Arriscando Tudo

This endearing and thoughtful indie effort is well worth the watch. There are some hysterical scenes, particularly those between the hero (Justin Long) and his best friend (Keir O'Donell), and everything the Mayor (Rob Corddry) does. The story has a few small holes, but that doesn't get in the way of recognizing that this is a powerful satire of small town America down on its luck. The narrative exposes the fragility of American values when greed and corruption take hold. The hero turns out to be the only one in town that remembers why America is America, and for that his neighbors decide he must pay a price. Lots of turns that you don't see coming, including a big one at the film's climax.

Independent films are like someone shooting at a shooting range. The person shooting is the film, and the gun is how the film is executed. There is a board with a bullseye a few yards away. It can hit dead center and be an excellent film, hit in the circles around it and be pretty good, hit close to the top and be only fair (but at least you hit it), and some can either clip the top of the board or just fly right over. Taking Chances is fired straight as if it were going to hit around the circles just outside of the bullseye, but then arcs right over the board making for an almost complete bust. Just tragic.

Part of the reason for this is because Taking Chances is trying to tackle too many genres. Like a kid putting his feet in the pool. Before he can fully submerse himself in water, he notices another pool, runs over there, and puts his feet in that one before going to the next. Taking Chances sinks its feet in the comedy, drama, romance, and social commentary pools before just saying "hell, lets mix the water together." The movie is about an economically challenged town by the name of Patriotsville. The town was the place of The Revolutionary War battle, and due to the money problems, Mayor Fishback (Corddry) wants to build an Indian casino over the battlefield. A history geek named Chase (Long) is heartbroken by this, and teams up with a mysterious girl named Lucy (Chriqui) to try and save the town's biggest piece of history.

Right off the bat, this could've spawned a number of great genres to touch upon. The problem being the movie never really thought of how it wanted to approach this idea. Should this be a big joke, let's hire Rob Corddry. Wait! We can make this a pretty decent drama, hire Justin Long. He's dependable and likable. But wait, give him a girl to work with so we can get a love story going here. You know, this would be a great time to add maybe some social commentary about history. By the time this movie script was complete, it was a messy, incoherent, and unorthodox piece of work the crew must've said "just make it." Not to mention, the film has an R rating, but constantly the town mayor keeps saying "f this," "f that" without actually saying the word. It's almost like the film was trying to edit for PG-13 after it got the R rating. It begs an explanation why this film didn't pursue the R rating after being granted with it. If anything, this could pass for a sizable PG-13 rated film.

I really like Justin Long. I've liked everything he's done up until this point. Why he did this makes sense because not only does he want Hollywood rep, I assume, he wants Indie-cred as well. Which is perfectly fine with me. I dig multi-talented actors. And I assume he liked the script and his character. But, he failed to look at one thing and so did the directors - there is no point in this film where anyone takes any chances. Are they taking a chance by standing up for what they believe in? If so, make that a bit more obvious please. The original title was Patriotsville. That sounds more like an independent movie Clearly, nothing is consistent in this film. And it's sad because such a good idea was thrown away in the process of constructing this film. I applaud the two leads for doing the best they could under the given circumstances and limitations of the budget, but the end result is calamity.

Starring: Justin Long, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rob Corddry, Keir O'Donnell, and Missi Pyle. Directed by: Talmage Cooley.

I really like Emmanuelle Chriqui. She's beautiful, charming, she's simply one of these actors i like to look for their movies. But just like any actor, especially the ones considered more in the "B-range", you are bound to stumble upon some very bad ones. Just like The Crow Wicked Prayer, this is one of them.

This star Justin Long as the main character "Chase", wich again is an actor i usually like, he has been in pretty good stuff, but also has some subpar movies as well.

I don't need to recap the whole synopsis but basically he meet and fall in love (i guess..) with Lucy played by Emmanuelle Chriqui, and he really love his job as some kind of museum administrator about a local battle that happened in their town. The mayor want to build a casino on said battlefield, and Chase get convinced by Lucy to make a campaign to oppose it.

The movie in my opinion should had been more of a pure comedy, as Chase and the mayor could had traded "shots" or something in hillarious ways, but i guess it tried to be a romcom? Yet the romance between the 2 leads shown no chemistry whatsoever, wich is odd when you have 2 pretty good actors.

First of all the movie take forever to get going. You have long drawn out scene of Justin Long's Chase doing his "things" and even when he eventually meet Lucy, they just hang out so casually.

You basically have a bunch of scenes that just feel awkward and are supposed to be "artsy" or i dunno, but ultimately the movie kinda "start" around 55 minutes in and become maybe a little less boring? Yet when you think this is finally leading somewhere, it takes a backstep and go back to a slow pace once again.

This honestly felt like a 20 minutes sitcom episode that was drawn out for and a hour and a half, but without the laughs and charm you would expect from it.

Its surprising, cause on top of the 2 leads, the mayor is played by Rob Corddry wich is hillarious in Hot Tub Time Machine and played in many other comedies. This script simply had nothing to offer.

Overall it just bored me all the way. I turned it off after 45 minutes and resumed it a few days later and was once again bored til the end. I finished it cause i finish the movies i start (and therefore can review the whole thing) and since i bough the DVD off Ebay... kinda felt i had to as i dropped about 12$ on this. Note that it was not available on any streaming platforms i know (in Canada) either as part of the sub or rent/buy.

Maybe because it is very indy... but indy or not, a movie need to entertain me. I am someone lenient with movies in general. I can excuse subpar action, cheap VFX or a lack of budget as a whole. I am also easily entertained by stories, wherever it is toilet humor comedy or direct to vod cheap action flicks. And i do love romcoms as well. So by giving this movie a 3 out of 10, you know this was boring. I think without Emmanuelle showing a bit of skin (no full nudity), it would even be a 2.