After a wild night at a party Martin wakes up at a mini put course with the initials J.R. on his stomach and he can't remember the night before. With the help of his friend, he has to re- trace his steps and remember what happened in order to talk to the girl of his dreams.
So Sucker Punch is a short film that takes an old and tired comedic trend (Hangover, Dude Where's My Car) and the filmmakers use this easy comedic tool to set up their short film, something that they might use to entice people to fund a feature film based on the same idea. Would I watch this film if it were a feature? Yes.
The film stars the two guys from BriTANick, a comedy duo whom I found on youtube. Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, if you are clever enough you can tell where they got their comedy name from. They didn't write the film, they just starred in it. Although, you can't help but sense they had their spin on the material because a lot of it feels like their comedy skits. Jeff Chan wrote and directed this film and it doesn't feel like anything special. It comes off as a nicely well made short film that will please the intended target audience. The script itself doesn't call for anything fancy though.
At 28 minutes, the film flies by. The character are funny and memorable, specifically one character by the name of Jasper Remus, who is probably written after someone they know. Although the bit involving him reminded me of some Super Troopers stuff, I enjoyed his scenes. The girl of Martin affections is Jess Ramsey, played by the very pretty Brianne Howey, who looks familiar, but doesn't seen to have any screen credits. She fills the "girl with the bad guy, but wants to be with the loser protagonist well."
The film has many funny moments, usually involving dialogue, it doesn't have any situational humour. The film could have been more on the physical comedic side, so it could please both styles of comedy and broadening it's audience. I'm sure fans of BriTANick will enjoy this and bring new people to their stuff. It felt like more of a showcase for them, then the director.
Even though it is a short and finishes at 28 minutes, I felt that it didn't really follow the three act structure too well. You open the film with the problem of Martin not remembering, then the second act kicks in when he re-traces his steps and the final act happens at a party where it is all resolved. But the film lacks any climax or sense of direction. He seems to figure things out too fast and it doesn't at all feel like he is piecing together pieces of a puzzle. This could be due to time restraints, but if this were to be made into a feature, I could see them playing around with the formula a bit.
All in all the film is good, if you are interested in short films check it out. There were some soft focus issues I had with it during some interior scenes. If you want to see the film, you can for free on their web-site www.suckerpunchfilm.com. Don't get it confused with the upcoming Sucker Punch from Zack Synder. As a film student myself, I can appreciate the effort put into this production and it shows that they knew what they were doing. With a bigger budget, a longer script and a more focused storyline, I could see this film hitting theatres in a feature.
