Undiscovered

Although not the most sophisticated movie. Storyline is cute and Steven Strait, Pell James and Ashlee Simpson were pretty good. Some line didn't make sense and the sceen where he's acting like a rock star on stage not even noticing the groupie and Josie fighting over him was a little ridiculous and tacky. It may not be up to par with other really good romantic movies such as Notting Hill, Sleepless in Seattle, Pride and Prejudice, The Princess Bride, Pretty woman, When harry met sally.(I can add a lot more but I be sitting here for a good solid hour or so)Aside from all those movies it still is cute feel good (if you're a sap like me) movie. PS. The soundtrack's awesome too.

Cheesy plot? Check. Mediocre acting? Check. Stilted lines? Check. Clichéd Hollywood characters? Check. Undiscovered had everything you would expect to find in a mostly bad teen movie. But it did have a few redeeming qualities as well. Like great music, a really funny supporting character, not to mention a lead actor who can really work a pair of leather pants. I went to see a sneak preview of Undiscovered expecting to make fun of it, but I walked out of the theater mostly wanting to check out the soundtrack. The main male character, played by Steven Strait, is a want-to-be rock star who has a ten second encounter with a pretty girl on a New York subway. Fast forward two years, the two meet again in Hollywood. Then, in what seemed to be a highly contrived plot point, the girl, now a successful model, decides to fast-track the guy's career, all while pretending she doesn't like him. Fast forward a few months, the guy's career is taking off, but the pair are still in limbo. I won't say anymore about the plot. Suffice it to say that while the script and story seemed a little forced, and I was pretty sure the director/photographer wanted to make me throw up with a lot of shaking hand-held close-ups, Undiscovered had a pretty good cast of up and comers and a great soundtrack. I was really surprised by Ashlee Simpson, and actually walked out of the theater with more respect for her than when I walked in. Who knew the girl could actually sing.

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.

"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

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.