Kisses and Caroms

In California, Zack (Drew Wicks) owns the "Breakingtime Billiards", a store that sells pool tables and game room supplies. He works with his girlfriend Jennifer (Nikki Stanzione); the sexy seller Tara (Nicole Rayburn); the installer of pool tables and best friend, the wolf David (Ryan Parks), and his idiot assistant Eddie (Keith Alexander). After having a threesome arranged by Jen with Tara, Zach breaks up his relationship with Jen, in spite of her bringing him up all the time. He tells his sexual experience to David while Jen asks for an advice to her psychologist Dr. Bob Johnson (Bart Shattuck) in his radio show. Along the day and after the visit of many peculiar clients, Zack concludes that Jen is his dream girl.

"Kisses & Caroms" is visibly inspired in Kevin Smith's "Clerks" and "American Pie" franchise, with erotic and gross jokes and situations. However, this low budget movie has an ace called Nicole Rayburn. This unknown actress is extremely sexy and attractive with her luscious body, has a good acting and is the greatest attraction of this very reasonable independent film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Kisses & Caroms"

A buddy gave me a screener copy of this and it cracked me up. It's a low budget indie-ish movie that totally reminded me of Clerks and Chasing Amy. If I didn't know any better, I'd be suspicious that this was made by the same guy.

It's very one room stage play-ish. But it keeps your attention. There are some JackAss scenes that seemed to be inserted for shock value, but they were funny.

The acting is soft, but not bad. Some of the people were really good and I'm surprised I haven't seen them before. The lead Zack is a great example. That guy has a familiarity that I could swear I seen him before, but when I looked him up, he wasn't listed in anything. The women were HOTT. My god, I was mesmerized every time the blond was on screen. I'm not even sure if she spoke, I was just in awe.

I didn't think the David guys character would do what he did, and if he did, I thought he'd back away. May sound riddle-ish if you haven't see it, but once you do, you'll get my drift.

Overall, knowing this is a first movie, and was made by a guy who never made a movie before, it was great.

I was looking forward to seeing this film due to the hype I was reading on the IndieClub web site. This film on many levels disappointed me.

Bad sound: I had trouble hearing several lines and the sound bite of the doorbell always sounded the same which made it sound like an obvious add on. Poor editing: nearly all scenes lingered too long. Cutting a few seconds off the end of each clip would have really helped the pacing.

The main story line is weak - we have an introduction to the situation at the start of the film - but then the story is dropped only to return at the very end of the film. Plus the characters are always talking about things that have happened – its always better to show the audience than to tell. And there is too much unfunny toilet humor in the film which seems to be used as filler. This film is modeled after the film Clerks but takes place on a billiards shop. It seems that every character entering the store is retarded. Many of the jokes are taken from the old Month Python routine where a customer comes into a bookstore and asks if they sell books. The video quality is generally good but they should have used better lighting instead of just the ambient light.

This movie is particularly weak. Near the end there are about five or ten minutes which are mildly intriguing and provide only surface tension, but mostly this is a super lame attempt at crude comedy. The box seems to scream out that it is a Clerks wannabe, and the guy at the store told me that if I liked Clerks then I'd like this, but I don't' think that's true. Sure, this movie focuses around coworkers and their interactions with customers, but it ends there. In Clerks, Dante hates his job, which is what makes it work. In this movie David has a bachelor's degree but is so happy working at a billiard supply store that he doesn't feel the need to use it.

The DVD cover features a quip from Kevin Smith, but don't be fooled. Smith must have been washed over in hero worship. This film makes direct references to Dogma (Rufus, the 13th apostle) and Chasing Amy (fingercuffs) and includes a character named Silent Bobbette who is a female version of Silent Bob (but looks more like Jay trying to dress up like Silent Bob).

This movie doesn't live up to any indie hype it has.

This indie sex comedy lives up to its billing. Kisses and Caroms builds up to a humorous and satisfactory climax. There is quite an array of offbeat characters that enter in and out of the Billiards store! For something that was made on the ultra-cheap, I was impressed with the production value; excellent sound, good lighting and all around technically competent.

The DVD has an excellent menu system, including a "Flash" tease. I also loved the play on Dreamworks' opening logo! "Helium" was a nice bonus, as well.

As some others have commented, I would like to see where Mr. Rocca's career goes. It seems that he has the smarts and creativity to pull off something special.