Walk All Over Me

This was a rather funny movie that had wonderful bits of insanity throughout. I felt that Leelee Sobieski did a fine job of being the screwy person way out of her league. Everything she touched turned to fertilizer. I had seen Tricia Helfer in a few television shows where she was effective, but here she steps up nicely to steal the show. She is trying to be in control of everything but Leelee Sobieski is too much for any controlled, organized person to handle. The remaining cast of violent and crazy people fills out the story in a humorous and rather frightening way. To me, there was a nice amount of tension being built as the story comes to its conclusion. Not a classic,but a nice rental to fill out an evening's viewing.

Naive small town girl Alberta (Leelee Sobieski) loses an envelop full of money. She runs from thugs escaping on a bus going to big city Vancouver. She reconnects with her old babysitter Celene (Tricia Helfer) who reluctantly lets her stay. She's surprised that Celene is now working from home as a dominatrix. She spills on Celene's expensive outfit. With no money from her grocery store job, she tries to pay Celene back by taking on Paul (Jacob Tierney) who applied to be Celene's client. Rene (Lothaire Bluteau) barges in with brothers Aaron and Isaac looking to retrieve his money from Paul. Alberta is over her head.

This is an odd quirky Canadian indie that should be funnier that it is. Sobieski is playing clueless but it's oddly unreal. It would be funnier to be broader. She may not be good enough as a comedic actress but she has never looked hotter. Her boobs look great and her pretend dominatrix dancing is sexy fun. At least, the music is fun. Helfer has a dry wit. There are a few good smirk-worthy moments which keeps this on track.

First, this is a comedy; whoever tagged it as a thriller should watch it again. Second, the reviewers, see above, who didn't like it, simply didn't get it - the fault is in you guys, not this movie. Third, the movie is a self-deprecating, unpretentious romp in the peculiar genre of that is Canadian comedy. It's fun.

Lastly, a warning , the principal characters are empowered females, this may cause males of a particular persuasion fits of apoplexy, there should be a warning to this effect in the opening sequence...

At a production cost $3M, I consider this a good use of my tax dollars. And to the author of the synopsis, it's set in Vancouver not Seattle. duh.

This is the kind of film you could watch if you were sick in bed with the flu and there was nothing else on TV. Beyond that, consider lowing your expectations.

I remember when Leelee Sobieski and Natalie Portman were considered rivals in the media for being precocious up-and-coming teenage actresses. Both girls have grown up, and Hollywood has done them no favours. Ms. Portman will have to work very, very hard to overcome Queen Amidala, and Ms. Sobieski has gone from the supernova superwierd vixen in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" to, well, this film.

That's not to say she doesn't have appeal, at least to some folks. In this show, however, talent is wasted, ability is squandered, and the audience is assumed to be sick in bed with the flu. I would compare this film to "Bon Cop, Bad Cop", another Canadian production that took actors with chops and turned them into chopped liver.

Put another way, I think if you laughed uproariously at the humour in "Bon Cop, Bad Cop", and you never figured out that "Harry Buttman" in that film was a parody of a real person, then you will love "Walk All Over Me". I didn't think "Bon Cop, Bad Cop" was funny at all, nor entertaining, but it was "Heat" combined with "Ghostbusters" compared to this turkey.

Screwball comedies work because the humour arises from the peculiar logic of the situation. "Walk All Over Me" has precious little logic, just a long list of cliché peculiarities that fail to amuse or arouse.

A pleasant surprise that had some unexpected developments and interesting characters.