Kisses and Caroms

This movie hit me as an updated West Coast version of Clerks. Vince Rocca has created a real feeling of life in an area where "just sex" and "meaningful relationships" are often blurred by "glamour" of being a player. The characters all handled their roles with ease and both the writing and the acting nailed the point home. The only real misses where the toilet and sneeze scenes that seemed to in the movie for a shock effect. Ginger Lynn showed that she has a sense of comedic timing. Vince may just pick up where Kevin Smith left off with this gritty but real look at the illusion of promiscuity as a glamorous lifestyle, with a tongue in cheek delivery.

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.

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.

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.

I assume this is billed as a comedy because it sucks as a drama. Turns out it's just as bad if viewed as a comedy. Quite unfunny and dull.

Avoid - this doesn't work as any genre.