Down Time

Some unique artfull presentations of character by the lead surrounded by some of the worst acting I have ever seen. Felt Like I was watching "Clerks" at the beginning. Pretty much an experience movie with out much direction. If you like hard criminals and edgy incarceration images, you will love this movie. Worth the watch. Not a chick flick I would say.

My Cousin kept telling me to check out this film Down Time. He thought it was great as did most of his friends. Somehow this film has taken on this cult like following. Lots of people I know have seen it and all of them have strong reactions to it, either they love it or they hate it. So, I logged on to IMDb.com to see what all the buzz was about. I reviewed all the statistics and viewers comments and then picked it up at my local independent video store.

I thought it was pretty good and yes, I can see how some people can make the comparison with the film Clerks (1994), but is that a good thing? I don't know why people hold Clerks in such high regard. There are so many better independent films. Sean Wilson's Down Time is a very low budget independent prison film that has some funny dialog and a few interesting and quirky characters. It has a unique style although a little uneven. Most of the acting is adequate and a few of the performances were quite good for such a low budget film. Overall it kept my interest throughout and I thought it was a worthy effort. I would say I am in the middle on this one. (FiveStars)

Down time is definitely a low-budget film so don't think you are going to get some big budget Hollywood prison action film like the Rock or the ever so formulaic and forgettable Half Past Dead. No what you are going to get a inherently flawed indie film that never got the million dollar make over that films like El Mariachi and Clerks did. Both those films are classics but we would not be so familiar with if the studios did not put their muscle behind them.

Down Time has many technical problems and most of the acting is amateurish but the Dialog is great and it has lots of inside jokes for those who are familiar with the criminal justice system. I like the loose "ducu-drama" style that gives the viewer the feel of being inside a real prison. It has some very graphic drug scenes that to a trained I seem real. Over all I think this is one of the better low-budget films I have seen.

I am a big fan of low budget independent filmmaking and Sean

Wilson (11) Down Time is a maverick achievement. Shot on a

shoe string budget (check the stats), this is no Hollywood action

film, but what you get is from the gut film making. Gritty

performances by WilliamVan Nolan and Sam McBride make this a

stand out film in the low budget arena. Some of the card playing

scenes reminded me of the film Clerks (1994) with lots of off the

wall snappy dialogue. You could also compare it to some the jail

scenes in Jim Jarmusch's Down by law (1986) both films have

lots of long still shots that just kind of hand there and make you

feel the oppressive boredom of prison life. Sure there are some technical problems with this film and some

of the side characters acting is weak but you have to be able to

over look that. Down Time is what independent filmmaking is all

about.

This is film that clearly shows it's budgetary limitations. It has stretches of muddy audio and some of the acting is pretty bad. Given that, I still like this movie. It has a raw scrappy feel, great dialog and some very evocative characters.

You get a tremendous sense of the tug-o-war between good and evil, raging inside the head of slim (the main character). The film starts off with a bang, and, although it lags a bit in the middle, there is enough humor and character development to carry us along. The scenes with the main convicts sitting around playing cards passing the time are funny and believable. I found myself almost laughing out loud. After that the film starts to meander a bit but pulls it together in the end and manages to deliver a anti drug message. Over all I would recommend it but know going in this is a low budget independent film.