Undiscovered

So, I'm looking through Hulu for something to watch and I come across Undiscovered, the long awaited reuniting of Kip Pardue and Shannyn Sossamon after The Rules of Attraction. A delectable Pell James, Ashlee Simpson, Carrie Fisher, Fisher Stevens, and Peter Weller. A 2005 movie. Very artful cinematography. Why am I first hearing about this movie on Hulu? It has so much going for it.

Well, it was distributed by Lions Gate... a warning flag goes up. I think of Lions Gate and I think of a studio that built itself with signing the rights to bottom of the barrel movies and successfully distributing them.

Ah, despite the compelling cinematography, which compels me to keep watching, and the great presence of Miss James, and the fairly decent directing job, the story just plain blows. It comes close to being compelling but in each instance, falls to cliché, and even does a poor job at that. Miss Simpson gives a nice performance. Miss Sossamon's talent is sorely wasted in this movie. It makes sense why it went straight to Hulu, but with so much going for it, it doesn't make sense why it turned out to be such a poor movie. I am sure that a lot of people put their hearts into this movie. There was a lot of talent here. Just sometimes, it's not enough... you need that stroke of lightning.

I will say this though... as we get older and we live our lives in the suburbs, we have to remember that there are people, like the characters in this movie, who are really living life, and experiencing the world and new things every day. We need to keep that sense of adventure, otherwise, we are the walking dead of suburbia.

This movie is called UNDISCOVERED, and it should have stayed that way. We find totally uninspiring characters, a weak plot and some self-conscious acting. It fails to ignite, never making it's mind up about what it really wants to be and in the end leaves the viewer with total indifference. There are obvious attempts a edgy camera-work and innovative cinematography but in the end that also fails miserably. Due to the aimless script the viewer never develops any sympathy or empathy for any character. This movie lasts roughly 90 minutes, which is about 88 minutes too long. The best part of the whole thing is one or two Ashley Simpson songs, and that's not even overly impressive.

Luke (Strait) and Brier (James) are two beautiful young people who have a chance encounter on a New York subway. Shortly later, they both go to L.A. to find fame, he as a rock star and her as an actress, but when they run into each other again, they have to decide whether their relationship is strong enough to withstand "the business." Undiscovered was named by many as the worst film of 2005. I can't say I really agree with that. The movie is kind of weak but it's still tolerable and it's also pretty harmless. The premise is fairly interesting even if it's not very original. The execution is only average but still much better than expected. The romance is pretty weak though and just not very interesting. The two leads don't have enough chemistry to make the movie work. There are a few moments of intrigue and some nice performances but the end result is still unsatisfying. The reason the film is kind of lackluster is because of the writer and the director. John Galt wrote the screenplay and he fails to really add anything new to this movie. Also, Meiert Avis just keeps everything by the numbers without adding any surprises.

The acting is only okay with Carrie Fisher giving the best performance. She isn't given a lot of screen time but she still manages to give a few funny lines. Pell James is pretty good as Brier Tucket. She has that "model" look and she has an engaging quality that kept focusing my attention to her. Steven Strait is only okay as Luke. He's a little dull but he has that "rock star" look that suited the character. Ashlee Simpson plays Clea and she is actually only a supporting character in the movie. Her performance is surprisingly average (like the film) but she should stick to singing. Shannyn Sossamon was just annoying and not funny while Kip Pardue was only okay.

I think the supporting characters really kept this movie moving. The scenes between Clea and Brier were pretty nice and engaging. Most of the characters were also pretty likable so the viewer at least cares for a happy ending. The ending was surprisingly good but very obvious. The music wasn't as painful as I was expecting it to be. I don't really like the type of music that was performed in the film but some of the songs were decent. Of course, there were a few cheesy songs but they can't all be winners. I think the movie was unfairly bashed because of Ashlee Simpson's appearance. However, she didn't bring down the movie and the film itself wasn't horrible. In the end, Undiscovered isn't worth checking out but it's not a travesty either. Rating 5/10

Undiscovered was a typical romance drama/coming-of-age film for 20-something's with no backbone or intrigue. I watched it for Shannyn Sossamon because she's played these great characters in the past with very little going on in their lives, but in this film, she's this Brazilian model-type who seems very much in the wrong film (the character does anyways).

I don't know what US Weekly was smoking when they proclaimed on the back of the DVD "Ashlee Simpson shines as a punky inspiring singer-actress." Simpson was basically playing a girl with no real depth and a horrible nasal voice. I do however believe in what the New York Post said about Pell James, that "(she) is adorable and winsome, she's a romantic star in the making." She might be a not-so-well-known actress, but she was a well cast lead girl for this film. But the main "dude," Steven Strait, is just a big baby with too much of his heart on his shoulder, and his knack for writing lame songs in the movie just puts the character in the ground.

I really only liked a few things about the movie. 1) Carrie Fisher. She hasn't been in a whole lot of films as of late, so it was good to see her as a lead role in the model/actress' career. 2) The chick fight in the Viper Room scene. That's always killer. And 3) The small joke about the main singer guy having arachnophobia (told by his agent at Tantra Records).

The rest of the film has been done before by better actors. There was boring music (which consisted of acoustic sets and U2 ripoff songs), a ridiculous back and forth love story which makes you want to turn the DVD off ahead of time, the dude acting like a baby through most of the film because he finds out that his contract was helped out by Brier (the main girl) and it wasn't because of his lame songs, and there was even a ridiculous chant that the Tantra Records' associates go into after deleting this guy from the label. I really didn't get the line when she calls up this musician guy and adds "I know. This is borderline stalking you." Hello? He's been obsessing about you the whole movie, not the other way around.

I had to give the film a 3/10. It was shot well, but their was no driving force that kept my attention to the screen without reminding me of how much of a cable TV movie this is. I hope this was just made to give Ashlee Simpson a film career because if the writer really felt depth in this script, I would start to lose hope in the future of film.

"Undiscovered" is the story about a group of people who move from New York to Los Angeles in order to jump start their careers. The movie focuses mainly on the lives of Luke Falcon (Steven Strait) who is struggling to become a singer/songwriter and Brier (Pell James) who wants to become an actress. "Undiscovered" shows the things people go through in order to make their dreams come through along with the hard aches of love and friendship.

I'm just going to cut to chase right away in this review, and say this movie has been done before and has been done better. This movie really does live up to its title because a. it's basically a movie about lives of people who are undiscovered and b. it's a movie that will surely be undiscovered not only in the theaters but on DVD as well. The movie on the whole is rather average and sadly that's about it. I mean like I said, this story has been done before and just when the film looks like it's going to move past it's average screenplay it just falls down and never makes it past that mark.

The movie reminds me of two things, the first thing it reminds me of is a really long music video and the second thing this film reminds me of is the TV show called "Making the Video." The movie on the whole is like a mix of the two and nothing really else. The movie kind of falls in the same category of movies like "Crossroads," "Honey," and "Glitter" however in this case this movie isn't as laughably bad as "Honey" or "Glitter" because the acting and dialog really isn't that bad but like I said just horribly average.

I have to give credit where credit is due and I must give Ashlee Simpson credit here. Now I know most of the United States for some odd reason hates Ashlee Simpson for whatever reason but I don't mind her. I think honestly she is the best thing to come out of this film because she was decent in it. And before anyone jumps the gun and says that I am just saying that because I am a fan that's a load of crap because I thought she was going to be awful in this movie from the get go and even laughed when I saw that she was in it. So that being said, I really do think she was the best thing in the movie and did much better here then her sister Jessica did in the god-awful "Dukes of Hazzard". Also the other good thing about this movie was Carrie Fisher who along with Ashlee made this film somewhat enjoyable. The rest of the people in the movie aren't bad actors and I don't think they should be left undiscovered but they just were so average in their roles but that could be because of the screenplay.

The director of this film Meiert Avis is best known for directing music videos for U2 and Bruce Springsteen and honestly I think he should stick to directing music videos because I didn't see much film work in this movie that I wouldn't see in music videos.

In closing, "Undiscovered" just doesn't have much to offer. If this was a made for TV movie it would be fine but the fact that people have to pay $5 -$10 to see this movie isn't going to go over well. While I didn't particularly enjoy much about the movie outside of Ashlee Simpson, Carrie Fisher, and the soundtrack, I didn't feel like I hated this movie when I walked out of the theater. It's just very average and very unoriginal but it still had a few moments and things about it that made it a little enjoyable. I wouldn't recommend anyone paying money to see this film in the theater at regular price but maybe a rental would be a decent choice. This movie isn't the worst thing you could watch, there are films far worse so if your in the video store a few months from now and you see "Undiscovered" sitting on the shelve pick it up and give it a shot.

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Undiscovered" is a 4/10