Loaded

This was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Reminded me a lot of Shallow Grave, but without the murder. The trippy scenes are well directed.

The majority of this movie is argumentative discussion. It might be interesting if it were philosophical discussion, but there is little of that. The movie-making is only a small part of the movie. The movie is about as exciting as watching a typical dysfunctional group of people.

I have noticed many movie descriptions that describe the ending of the movie as if the entire movie is about that. I consider the Plot Summary of this movie to give away too much of the ending, however there probably is not much more that could be said to make this movie sound interesting.

This was a movie that I won from a podcast. It was part of the 8 Midnight Horror Movies - Hatchets & Cleavers. What is ironic is that most of the movies in the pack don't fit these criteria. I decided to work through movies in my collection that I hadn't seen before so I gave this one a watch.

We start this off with Neil (Oliver Milburn) seeing his therapist, played by Dearbhla Molloy. What is interesting here is that he wants to film this. She denies that, but he does it in secret anyway. He will watch this over as the movie goes on.

Neil along with his friends are going to the house of Charlotte's (Biddy Hodson). They are going there to film an independent movie. It seems that Lance (Danny Cunningham) and Giles (Nick Patrick) are the creative team behind this. Rose (Catherine McCormack) is the star while Zita (Thandiwe Newton) is helping in front and behind the camera. They are also joined by Lionel (Mathew Eggleton).

Issues arise when Lionel shows up with a box of condoms to give to Rose. Lance walks into the room and thinks they're hooking up. Rose is supposed to see Neil though. It doesn't help that Lance happens to see them again when Rose removes her clothes with Lionel there. He relays what he's seen to Neil, who we know struggles with mental health. This ends in tragedy when Lionel gets hit by a car driven by Neil. There are factors here that complicate this even further.

Now I will say that there are good parts to this movie. I'm a fan of getting a group of characters in the middle of nowhere and them turning on each other due to the isolation. This is compounded by the fact that they take acid. Lance brings it and recommends that they use it to learn more about themselves on camera. This ends up leading to the tragedy that will change their lives forever. This also becomes a catalyst for bad decision making and the worry about getting into trouble from said decisions as well.

There isn't a lot that happens in this movie and it is carried by the acting. I thought that it was good to set up Milburn like they did in the beginning. It also makes him worried when the accident happens. He was driving and it was set up that he had a motive with Rose and Lionel. He has an important decision to make. Cunningham is a jerk, but I like the fact that he's there to press buttons. That adds tension. It is wild to see a young McCormack who I know from Braveheart. There's also Newton who I knew originally from the television show ER. She's gone on to do the most from here. Hodson is solid along with Eggleton. Patrick also has an interesting role since he has a notebook with newspaper clippings about serial killers. This doesn't go anywhere aside from pushing the buttons of Zita. I did like the acting here even if it comes off pretension with things they debate.

I'd say that this is well-made as well. It doesn't have the biggest budget which is interesting that this crew is making a low budget movie. There's a lot of dialogue and the characters getting into debates. I don't know if they go anywhere and it causes the story to meander. The credit I'll give there though is that it shows these characters are getting under each other's skins for different things. I did like the debate between Giles wanting to make a more arthouse film where Lance wants to make something that will sell commercially. It feels more like a debate between a studio and artist. Where this ends up was interesting, I'm just not sure we needed everything to get there personally. Not one that I can recommend to everyone. You need to like low budget dramas. If you want to see Newton and McCormack in earlier roles, especially the latter is topless a couple of times. This is just a bit too pretentious for most viewers.

My Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

From the plot to the acting. From the beginning to the end. The absolute worst film ever made. I am not surprised the actors from this movie have not gone on to do bigger and better things. Because, after watching this movie, you could see why. The direction is awful, the pace is slow. But, more than that, the description on the back of the box is VERY VERY misleading. Proceed with caution, and if you disregard this and decided to give it a try, I am so very sorry, because I know it's 120 mins of my life I would like back. C. McCormick, I hear, is actually considering doing more things. I am trying very hard not to hold this movie against her, it being her first film and all. But, believe me, it's hard. Still in the end, I left not really knowing what the movie was all about.

The main thing that drew me to this movie, was the fact that it was directed by Anna Campion, Jane Campion's sister, one of my favourite New Zealand directors. It's a fairly solid effort, but it doesn't live up to her sister's reputation. The story is slow, and there isn't a lot of pay off, but I think that gives it a real life quality, even if some of the scenarios are a little bit hard to swallow.

The acting is solid. There is some beautiful camera work, the problem is that is all there is.

Loaded ambles along, with a couple of peaks, and then it just ends, leaving you feel like you saw half a good movie, that ran out of steam. It's like it has a thriller story, that is played out in a drama format. Maybe the script in someone else's hands might have worked, but it just seemed like there wasn't enough it.