My Life's in Turnaround

There's an off-beat whacky quality to this movie and characters you can - but ought not to - feel superior to. The "girlfriends" dance has classic qualities written all over it. and the surprise cameo by John Sayles is a wonderful bonus.

Having made a number of short films myself, I have to say that I LOVE this movie. I caught it on Cinemax (or was it Showtime? who knows. . . ), trying to sleep, at around 5 AM about 4-5 years ago -- and I had to hold my eyes open to stay up for the end. The cameos were great, and the premise -- as one poster pointed out already -- reminds one of the Seinfeld episode where they try to create a show "about nothing." Basically, these two guys decide that they want to make a movie: "But we don't have a script!" "Doesn't matter. . . we need to talk to some producers." They use an agent friend to get a meeting with a producer, who wants them to read a two volume manuscript by a Polish concentration camp survivor to see if it would make a worthwhile movie. "But it's in Polish!"

Producer: Yeah, okay, just read it. Filmmaker1: but we don't speak polish! Prod: Yeah, whatever, just take a look at it and get back to me.

Filmmaker2: Umm, I don't think you understand. . . We neither SPEAK nor READ Polish!!!

So that fails; they decide that they need stars. And it just gets funnier and funnier -- if you ask me. I say check it out, it's not that long, and the ending is a pi***r. Trust me, if you have ANY idea what it takes to get a movie made, you will get a kick outta this one. No, there's no "art," and the joke may be that they got the thing made at ALL, but I thought it was a HOOT.

If you go into this film knowing some of the history behind how it got made your appreciation for the film will rise. But if you watch this film hoping for "The Brothers McMullen" forget it.

It kind of reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George try to create a show about "nothing". That's the theme of this film. The acting wasn't too shabby, the celebrity cameos were nice and there was enough to film that kept you hanging in there until it's end. Although I found the actor/director/writer Eric Schaeffer to be over-bearing throughout most of the film... man is he annoying. I kind of liked Donal Ward, a little less hyper than bud Eric... and came across better on the silver-screen.

John Sayles was great in his cameo as a mainstream movie producer. I still can't believe they convinced him to be in their "major motion picture". He must be a good sport.

This forgettable yet amusing movie was a pleasant surprise, even though I can recognize that this film has some serious problems. Still, I was able to overlook the fact that the leads were annoying and that the story was pretty weak. In fact, the only reason that this movie was enjoyable was because a high number of the jokes worked. In particular, the scenes with Siemaszko, Cates, and Plimpton were very funny, but in general, this was a fun movie to watch. Worth a look.