The Unknown Trilogy

As I sat there watching the first of the 3 stories I had this gnawing sense of being conned. I'd read the IMDb comments and most suggested an entertaining experience. Obviously they were written by one of the film's financial backers for this is a truly awful film. The dialog is border-line moronic, the characters are hackneyed stereotypes and the plots are so simplistic and obvious that one has to wonder who could find the stories worth telling. I can truthfully see film schools forcing their students to watch this as a lesson on how not to make a movie. It's hard to imagine how this piece was ever actually released, but if you examine the credits you will find a very limited number of people involved. My only advice would be to learn from your mistakes and move on to new projects.

Justin plays a character named "Keith," a high roller that "Frankie" (played by writer/producer Sal Mazzotta) encounters at a roulette table in Atlantic City. Frankie is a gambler, down on his luck, who gets some lucky numbers from a mysterious man, "Lucky Smith," played by David Proval ("The Sopranos"). As Frankie and Keith play roulette, Frankie's luck changes. Suddenly, he's winning, he's on top of the world, and beautiful women (always present at roulette tables) want to be with him. Who is the mysterious man who gave him the numbers and what does he want in exchange?? The show is in the vein of The Twilight Zone, and very Hitchcock-like. Adam West will be the voice of the narrator, "Dr. Sol Rubin," taking the place of his good friend Frank Gorshin who passed away. Justin is in one scene but he is considered one of the principals in the episode. They had a blast shooting the scene at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.

I know truly crappy movie quality when I see it, and I have to say that based on many of the other reviews, here, I was fully expecting this to be among that ilk of film. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen - the reviews are either glowing wonderful or glowing with damnation, no in- between. But really, it's just your average very-low-budget indie type film. I really rather enjoyed it. Granted, there were so many ways it could've been improved, but I think the creators and actors did about as good as they could with what they had been given. It has a sort of Twilight Zone/Alfred Hitchcock tone to it. But all in all, and especially for all the horrid reviews, I was very pleasantly surprised. Just watch the first 15-20 minutes if you're not sure, that should be enough to tell you whether or not you can stand to watch the rest of it. As low-budget as it was, it at least seems to have had some people behind it who actually tried doing a good job - I didn't get a sense of any of this as having been "tossed to the wind" or just carelessly, haphazardly thrown together. It can actually be a bit touching if you let yourself get carried down that route with it. Not the greatest, but certainly worth watching. The three stories are just right so that if you'd prefer it, you could technically watch them in separate viewings and not really miss a thing. So if you don't think you don't want to spend an entire hour-and-a-half on it all at once, don't - I think the 2nd & 3rd story will keep well until you're in the mood. This review would be so much more positive if not for feeling like I have to try to find some way to explain the rancor & bile - I just don't see what the justification is for some of the remarks. Granted, I -do- think some of the rave reviews early on were probably faked, but that doesn't automatically mean it's a horrible film - I don't approve of faked reviews, but even believing that to be the case, I can't really trash the movie over it. It's not a bad little set of flicks. Whimsical, basic, very simple story-telling.

I'll be honest: I am in no way connected to or know anyone having the slightest thing to do with this movie.

And this movie sucks. Also being honest: I did not watch it all, because life is too short. It's not the production values that I mind -- although they were very low budget. It's not the threadbare dialogue, delivered by actors with all the skill of B-grade porn stars -- although they were awful. It's not the overdone and stilted narrator who appears to be reading from cards -- although he...

wait a minute...

yes, it IS all those things that I mind! They suck, this movie sucks and you would be wasting your time to watch it, much less pay to watch it.

If you are one of those rare people who enjoy poorly written, edited, directed and acted video releases, then I guess... I would ask you, what's wrong with you?

This movie sucks a lot! Don't be tempted!

A year ago I unfortunately saw this piece of garbage, fortunately, free on the internets. Talk about 90 minutes of crap. The movie's complete lack of quality compelled me to sign up on IMDb to write a warning review. This film is seriously that bad.. Well, within a week of my posting, the review was flagged as inappropriate by some user. No reason was given so I said "whatever" and decided not to waste any more time on this stinker.

Then I was cleaning up in my inbox just now and came across the old mail informing me of the deletion of my comment. I decided to check on this again and read all the ten star reviews. Aaaaand there is no doubt in my mind that they are all written by one or two people, surely affiliated with the film. The quite shoddy style of writing and reoccurring words are a dead giveaway. Just face the fact, your movie sucks on a previously unknown scale.

Bottom line: Do not waste 90min. of your precious life on this. Staring at a bar of soap for the same amount of time is more rewarding.