Verrückt nach Corey

I have just returned from the Toronto Film Festival, breathless not only from laughing at the film, but also because I ran - literally ran - from the theatre to the nearest Internet Cafe so that I might register my immense pleasure with this film. Every aspect of this movie blows me away. Take every cheesy romantic comedy you've seen, every lame line you've seen delivered by a plastic Romeo to his inflatable Juliet, and throw them away. Dean Paras has managed to breathe new life into the rotting corpse that WAS American (or Canadian) dramedy. The movie is superb, funny, sad, real, real, real. Go see this with the person you intend to marry, and present the ring afterwards. She may be so greatful that you made her watch it, she'll say yes.

The movie is like a short-story, almost like an episode in a standard romantic/funny series. One episode is described, very few characters.

The plot is about a guy who is stuck in his old tricks when he really falls in love with a girl. You can guess the rest of the story from that sentence.

Some reviews I have read tells this is a guy sweet-talking a girl to a one-night stand, and afterwards falling in love (the standard story). But I like to take what happened in the beginning as "a fact", a girl meets a boy, they are interested in each others, the boys character and history complicates the situation.

So, it is not really a very complicated or enriching or anything, but it is a fair try to make a romantic movie.

Most of the main characters are built good enough. Both Danny (Dean Paras) and Peter Angelo (David DeLuise), along with other people from Danny's past are described through a look-back which works. They both play their roles well. Tim (Stefan Brogren) is presented as a mix between a heterosexual gay person, a strange artist, a looser and an a**hole. He is a bit too weird. Corey (Katie Wright) is an adorable "normal girl", by other reviews accused of being naive - but she isn't really.

Renee Weber (Neve Campbell) is a former girlfriend which Danny tricked in high-school, and she is obsessed with that still. I think Neve Campbell is playing badly in this movie. Her character is much less believable than the others. Jennifer (Rebecca Gayheart) is the most shallow character, I think it is not the actor as much as a problem with the script that makes her performance feel bad.

The progress of the film is fair enough. It starts with the background stuff, continues with a romantic sequence where the characters shows themselves, and sort of climaxes just before the end, after interference plots has played their part to affect the outcome of the film.

So, if you want to see a movie played well enough, at least as good as a standard TV-series, with a beginning and an end, with a romantic and somewhat complicated story which makes you feel good at the end - this movie should work for you.

I recently saw the 2002 version of The Count of Monte Cristo - a film where the filmmakers has destroyed a moderate story by making the last half of the movie a dull listing of on who (not even how) the Count takes his revenge (and of course a stupid happy ending), and saw that it has a 7.5/10 user rating.

This movie does not try to pretend to be much more than it is, and it certainly is a better movie than that movie. I don't feel like give it 7.5, but in its class I feel it deserves 6/10.

It took me a long time to track down this movie. I phoned every video store, finally one day I walked into another store (in my hometown this time) and there it was! Just when I wasn't looking. The reason I wanted to leave a comment because it was wonderful to see Stefan Brogren in a role other than "Snake" or "Mr. Simpson" from "Degrassi". He was extremely fun to watch. It is always nice to see some well-known actors with actors who are not as well known. cheers to this movie!

Danny (Dean Paras, who also wrote and directed the film) is a struggling Hollywood writer working on a screenplay with his roommate. He's also a young womanizer with a lie to manipulate any romantic encounter. Unexpectedly, he falls hard for Corinne, a beautiful young actress. Should Danny use his arsenal of tricks or would it be better to be honest and upfront in the pursuit of his dream woman? Meanwhile, former girlfriend Renee (Neve Campbell) is out to sabotage any relationship Danny may pursue. Will Danny get back what he's been dishing out for so long?

This film has an attractive young cast that makes the film a pleasure to watch, even when the funny script proves uneven. Campbell and Stefan Brogren, as Danny's roommate, are a hoot. Then, too, the young Hollywood scene for ambitious wannabes is portrayed with some threads of realism. Those who like hip, post-college comedies with a modern take on romance will enjoy this film. Such viewers should try hard to locate it at the video store or library.

Maybe it's just me, but I hate people loving independant movies even though they are in black and white and SLOW and boring! But Hairshirt is not like those (excuse my language) b***shit movies. It's WAY better and real and funny and not cliche. See it if it comes out!