Raising Heroes

'Raising Heroes' is 'BearCity' creator Douglas Langway's first film. The film revolves around gay couple Paul and John fighting a legal battle over custody of a young boy, Nicki. Nicki's mom, Susan - Paul's best friend - died from leukemia and gave custody of Nicki to Paul and John, but Nicki's Grandmother is taking them to court over this custody agreement.

Everything seemed to go well until John witnessed a brutal crime just three days before the court hearing. In an instant their lives are turned upside down. The criminals who noticed John witnessing the crime are doing everything in their power to eliminate him. I enjoyed the film's premise and the main characters, but the camera work, editing and sound were not all that great. The villains also could have been more fleshed out. Some of the characters were one-dimensional.

I also didn't like the fact John was narrating the movie. This approach removed much of the suspense and told me the film was set in the past, and that John was ok. I would have preferred the film without this narration.

Nevertheless, 'Raising Heroes' was still entertaining and worth the watch. There's a few twists here as well, and a good ending.

While it is wonderful to see a film in which the gay characters' sexuality is merely incidental to the story (in other words, a "regular movie" in which the characters just happen to be gay), this aspect is about the only redeeming feature of the film. (The only other highlights are the incredibly realistic and effective special effects involving gunshot wounds). Otherwise, the acting is rather wooden and formulaic; the cinematography is somewhat amateurish (although there are a few creative and ambitious shots); and the lighting are sound are just plain awful. Moreover, the screenplay is not especially creative, even somewhat trite, and contains a number of hard-to-believe plot elements. All in all, the film is a great idea but a poor execution.