Frank & Penelope

A road / desert movie that feels half baked at best. For real kooky characters in a similar vein, see David Lynch's Wild At Heart, or Tony Scott's True Romance, as these movies do this type of story line much, much better. I tried to like this movie. But it just felt bland.

The pee at the end was a nice touch.

But this creative entertaining little gem gets 8/10 stars from me. I've been holding off watching this due to the harsh critics reviews, but decided to finally give it a chance. Heck, it's not even close to perfect, but for a B film, it's one of the better ones out there, and most importantly, it was a fun ride - albeit sometimes weird.

This is notable actor Sean Patrick Flanery's second dabble as writer and director, and rookie mistakes aside, I couldn't stop watching this little gem. It certainly had some plot and pacing issues, and I felt the 112 min runtime was stretched out too much. Some much needed edits and cuts to make this around a 90 min runtime could've gone a long way.

However his filmmaking tone and style did not disappoint. It did well in mixing various genres, and the cinematography, sets and landscaped were well utilized. The soundtrack and score were excellent, especially for a B film. I did feel his cast needed better direction, as some of the performances either lacked conviction, or were overdone every now and then. It also needed a little fine tuning in some of the dialogue - especially Caylee Cowan's Marilyn Monroe voice and demeanor, that became a little too annoying pretty fast.

Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it more than I had expected. I like that Flanery left the ending open to a sequel, I'll certainly be watching out for one.

I just saw the movie. There was not at all any part of the movie that was slow or boring. Caylee was looking beautiful as always and wonderful acting by Frank.

Wannabe Tarantino?

Poor acting?

No script? No story?

Slow? Boring?

Shove all those complaints away and just watch this movie, which for sure will put a smile on your face.

Frank and Penelope is what I call pain and simple entertainment. The movie does what many others have done, it's style, although unique, is not really unique, it's actors act too hard, it's story goes everywhere and has everything, and in the end what you get is a way better compilation that what Hollywood has been churning lately.

From a movie making standpoint, the direction, editing, cinematography, and even writing are pretty good. Everything does come together quite well. But what really keeps this movie on pace is the lead actors, who share great chemistry and show how overacting can be entertaining acting!!

Recommended!!

I really was not expecting much from Frank and Penelope as a serious horror/thriller genre film. Although the film starts off rather mundane, the film gradually builds up steam to what I consider both an effective thriller and with a surprise ending. No spoilers here.

The two main characters Frank (Billy Budinich), and Penelope (Caylee Cowan) are mostly unknown actors but I believe both have garnered significant support from their growing fan base which includes myself now.

The plot has been done hundreds of times before with a dysfunctional group of characters controlling a small town where they go undetected with their dastardly crimes. Coming into this tiny dirt road town in their souped up. American made Dodge Charger are Frank and Penelope who are on the run in a similar fashion as the well known rebels from the.1991 movie thriller Thelma and Louise.

As hard as actor Billy Budinich deserves to be recognized for his character portrayal of a tough guy boyfriend, most of the attention will go to the female lead character Penelope played to perfection by actress Caylee Cowan. Her voice, her swivel hips and pouty lips, but mostly her sex appeal and her sexy baby voice will leave most fans wanting to see and hear more from Penelope.

It becomes a battle of wits and desire to stay alive for Frank and Penelope to get out of this freak town and I found myself rooting for both of them to succeed.

No spoilers here, suffice to say I really enjoyed this horror/thriller film and I give it a most deserving 8 out of 10 IMDb rating.

I look forward to seeing more films from both Billy Budinich and Caylee Cowan.