't that great a mix, tossing the dialogue around all three front speakers and barely using the surrounds and sub. Might be worth sticking with the stereo track that's also packed on here. In case anyone's wondering, there aren't any subtitles or closed captions.
Supplements: Not much -- there's a three minute and change set of outtakes, which is just spontaneous bursts of laughter and some impromptu Foreigner, along with a trailer. Strangely, the movie's website has more extras than the DVD, and after reading the EPK about an experienced documentary filmmaker undertaking this sort of unconventional experiment, I would've liked to have heard a commentary with writer/director David M. Rosenthal. Oh well.
The DVD sports a set of 4x3 animated menus and eight chapter stops.
Conclusion: See This Movie...the title's not bad advice, but rather than shell out twenty-something bucks to buy a copy of this kinda-funny, kinda-clever, uneven mockumentary, Rent It.
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