The Smokers

I rented this in hopes of seeing, at the least, a film with some memorable lines or fun moments, and hoped that possibly I was stumbling across an underrated, obscure gem. I didn't even get any memorable lines or fun moments. It seems that what the film is trying to do is show a feminist view of sex, but the viewpoint doesn't go very deep or really seem that intriguing. It hardly even makes sense. The characters don't do much to support this attempt at deepness, and the acting is lousy all around. One of the main girls is trying her best to be an Angelina Jolie type, but she has zero charisma or screen presence. I think the best acting in the film was from a minor female character in a bar that one of the male characters was trying to pick up, and she had about three lines. Seriously, the acting is that noticeably bad. Thora Birch must be trying to earn indie cred by appearing in this right around the time her career was taking off, and she does have one of the better moments towards the beginning involving playing a Russian roulette-type game with an almost completely loaded gun, but the fact that the gun is loaded is the only fascinating part about this scene because her acting isn't particularly stellar. Dominique Swain doesn't even shine at all, and she has definitely saved some films I've seen in the past. The pot smoking seemed like a gimmick tacked onto the film. It's a shame. This movie looks good on paper, but suffers from weakness factoring in from all aspects that go into the making of it.

I wish I had checked the IMDB reviews for this movie before renting it.

Don't be fooled by the reasonably interesting summary on the back of the box, this is one of the worst films I have ever sat through. The acting is laughable, with lines being delivered in a horribly stilted, mechanical style by all but one actor (excepting Thora Birch, who only has about ten minutes of screen time). Of course, you can't fault the actors for having to deliver lines that are horribly cliched or needlessly dramatic. Finally, it appears to have been edited by fairly intelligent chimps, with massive skips in the story leaving you trying desperately to figure out what's going on. The last ten minutes are among the worst ever commited to celluloid in movie that is trying to take itself seriously.

Wow, did this movie ever suck. I don't usually write commentary, but for any girl who might think that this movie has anything to do with female empowerment, watch something else. The girls claim they want revenge on the cruelty of a male-dominated society that uses women only for their reproductive and pleasure-giving capacity, but the whole time all they do is bitch about wanting someone to complete them and make their lives meaningful, thereby contradicting the intent by inferring that men make our lives meaningful. argh. an hour and a half of my life I can never get back.

What was up with this film? I thought I was in for an edgy, interesting film. What I got was a montage of bad acting and even worse directing/writing. It just baffled me who would watch this movie and think it was good. The acting was so overdone. The camera work looked like the actors themselves shot it, heck - they may have done better! The plot was supposed to be in your face, it was just dumb. The fire scene looked like a skit from Saturday Night Live it was so unbelievably awful. These girls need to take some more acting lessons, or better yet - get a new agent or fire whoever suggested these parts to them. RUN FROM THIS MOVIE!!! RUN FAR, FAR AWAY!!!!!!!

This really is as bad as people have commented. I thought anything would be at least watchable with Dominique and Thora in it, but I was wrong. Absolute, jaw-dropping, unbelievably bad performances from everyone involved, in wildly distracting outfits and makeup. And I like the actresses - in other movies. I liked Lolita, American Beauty, Ghost World. What happened?

Thankfully, it has been a little while since I saw it and it is starting to fade from my memory.

The plot, which was hard to determine, was plain silly. Since when does a tile bathroom go up in flames from a Bic lighter? Oh yeah, at the end of this crap.