Guy X

This is an interesting military comedy about a G.I. (Jason Biggs) who is misassigned to Greenland instead of Hawaii. What is even worse, it that he is supposed to be a Public Information Officer, and the CO (Jeremy Northam) wants a newspaper.

Being that I have been on remote bases (Hofn Iceland) and have also produced a base newspaper as an extra duty, it was of interest to me. The cinematography was outstanding, although it was actually Iceland in the film, not Greenland.

Biggs (American Pie), Northam (Gosford Park, Happy Texas), and Natascha McElhone (Solaris, Ronin) all gave good performance that kept you interested, but not completely satisfied. Biggs certainly enhanced his credibility as an actor in this film.

Guy X? well, that is something for you to discover.

"Sitting on top of the world" "25 Miles" "When the Saints Go Marching In" "War" "Spinning Wheel" "Peer Gynt" "A Fifth of Beethoven" "Action Time Vision" "Louie Louie" "One Mint Julep" "Walk Like a Man" "Lonesome Day"

Interspersed with a Catch 22 environment and a dark secret.

Set in 1979 Corporal Rudy Spruance (Jason Biggs) is inadvertently deposited in a weird out post in Greenland, actually filmed in Snæfellsnes, Iceland. There he learns about edible Puffins and wayward blonds (Natascha McElhone.) Until one day he discovers the true purpose of the base. You will need to watch the movie to find out the secret, what this secret means for Corporal Rudy Spruance and us.

Good premise and location, but unfortunately the story doesn't live up to the log-line.

The establishing shots introduce a seemingly endless and dreary vista, a concept that the film then exploits with poor acting and a mundane story line.

Set on a US Army base in Greenland Saul Metzstein shoehorns in some unsophisticated communist imagery, made more obvious from wooden badly cast characters. The moralising of the story is minimised by the inability to sympathise or engage with the characters.

There is no chemistry between Biggs and McElhone. It seemed unbelievable to me that strong and intelligent Irene Teal would fall so naively for bullying Lane Woolwrap. Unfortunately Biggs will always be the guy who did 'that' to the Apple Pie.

The 'engaging hooks' the film presents are so tedious that once truths are exposed in the final act they create no greater emotional response than disinterest.

Dear oh dear oh dear.

About a US Army base in Greenland, this film could have been a winner.

Instead, due to the lack of an engaging storyline, it is pretty dull.

When the film ends, your reaction is likely to be "is that it?".

Some good performances and pretty well filmed for a low budget film, but I'd say an average day at work is more interesting than this.

The film is nowhere near as meaningful, funny, poignant or satirical as it thinks it is, instead it merely takes nearly two hours to tell a story which could easily have been well told in 30 minutes

I saw the UK premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival and I'd be very surprised if Guy X sets the UK box office alight when it is released in October.