Deadline

I love movies, big budget and small. For me, there are times when the flash, bling, gadgets, explosions and CG just overpower a film and take away from the story line rather than add to it. To me Deadline was a pleasant surprise of what can still be accomplished on a shoe string budget given the right cast, crew and of course story line. When I first saw Deadline I really didn't know the cast that well. Low and behold shortly after viewing the film I started realizing that I have seen many of the actors on both the large and small screen. Two of them just recently went on to do the new TV series Chicago Fire Deadline does an amazing job of setting the viewer up right until the last minute. This movie sucked me into the plot as I became comfortable with the actors on the screen. Suspense, horror, a little bit of blood and shooting always get my attention when not just done for shock value. The solid performances by the actors and the addition of suspense kept me intrigued from beginning to end. The cast and crew did an incredible job of making a solid motion picture that will be enjoyed by the big blockbuster fans to the purists who prefer the indies. It will be interesting to see how the writer/Director does with his sophomore effort as there is plenty of room and reason to keep his cameras rolling.

After having my copy of Deadline sit around for over a year, and then finding out the film pick up it's 13th award (to date), I thought it was time to see what all the fuss was about...

And I can tell you, Deadline is worthy of all the buzz it's been generating. It's a mystery/ psychological thriller that succeeds on so many levels. It shows just what can be achieved on a limited budget, when a creative script meets a talented cast a crew.

The story-line is tight, and the acting sharp. The technical aspects of the movie, particularly the lighting and soundtrack choices, really help to increase the mood of the film. It's creepy!

Deadline doesn't boast a big name cast, and didn't blow it's budget on elaborate special effects, but the production value obtained does allows it to tell the story very well.

Overall, Deadline is much more than the sum of it's parts. If you enjoy these types of movies, you'll definitely appreciate the work that went into it, and the final product output.

Roll on the sequel...

I watch a lot of movies, and I really feel like I see the same crap over and over. Well a friend was telling me that I should check out this low budget movie, and first when you hear low budget you think that it may now hold up to movies that have multi millions of $ spent one them. Let me tell you, I really enjoyed it though, and it was a gr8 surprise. When it started I thought I was in for another horror story, there was the classic beauty, and mysterious crimes going on, but you were never quit sure what specifically was happening. So the mystery element started to evolve in the plot, and you are not quite sure what is going on with these crimes that keep happening you just felt on the edge of your seat ready to see what happens next. Also the acting was top notch, and the director was able to pull together some great performances. It made me think back on what Quinten Teritino was able to accomplish in Reservoir Dogs. It was that kind of gritty movie, gun fights, action, and all of the above kind of movie. Plus it was pulled off in a way that was very convicting given the budget. The best part was the ending and how the director was able to pull everything together. Really good, for sure worth checking out.

Kyle and Sarah are starting a life together in a renovated house in Hollywood Hills, on the same property where the original house burned-down a decade earlier with its owner vanished...

There are any number of problems with this film. I could talk about the poor acting (especially from screen veteran Gary Hudson) or the poor effects. I could discuss the slow pacing of what could have been an exciting action or horror film. I could complain of the gratuitous nudity (the woman in the opening scene must have the world's dirtiest chest for how long she stands there massaging herself).

But, really, this comes down to one big problem: a script that has no narrative and no attempt at a linear plot. Is it a story about two corrupt cops? Is it a story about a couple who move into a house that was built on top of the ashes of a murder site? Somehow the story wants to be both, but actually tells us neither. By spending so much time on the cops, we learn very little about the haunting. And even with the cops, we never really get he full story on why they are corrupt (and how they do not get caught for such cavalier actions).

And why is the wife a best-selling author who is going to go on a book tour and has writer's block? She is never shown writing, nor does her job factor in to the story. Why are we shown murders of two random friends or the forensics guy and his wife? We could hear about the forensics guy, and the friends really did not matter at all. The forensics guy was completely miscast, by the way -- he looked far too young.

As I writing this rambling response to this film, I have in the back of my mind that the IMDb rating is 6.6 -- much higher than the average movie. This suggests to me that only the director's friends have rated the film and once the general public sees it, it will plummet to a 2 or 3. And somehow the movie won a few film festival awards. Sure, none of these are film festivals that actually matter, even among independent film junkies, but to win this means that the competition was even worse. God forbid those other films ever see the light of day.

Is this the worst film ever made? Far from it. That honor goes to "Hell's Threshold". And, to be fair, I have seen enough horror films to know that this is not even in the top 10% of worst films. But it is pretty bad, and I understand why it has waited two years to find distribution. I just wish it had stayed hidden -- no one can watch this and find any enjoyment in it.

I watched this movie with a group of friends when we didn't have anything better to do on a Saturday night. We picked this one at random and found that is was a pretty good choice. The first scene is really good because it really makes you want to watch the whole movie, not for kids under 13. Even though this a low-budget thriller the cast was exceptionally skilled at doing there jobs and keeping us the audience on our toes. One thing that I will really praise this movie, is the music. The music is super duper suspenseful and always keeps you on the edge of your seat, your always thinking 'expect the unexpected' when watching this. The movie was pretty short and i was expecting sub plots but, this straight forward and intense. This movie contains a ton of action, blood, gore and kick-ass scenes plus its fun to watch with a girl, the music keeps ready to yell. So overall good movie and worth the time to check out, for a low-budget film it succeeded my expectations. If you like mystery/ thrillers this is a must, and the craziest part is that its based of real events, so if you don't like ghosts and all this is a must watch.