Enchanted

An afternoon with nothing to do left me with a search of cable to find Enchanted, a throwback of a movie that feels more like early Capra movies or Walter Mitty than the slick MTV fare we've become so used to.

The engine of the movie are the continuing fantasy parodies of such GenX pillars as Star Wars or Tom Cruise which fuse together to make an interesting commentary on the effects of pop culture on a hapless generation of dreamers and voyeurs.

Other than that, it's just fun. Plain fun in the classic '30s matinee sense of the word. The actors are capable and engaging, the directing is smooth and unpretentious, and the script tight. Worth the cozy couch time on a rainy day. Check it out.

Indoors, not doing anything, switch on the television..channel 1 (flick)..channel 2 (flick)...what's on digital? AHHHH!!! film, Enchantment. Worth a look? Erm well overall NO!

Clue one: Main characters narrative throughout the film. It makes the original theatre narrative of harrison ford's bladerunner seem bearable (even in it's dour monotoned style)

Clue two: terrible dialogue. Initial scene on the campus had me reaching for the PS2's on switch on the other monitor. (almost relegating the film's audio to that of elevator music in my minds eye)

Clue three: Plentiful amounts of cheddar onscreen, a by-product of the constant cheesy line delivery.

The story is that of David's (main character obviously) attempts to find his way to his ambition of going to hollywood and being a filmmaker, getting the girl (the love of his life duh!), and...erm..that's it in a nutshell.

Interesting premise tho... His friends (all introduced in the first 2 minutes or so of the film) have talents that would advance their careers but only he sees it. This sets up short scenes where we see him sugessting they try to do a particular thing or take a particular path and that it would change their lives in some way. Sure enough the friends take his advice and rapidly (in the timeframe of this film anyway) find success. All accept David. As I said, interesting premise...

Poor, poor, POOR execution! Strangely enuff the film feels like a film school student's project... Constant interjectory scenes from the 'inspirational film school teacher' character trying to link filming/screenwriting concepts to our hero's life predicaments is yawn worthy. The film is also interspersed with spoofs of other films, empire strikes back, Star wars par example. All equally yawn-worthy except for... The one saving grace of the film, the final spoof scene at the very end of the film, that of the courtroom scene from 'A few good men'. I must say that this was VERY well done. So much so that it stands out from the rest of the whole film and almost jusitifies sitting thru the rest of the pap to get to it....on second thoughts..NAH.

The funny thing about it is that the film on IMDB is NOT listed as a TV movie. Hmmm... An important point since you generally know what you're getting with a TV movie. (generalisation I know)

IMHO, your time would be better spent doing something else (standout scene conceeded), such as..i dunno...trying to fix your PS2's DRE, or going for a walk.

Sorry...a twee, contrite film with no saving graces to elevate it above that of amateur status, barring the REALLY good courtroom spoof at the end.

Vented!!

This film at first looked to be a waste of time. But as I was bored, off school ill, I watched it. I was drawn in by the great actors. There was one actor, called David Kaufman, who was great as the sweet Allen. Although I missed the start, I was able to follow the story. Although it was a cliche love story, with a predictable ending, it was fun to watch. And the fact that Natalie got David, means Allen is free for me!

A better idea for a movie than actually came to be. I really enjoyed the little scenes made up to be other movies - especially the infamous "you can't handle the truth" scene (Ward does a pretty good Cruise!). More variety in acting style would have really livened up this flick. I would have also enjoyed more little vignettes - who wouldn't like those? They were the best part of the movie. So basically...good but could have been great.

Sometimes, the movie business can be a sick, sick venture. No, that's the the point of this painfully lame ego-fest about a recent film school grad who has troubles with life and celluloid. That's the impression you get after viewing this self-important bundle of cliches that is as tired as it is arrogant. After all, it's a mystery of epic proportions that something this bad could ever get produced.

I'm not so sure what's more offensive, the film's constant use of soft focus, or the fact that most porns have better acting, better dialogue, and more suspenseful plots.

David the filmmaker wants a girl. She wants stability. His responsible (read: bad) friend tries to swiper her away. Along the way, we learn that it's better to be a navel-gazing spewer of trite truths and drop casual and ineffective references to "Star Wars" and "A Few Good Men" because, gosh, those are movies no one thought to spoof. It reeks of "I just watched 'Good Will Hunting,' and now I want to be a screenwriter!"