Kecksburg

Saw this at the first showing in Uniontown, PA. This film should have had a 10 million dollar budget and it clearly didn't, but they made things work on the budget they had. There were some really cool shots which you don't often see in low budget films like this. The two stars, Murphy and Rosa, are strong actors and look very cinematic, while the girl in the radio station was cute and funny. The LBJ actor dominated every scene he was in. The sound was rough, though. Lots of dialog was sort of distorted or way too loud. I was pretty far up in the theater, so maybe it sounded better closer. I am a UFO buff and have read about what happened in real life. They took a few liberties, but they also incorporated lots of details from the historical event. It's a fun film, but it also has a serious message about the government and who we can trust.

This movie is so out of synch on the dialogue. Some of the actors look very young for their parts like a Colonel who looks and sounds about twelve. UFO's and alien obsession leaves me cold but this was bad. Badly done and delusional in the extreme.

From a filmmaking perspective alone this is terrible. Story, dialogue, continuity, visuals, sound, etc all terrible. I'm a huge ufo/alien buff I'll sit through them all, and this one was really hard to finish.

I work a lot in the Pittsburgh indie film scene. Local films range from abysmal to actually pretty decent and this was one of the latter. Pittsburgh has some outstanding talent that deserves more recognition. Many of them work as background in big films and TV series like Mindhunter, but get their chance to shine in independent films like this. The stars of Kecksburg are not local, but I saw faces I recognized like Steph Riker, Sonny Ziff, Jerry Pietrala, and more. While I wish they had cast locals in all the roles, the actors from LA and NY put in very strong performances. Maria Olsen is a horror icon and has a brief cameo as a doctor in an classic alien autopsy sequence. In case it isn't obvious from the trailer, there are aliens in Kecksburg, but the aliens aren't the bad guys. The director made a smart choice by not showing them too closely. We see just enough. The main man in black makes your skin crawl. He doesn't have many credits, so I am not sure if he is local, but I hope this gives his career a bump. As other people have stated, there were some weaknesses, but that is to be expected in this budget range. The biggest issue was the sound mix and that can always be fixed in post. I have no idea why they didn't do that before the screening. Most of the voices and some of the music sounded distorted. There were also some shots that just didn't seem to fit, like the crowd on the street when the fire truck goes by. Really cool vehicles and locations. I give anyone credit who actually finishes a film. It is hard and lots of people dream, but don't follow through. That's where Cody Knotts is different. He keeps trying and every film is better than the last. Plus, he always packs the theater like no other local director I have ever seen. I hope to get to work on his next project!

I tagged along with my husband to see this movie as he is a UFO enthusiast and I wasn't expecting to care about it one way or another, but I actually ended up liking it. I will say the sound was rough and that could be off-putting at times. Since I attended the premier, I am assuming they should be able to take a bit of time and clean it up.

The plot was interesting enough to hold my attention and there was a "real life" quality about that kind of pulled you into the story. The characters weren't always shown at their best angle, the lighting was not always perfect, you didn't always get the whole picture with a scene, but that's what kept me paying attention.

There was also an interesting mix of very professional actors and obvious first-timers, but again, it was kind of endearing and held my attention. Some of the characters were really well developed and I found myself really liking or really hating them.

The movie was a real-life mix of suspenseful, funny, bizarre and upsetting and it kept me wanting to find out how on earth everything was going to end up!

There was a post-credit scene that was really very funny (so be sure to stick around for it!).

Overall, the movie is not Hollywood polished, but it is no worse than some things I've seen on the Hallmark Channel and really had its own brand of charm.