Exit Strategy

I totally giggled watching this movie. The chemistry between the main characters is beautiful to watch. Their sense of comedic timing made it all the more enjoyable. I brought my boyfriend to see this at the rave theater and he liked it too - but still won't admit that he laughed just as much as I did. The colors were fun - the pink was all too familiar with me and my girlfriends. I just love pink pink pink. Kevin hart was super laughs of course, but not any more than the other actors, which says a lot. The party scene by the pool was my favorite. The editing made me excited and wanted to be there with them. They must have had a good time making this. I recommend this movie because it's definitely outside the box of the typical rom-com, or should I say, un-rom-com - Nice to see a movie like this rise above all the Hollywood studio flops. You can make funny and inexpensive entertainment for the masses. Exit Strategy is proof.

I lasted 30 minutes. No point in trying to watch more.

The world is full of low-budget comedies vying for notice. Some of them are worthy; some of them should just disappear.

Exit Strategy is far from a perfect film, but it does have enough good aspects to make it worth the look. And it does hint that star and co-writer Jameel Saleem has the potential to make a very good film down the line. He is not quite there yet, but I bet he'll make it.

Saleem plays James, a lazy, but basically personable guy who works at a second-hand store in LA with his two best friends from college, Carville (Quincy Harris) and Leona (Noelle Balfour). One day he comes home to find out he has been evicted from his apartment.

He tries to hit his friends up, but when they both turn him down he decides to movie in with Kim (Kimelia Weathers), a girl he had been dating a few months. Honestly, it hadn't been going that great, he didn't know her that well and they hadn't even had sex yet. Still, James figures that she'll take him in, give him run of the house, cook for him, clean for him and that sex thing will have to come if they are living in the same house, right?

However, it doesn't turn out quite how he expects. She's a neat freak, has a fetish for pink, expects him to follow her rules of the house – and sex is off of the table until he's ready to consider marriage.

James' character would be offensive if not for the fact that he is lightly mocked by everyone in the film for his character deficiencies. He wants to sponge off of his girlfriend – live in her apartment, eat her food, watch her TV – and yet is horrified to think that she may have expectations from him as well. Or that she does not necessarily want things in her life done her way.

It seems like a reasonable expectation. In fact, though, that is just about the only reasonable thing about the girlfriend, which is by far the film's worst aspect.

That's because his girlfriend is a horror show. I realize that she is way over the top on purpose, for effect, but she is so off-putting that the rest of the film suffers.

It's supposed to be funny, and in some ways it is, but the character is so unbelievable and so over-the-top that you can't buy it. Also, her whims seem to blow with the wind, changing her from sweet to psycho without a moment's notice. She seems bi-polar and you always wonder why he just doesn't leave.

However, he can't move out because his two best friends from college won't let him sponge off them. Hey, here's a thought. Get your own place and then you can live however you want.

Instead, James ends up bitching to his friends, planning his escape and calling Kim out on a radio talk show. Radio personality Big Boy, plays himself in the studio – as well as being one of the film's producers – and for some reason, he and his posse are always filmed in ethereal layered soft focus, making every scene he does feel like a dream sequence.

The story idea is a bit awkward, but on the plus side Saleem and Weathers (who based her character on a stand-up idea she had been working) actually have a really good ear for dialogue. The writing is often much smarter and snappier than the situation it is illustrating.

Therefore, Exit Strategy shows real promise. If Saleem can just get his act together as far as plotting and learn to dump some of the extraneous gutter humor, the guy could be someone to keep an eye on.

This movie is horrible. The main character is an entitled, ungrateful, broke, disaffected man who is upset that he can't sleep with the TV on and has to wake up and do chores even though this woman just took in his homeless behind. The woman is whiny and annoying too. The two of them have absolutely no chemistry so them being together is completely unbelievable. Just skip this one it is not worth the headache.

Built wholly from familiar ingredients, assembled with skillfully and charming performances from Jameel Saleem and Kimelia Weathers, Exit Strategy gives formula a good name with ample laughs and sharp performances.

This anecdote centers around James (Jameel Saleem) who gets evicted from his apartment and moves in with his girlfriend of three months Kim (Kimelia Weathers) and quickly discovers she's everything he never wanted in a woman… Sounds familiar with a twist? There's no denying this film's warm humor and big heart as this generational comedy suffers issues of movement and character development although offering film goers a fine, low-calorie screwball feast containing ugly anachronisms courtesy of high-schooler "Scoop" that prove to enhance it's charm at low moments.

Customary cynicism is leavened here by "tender" humor, "dry" romance, and genuine pathos with perfectly light, romantic comedy kept afloat by Michael Whitton's unobtrusive direction and sharp performances from Q Deezy (Carville) and cameo via "it" comedian Kevin Hart.

Rarely does an unrealistically funny comedy connect with audiences but the exploration of gender roles and the limits of relationship with a mixture of sensitivity, raw honesty and wit between the two main characters actually work abetted by the sharp interplay between Big Boy and supporting cast.

While the editing isn't parallel with timing of the comedy which affects it's pace, Exit Strategy is a hilarious, poignant and refreshing look at the rigors of tolerance bearing, with savvy script writing that is ably acted and directed.

I enjoyed and I believe you will also. 2 thumbs UP!