The Unknown Trilogy

As a past film student and one who appreciates good suspense, I really enjoyed The Unknown Trilogy. I had a chance to see it this week for the first time. The Unknown Trilogy is made up of three short stories that definitely reminded me of Night Gallery, or Twilight Zone. These stories are definitely well written and are very thought provoking, suspenseful and true to life. The cinematography was beautiful as well as the music. Also the dialog very believable and frankly, the acting was very, very good too! Sal Mazotta, Ed O'Ross, David Proval, Johnny Williams, Angie Everhart, Robert Constanzo, Abe Vigoda and Justin Guarini all did an excellent job. In the eternal words of Siskel and Ebert, and my humble opinion, this film deserves a thumbs up!

I know truly crappy movie quality when I see it, and I have to say that based on many of the other reviews, here, I was fully expecting this to be among that ilk of film. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen - the reviews are either glowing wonderful or glowing with damnation, no in- between. But really, it's just your average very-low-budget indie type film. I really rather enjoyed it. Granted, there were so many ways it could've been improved, but I think the creators and actors did about as good as they could with what they had been given. It has a sort of Twilight Zone/Alfred Hitchcock tone to it. But all in all, and especially for all the horrid reviews, I was very pleasantly surprised. Just watch the first 15-20 minutes if you're not sure, that should be enough to tell you whether or not you can stand to watch the rest of it. As low-budget as it was, it at least seems to have had some people behind it who actually tried doing a good job - I didn't get a sense of any of this as having been "tossed to the wind" or just carelessly, haphazardly thrown together. It can actually be a bit touching if you let yourself get carried down that route with it. Not the greatest, but certainly worth watching. The three stories are just right so that if you'd prefer it, you could technically watch them in separate viewings and not really miss a thing. So if you don't think you don't want to spend an entire hour-and-a-half on it all at once, don't - I think the 2nd & 3rd story will keep well until you're in the mood. This review would be so much more positive if not for feeling like I have to try to find some way to explain the rancor & bile - I just don't see what the justification is for some of the remarks. Granted, I -do- think some of the rave reviews early on were probably faked, but that doesn't automatically mean it's a horrible film - I don't approve of faked reviews, but even believing that to be the case, I can't really trash the movie over it. It's not a bad little set of flicks. Whimsical, basic, very simple story-telling.

I am a huge fan of the "mystery/thriller/horror" genre and watch almost any movie i come across in this genre. To be honest, this was exactly how i got the chance to watch this movie and I am extremely happy that i did. I have watched innumerable anthology movies but this definitely is one of the best of 'em all. This movie comes like a whiff of fresh air. All the three stories are intriguing and move at a nice pace, eliminating the possibility of boredom to creep in. The movie stays true to the premise it offered at the beginning, that of delving into the human psyche in different circumstances. No action or violence (read gore) was needed and thankfully not used to create tension or suspense, chills. A brilliantly scripted and directed movie along with some impressive acting, A huge achievement for such a low budget movie. Watch it if you can, believe me you'll not regret it. watch it with your family on a Sunday afternoon and you'll all might actually enjoy it together!!!!! I give it 8/10 Highly recommended

Justin plays a character named "Keith," a high roller that "Frankie" (played by writer/producer Sal Mazzotta) encounters at a roulette table in Atlantic City. Frankie is a gambler, down on his luck, who gets some lucky numbers from a mysterious man, "Lucky Smith," played by David Proval ("The Sopranos"). As Frankie and Keith play roulette, Frankie's luck changes. Suddenly, he's winning, he's on top of the world, and beautiful women (always present at roulette tables) want to be with him. Who is the mysterious man who gave him the numbers and what does he want in exchange?? The show is in the vein of The Twilight Zone, and very Hitchcock-like. Adam West will be the voice of the narrator, "Dr. Sol Rubin," taking the place of his good friend Frank Gorshin who passed away. Justin is in one scene but he is considered one of the principals in the episode. They had a blast shooting the scene at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.

As I sat there watching the first of the 3 stories I had this gnawing sense of being conned. I'd read the IMDb comments and most suggested an entertaining experience. Obviously they were written by one of the film's financial backers for this is a truly awful film. The dialog is border-line moronic, the characters are hackneyed stereotypes and the plots are so simplistic and obvious that one has to wonder who could find the stories worth telling. I can truthfully see film schools forcing their students to watch this as a lesson on how not to make a movie. It's hard to imagine how this piece was ever actually released, but if you examine the credits you will find a very limited number of people involved. My only advice would be to learn from your mistakes and move on to new projects.