Bending All the Rules

Indescribably bad. Just don't bother. Redbox just started carrying this, so I thought I'd try it - Bradley Cooper, couldn't be all bad right? Wrong. Seriously, just awful. Wish I'd read these reviews before I rented it. Couldn't make it all the way through. Not sure what anyone involved with this movie was thinking:) Wish I could rate it a "0". The acting, the camera shots, everything was just a mess. It looks like it was filmed with a cell phone camcorder:) I was shocked to see it was from 2002 - would appear as though it was filmed before anyone knew what film was! I actually signed up for an IMDb account just to give this review because I'd hate for anyone else to mistakenly be subjected to this film.

I got this movie since the cover looked good and I do enjoy Bradley Cooper. The child actors (especially the girl) are terrible. The cinematography is like a bad 80s made for TV picture and the quality of film changes from scene to scene. The sound is bad and in some scenes sounds like your in a room with a bad echo. The lighting is inconsistent and changes within a scene. I have no idea what the plot is. After an hour I had to turn it off, something I've rarely ever done. The acting done by the Cooper and the main actress was fine, they obviously know what they are doing, and it simply highlights when bad actors come in. Its just bad.

This independent film doesn't follow the usual Hollywood prescribed script with the neat and tidy happy ending for all. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. It was unpredictable. The film follows a young woman and shows us some of the choices she makes - most of them heavily influenced by her upbringing. Rather than have the character of Kenna experience some cathartic change and start on a new path in life, the movie simply unravels the course that she in on and ultimately continues on. It may not be as polished as a block buster, but it has charm. Top acting and the filming was beautiful. The carny scenes interspersed throughout the film were entertaining all on their own - some great characters hidden in there.

I can not agree more with "craning10" this film was a waste of my time and I do not recommend it to anyone. Craning10 said it all no story, bad acting ( very bad acting ), bad camera work, worst producing I've seen in a long time. Towards the 15min mark I started to fast forwards because I couldn't stand it any more; even the comedy was bad. Although I actually liked the music, I think they played a few blue classics and some nice vocals too. But other than those rare moments the film sucked. The plot should be the one girl that is cheating on 2 guys due to the lack of contact and the abandonment from her mother, but it just ends up making a big mess of an already messed up movie. Is like trying to put together a distorted mental image directly from someone's head without any guidelines, needless to say what you end up with is a big abstract mess, which in this case has some bad acted sex scenes and a half covered, semi-transparent, half a nipple slip from a supper hot actress.

We couldn't even make it through the first 15 minutes of this pile of sophomoric dung. I've seen better acting and more compelling story lines in bad porn. Don't let the crooks that released this on video get another dollar from you simply because it has Bradley Cooper in it eight years before he got lucky and was cast in Hangover. Bradley cooper is a stiff, unskilled, dope in this movie. His acting is pathetic and yet still better than the others in the movie. This is simply something someone found lost on the floor amidst a pile of bad Pauly Shore movies for the last 9 years. Their greed coaxed them into releasing it on video with the hopes of suckering in a bunch of people to unknowingly fork over a couple bucks to taint their DVD players with this festering pus-filled boil of shame. I was hoodwinked. I hope you read this review before you're hoodwinked too.