Z/Web

Really cool understated verbal film, with dialog closer to a play than a movie. The main character, a teenage boy, is fascinated by war re-enactments. He’s too smart for his own good and his intelligence gets him in trouble at home, at school, and with his friends. The plot’s a sort of coming-of-age thing, but it’s not really central to the movie. What drives the film is the boy’s sly wit. For instance, in one scene, at the grocery story where he stocks shelves a night, he comments on how the store has more flavors of cat food than baby food. That’s an interesting societal commentary. Overall low-key with lots of subtle humor, I really liked this. Definitely above average but doesn’t try too hard. Excellent. I was, however, disappointed with the featureless DVD — not a single extra. Since this was the “Project Greenlight” winner (an online screenplay contest) I expected at minimum a documentary on the making of the film and director commentary, but there was nothing. Thus this is a rental, not a purchase DVD. Lame.

This wasn’t as bad as the reviews make it sound. I got exactly what I expected: a comic book revenge story. Retiring FBI agent’s family is slaughtered so he becomes the “Punisher,” out for revenge. Nothing hugely outstanding or disappointing here. The plot’s predictable, the acting decent, and there are even a couple touching moments, though the whole “pity me my family’s been killed” thing was done to death. There were a few nice scenes, but overall the film’s just average. Also, the guy just doesn’t seem very superhero-like: he’s very much an average guy who just happens to be highly skilled at killing people (and he was before his revenge quest — it wasn’t like he bulked up for his task). The biggest problem is that the film is much two long: at a ponderous two hours it should have been condensed to an exciting 90.