Banged Out

When I saw this movie I said to myself... I could never recommend this movie to anyone that I truly love.

Why?? Because even though the movie is based on some aspects of real gangster life, half the people I know would dismiss it as if it were a bad episode of Jerry Springer in the hood s**t. (Not that anyone I know was raised with a silver spoon in their mouth). But it is definitely, something I cannot relate to completely.

There is a story...vague (bad audio quality)...but it is there...about family members living in a very poor neighborhood, overrun by the crips and some other gangs. They are completely ignorant of the simple fact that the people in their lives who are more important and care about them are the ones in which they hurt the most...

Meanwhile, they get the fact that they need to change their ways but until someone close to them ends up getting killed that is when they learn and try to become better thugs.

I can definitely feel for Richie Mac (the auteur) of this flick in many ways. First of, most people won't even have the guts to do what he has done (with a camcorder no less).

Most guerilla filmmakers would doubly feel less of themselves if they were to produce a low and I mean LOOOOOOOOOW budget flick such as this one. Some of them will even say... please pass the piss...thanks... before venturing off.

I can say that even though this flick is green on many aspects of a story concept. It had its interesting points and some shots were done fairly decent. I think that many people would use this flick as an example of what happens when you only have one guy with a camcorder and a bunch of actors playing parts of thugs in the hood.

Alas, if I knew I had to be drunk to watch this I would have brought out the six-pack.

P.S. I was not kidding when I said Taboo for the virgin mind.

In this film Richie Mac not only directed the project, but we wrote, produced, directed, edited, shot it (on a camcorder or some format less than Beta SP) and got a national distribution deal. Wow! It's hard as hell to get your title placed in Blockbuster.

Themed the realest story over told was correct in the true art of "Gorilla Film-making" because, he went inside the elements of the story like a fly-on-the-wall and told a story in 80 minutes that touched several human emotions such as crying, laughing and anger. He made you care about the characters especially Andre and Emory.

Even though we've seen "Boyz In The Hood" and "Menace II Society," they were both done with budgets over $350K. However, Richie Mac probably only spent around $20K to get pass the stage of talking about being a filmmaker to becoming one. (Big Ups!!!!) This project has inspired me to work even harder to hurdle the Hollywood barriers and not just be a dreamer, but a complete my dream of being an independent filmmaker...NO MORE EXCUSES ABOUT BUDGET.

Yeah, this is a very good film ,my hat goes off to Richie Mac GOOD JOB MY FRIEND..stay tuned for Junebug's next movie (Gangster Chronicle) we shot this film in the hood and there is a strong message behind it I would advise every one to go see this movie , we would love to here from you ,from the start to finish there ain't a dual moment in this movie ,see for yourself and let us know what you think. we will be working on banged out 2 soon so stay tuned for that,but meanwhile go see banged out ,it's been out for a little while now but it's worth seeing ,if you don't understand the hood then don't comment on this movie. www.gangsterchronicle.com

This is quite possibly the lowest-budget movie I've ever seen. 90% of the shots seem to have been done with a camcorder, dialogue sounds like it's being spoken through a pillow, and the violence looks so fake as to seem comical. But I see this as a positive element. It lends a gritty, realistic feel uncommon in other films of this genre.

Yeah, Banged Out is realistic. A bit TOO realistic. Why? It's boring and indecipherable. Let's face it, real life is unexciting. Why director Richie Mac feels we need to be shown various random aspects of these characters' lives is beyond me. There is absolutely nothing here you haven't seen before, whether on screen or in real life.

I guess my main complaint with this flick is that, while the plot is simple enough, it's almost impossible to keep up with what's going on. People get pissed for no apparent reason. Some characters wear the same clothing throughout the entire movie. And one guy (I'm not joking, I swear) dies and shows up later on driving around his neighborhood with no explanation. This would be slightly helped (but not much) if the dialogue was audible.

Beers required before viewing: 10-12