Te estoy viendo.com

I saw this movie as part of the "selling to distributors" process. The test audience was peppered with media PTBs and you could tell them apart from the "civilians" because they were seated in taped off areas.

Anyway, the movie...

Before the movie started I had doubts about the timeliness. Because of the "dot gone" bust and "reality TV" I was concerned I was about to see a movie that was a little anachronistic. Five minutes into the movie and I was no longer worried - I was laughing too hard. Beau Bridges and Mathew Botuchis' performances are OK, but the girls (Rosanna Arquette, Baelyn Neff and Shiri Appleby) steal the show. Rosanna plays the mom and she does a great job as the sex/day-trading addicted counter to Bridges "toilet bowl" salesman. Ms. Neff is great in the role of "daddy's little princess" providing the foil to Mathew's "Colby". But the best had to be Shiri Appleby as "Randi Sommers". Ms. Appleby, always understated and extremely watchable, takes what could have been a throwaway role and works it until the closing scene when everyone in the theater clapped.

All in all, I really liked the film. I don't recommend it for "date night" - it is definitely a "guy film" but us guys need one of those every now and then.

I saw this film at the Waterfront film festival and thought it was hysterical. What a biting satirical snap shot of our society's mindless obsession with 15 minutes of fame, Paris HILTON and getting rich quick. Think of it as FEAR FACTOR meets DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS... on STEROIDS! The story was refreshingly original and did not succumb to the typical dumb formulas of most studio comedies today. I was in a crowd of nearly 700 regular movie goers and it was interesting to see a Midwestern audience not only get the jokes, but belly laugh out loud at a pretty sophisticated farce that did not resort to the obvious Will Farrell and Ben Stiller shtick.

I hope it makes it to the big screen.

The divorced salesman Harvey Bellinger (Beau Bridges) sells toilets and lives with his teenage daughter Audrey Bellinger (Baelyn Neff). When he meets the former Playboy centerfold Lydia Ann Layton (Rosanna Arquette), who is addicted in Stock Market and lives with her teenage son Colby (Mathew Botuchis), they immediately get married and move in together. Out of the blue, Harvey is fired and Lydia loses all their savings in the Stock Market. They need to reduce drastically their expenses and they quit superfluous expenses including cable TV. Audrey has an argument with Colby and drops his laptop on the floor. His girlfriend Randi Sommers (Shiri Appleby) suggests they expose Audrey in Internet and Colby buys a camera to revenge. Soon they begin a reality show sort of "Big Brother" business, and Colby decides to install cameras in every room in the house. They site becomes popular and a TV network offers a profitable contact to Colby and Randi. When the family discovers that their lives have been exposed but in a profitable way, they decide to include two new participants, the Italian Ciro Menotti (Victor Alfieri) and the call-girl Jessica (Tiffany Baldwin). But they face many problems.

"I-See-You.Com" is a comedy with a good storyline that becomes a missed opportunity. The screenplay becomes a mess and the direction is lost between a comedy and a drama. The plot could have explored the human greed or the damage that the media and reality shows can cause to a family. But in the end, this film is neither funny nor dramatic. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Vejo Vocês.com" ("See You.com")

I was surprised when I saw this movie because I was suspecting a horrible B movie and it turned out to be an hysterical studio level movie. I saw a screening at the HBO Comedy Film Festival in Aspen and I thought it was the best movie I saw all week. I can't believe it didn't get a theatrical release.

It has a great ensemble cast and a great plot. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame, but how crazy do you go when you get it. In this movie the family goes completely overboard when they get there shot at fame, which I felt was really funny.

I am looking forward to seeing it again when Warner Bros releases it in August.

I wanted to like it, but just couldn't buy into it.

Couldn't believe Bridges, in the early scenes he's pure ham with a rancid edge. Comedy is not his genre.

Couldn't believe Bridges would be married to Arquette and having hot sex all over the house.

Couldn't believe the premise that the world would keep watching, even after it became clear that everyone knows they are being taped.

Could have worked, if the scale had been kept realistic: if the success of the show and commensurate payday were such that the family could have at least pretended NOT to be in on the joke. A little less would have been so much more...

Instead, it just insults the intelligence of every character, and the audience as well.