Peace and Riot

a terrible movie. The plot is so thin and ridiculous I almost thought it was one of those God-botherer movies. The acting seemed forced and painful to watch, the lead actors had no chemistry whatsover. The characters are so poorly contrived, there is very little likable about any of them. Oh, and whoever wrote the song 'Running over Raymond' needs to quit this industry immediately. I wish my dog hadn't sat on the remote so I could have turned this off sooner.

One of the first questions to ask. Does this story need to be told? Next, ask is it believable. Many people make films to make money. This may be one of them. It is so uneven. It looks like a porno film. The editing is full of quick dissolves which don't really work. The sets are sparse and the art direction non- existent. It's hard to believe this woman would be interested in this guy. Even though it was made a couple of years ago, there are no cell phones and Ms Pheil buys an answering machine for the land line. Feels like it was made in the 80's but wasn't. Did these producers go to film school or even study films? I'm not sure what went wrong here. The script may have been written poorly. They even go as far as putting "The End" at the end. Nobody does this anymore.

Anna Pheil is great (considering what this is), not just as an actress but, if one were to like what she seems to consider music, also as a musician. I will describe Crystal this way: she makes her living singing and making noise with her guitar. I won't dignify it by calling it music. And she is a basically a nice girl, though with a somewhat edgy personality. She's easy enough to like. Believe it or not, she wears bunny slippers. I am glad, however, that I saw this on broadcast TV, where the language had to be cleaned up. She has got a mouth on her.

Richard is in more than just the first few scenes, but that's all I'll say about that. I kept thinking he looked familiar, but he's Gary Busey's son. He's sort of a jerk but pleasant enough.

Ben Savage is appealing but not really more of an actor than his TV career would suggest.

Richard Riehle and Janet Wood do a fine job.

Despite Crystal's musical taste, there is actually music in this movie. There is some nice background music with acoustic guitar. In one romantic scene involving the older couple, there is music from the big band era. Similar music is playing in a restaurant where Scott goes to get away from it all. Most of the background music is kind of new age style, with what sounds sort of like a guitar, some loud drums, a piano and something that sounds like a violin is plugged in.

Be sure to stay around for the closing credits. There are some Youtube style performances, in various genres, of a ridiculous song Crystal writes. The hicks who sort of sound country are the best in my opinion. The rappers' video is professional quality. Whatever that is worth, since it is rap.

It's sort of like a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, only with bad words and naughty talk. Cute, but not too cute.

Sorry but I sat thru this entire film thinking "why am I watching this rubbish?!" and it never picked up! AVOID