Stonebrook

Young Brad Rowe thinks he's fallen into some of what he's been shoveling for the past few years. He's a country kid who's lost the family farm to back taxes and been working on other people's land as a farm hand. A friend of his father's who is a big city cop, William Mesnik, got him into the expensive Ivy League school of Stonebrook and off he goes to the big city.

But the scholarship doesn't materialize and he has to pay his own way. But Rowe has a roommate in Seth Green who is both a computer hacker and a con artist. He gets Rowe into his schemes which start off with pool hustling. It goes quite a bit beyond that as the boys start ripping off money from the mob.

Poor Brad Rowe, cursed with the same first name and a general appearance that closely resembles the more well known Brad Pitt. I don't think Rowe's a bad actor, but apparently unless he's fated to be cast as a brother to Brad Pitt some day, Rowe will get all the roles that Pitt probably turns down.

On the other hand in his own quirky way, Seth Green has a lot of appeal and his part here generally fits in with the characters he's usually cast as. It's like Dr. Evil's son has decided to branch out on his own and enrolled at Stonebrook.

Stonebrook is not a bad film, but it has a way too many plot twists and turns and they're not introduced in a clever Hitchcockian type of way. Still it's not too bad and some will enjoy it.

To sum-up: Stonebrook isn't anything new but I still found it interesting as it progressed. Brad Rowe plays a college loner who sort of befriends Seth Green and gets caught up in some small time crime that gradually blows up in his face in a big way. The plot twists were very "expectable" but still enjoyable all throughout the film.

Pro's & con's:

+ Good storyline with fitting character's

• It has the feel of a Television movie

Co-writer, co-producer and director, Bryon W. Thompson, has created a very under-rated thriller. A story about a country boy (Rowe)who seeks a better life through the help of an old family friend (Mesnik). He applies to Stonebrook Uni, meets a beautiful girl (McLellan), as well as an eccentric room-mate(Green)who is in his own mind 'a very dangerous man'. Life is great, that's until he and his room-mate accidentally steals from a mob boss (Kamel). From here it's a rollercoaster ride full of unexpected twists. If the story doesn't sound interesting enough, wait til the underlying story unfolds. The performances are good. You believe every character. The direction is also good. There are many cut away reminiscing scenes (much like 'The Usual Suspects') that are needed due to the intricate plot. This allows the viewer to keep up with the story causing the plot twists to work more effectively. Good thriller. Not quite great. But if you like a thriller with a twist. I recommend you check it out.

The plot's twists and turns make the movie interesting to watch, even though a lot of the things that happen are a little hard to believe. The characters are really sketched pretty thin, although an effort was made to make them all interesting. Overall, it felt as though everyone on the production staff of this film was new to making movies, and so they were trying out different things and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. The next couple of films these people make will probably be a lot better, but for this one, they seemed to be trying to find their way, from the director down to the music composer. Overall a good concept for a movie, it just needed a lot more polishing. I rented it for free, so no complaints.

When I rented this film, my friends and I had read the back of the box and mistakingly thought it was a comedy. Although it in some ways does spoof con movies, it really isn't that funny, and thus we were disappointed. However, as a con movie, it isn't half bad. The film keeps taking plot turns with helpful (or, if you're like me and have a good memory, annoying) flashbacks that keep the viewer in to the picture. Seth Green is very good, playing the quirky but brilliant room mate, and the Brad Pitt look-a-like is a decent actor. My only two complaints, and they weren't small ones were as such: 1) If you weren't paying full attention to every single moment of the film, you would miss out on something that would be brought up again later on. I didn't mind that, but most of my friends were confused by several crucial plot changes because of that. And then 2) It was too predictable. Again, that's just my opinion. I was calling the ending LONG before it happened, but the other people I was watching with didn't pick up on that, so it might be that I'm just too smart for my own good. Stonebrook is not the best con job film ever, but it definitely does not suck.