Sharp as Marbles

Sharp As Marbles is about three dumb video store clerks - Albert, Ernie and George who can't seem to stay out of trouble. Albert and Ernie are two lovable characters with hearts of gold, while George on the other hand only thinks of himself. The funny thing about this movie is, the more Albert and Ernie screw up, the more trouble George finds himself in. The movie follows the trio through numerous adventures, meeting lots of interesting characters along the way. (My favorites were Abdul the Indian store owner and the two punk rockers from the rock group GOB) Sharp as Marbles is a very funny movie with a great ending that will put a smile on your face. It's definitely a feel good movie.

Oh boy. This has to be by far one the worst movies I have ever seen. The acting seemed lost and flat, but this could be the fault of the directing which was horrendous. The whole direction of the movie seemed very amateur. The camera work sucked. The only tolerable part of this movie was the music. I'm a huge fan of comedies especially low budget style ones like Napoleon Dynamite, I've seen them all. But at least a movie like Napoleon Dynamite had a sense of style, charm, and wit unlike this disaster. Lets hope these people never make another movie like this one ever again! I would not recommend this movie to anyone. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time or money on this one!!

Capsule review: Worse than a youtube short.

A family film? Taking your kids to this one? I have a feeling that the positive reviews for this film were written either for another movie altogether or by a robot spam app.

Sharp as Marbles pretends to be a quirky, indy film but really is only a low-budget mess with horrible acting, terrible directing, clunky amateurish editing and a truly uninspired script. Clerks at a video store? Nope, never been done before.

I felt like I was back in grade school watching the annual play. These 'actors' really make you appreciate the real thing and how hard the profession truly is. The wooden delivery and stiff screen presence might have been acceptable if any of them displayed any sense at all of comedic timing. Sadly, they do not. I can only assume they're the director's buddies from college.

A decent director might have been able to save the film from its terrible acting by playing up on that a la John Waters, or at least through the editing, blotting out the dead spaces, awkward pauses, uncertain delivery and hesitant timing that kill each and every single 'joke' in this film.

Even a decent editing job, however, would not have been enough to save this movie from its script, which, really, displays so little originality that at least two dozen screenwriters could probably successfully sue the Marbles' crew for plagiarism. Why bother? Who green-lighted this movie? I'm going to assume here that the directors' uncle financed this garbage.

As much as I've always enjoyed independent movies and cult films, Sharp as Marbles cannot and should not be categorized among either. Instead, it's an amateurish effort that rivals many a youtube video.

It disturbs me that people claim to have taken their kids to see this film. There's nothing graphic about it sexually, of course, and the lead character's sleazy attempts at picking up girls are meant to be creepy, but really, I don't see any part of this movie that should be interesting for young kids.

Note: this review is for the first 35 minutes only. I could not get beyond that, sorry.

I almost turned the movie off during the first few seconds because it's immediately noticeable that the movie has a pretty low budget (most low budget comedies out there suffer where it hurts most - the writing). There was something about the actor (George) that made me want to keep watching, though; he's an extremely funny guy who really "sells" the annoying/moronic/love-him-or-hate-him kind of character! There are some really hilarious bits in this movie. The writers did a fantastic job, as do the actors. It should be mentioned that the acting won't win any Oscars, but it fits with the style of the movie. They don't take themselves too seriously, but they always stay in character, so it really works.

This movie was featured on the front pages of some prominent torrent sites, which will actually help the guys behind the movie (writers, director, actors) get noticed in the future. They might not make quite as much cash as they would have due to a few lost sales, but the marketing got a huge free push.

I rated the movie a 7 out of 10. This figure is relative, though, to the style and budget of the movie. It was actually quite a bit funnier and interesting to watch than some of the comedies with popular comedians. I can't wait to see more from this bunch.

I won't waste your time. This movie is horrible. I appreciate good family humor like anyone else. But I don't see how this qualifies. The acting was stiff and the characters were stereotyped. The health food store guy "Abdul" was probably the worst actor in the entire film, at least get a real middle eastern actor instead of a poor impersonation. I guess that they were going for a Dumb and Dumber type of interaction between the two lead characters, but they couldn't pull it off. The music was OK, but is that a reason to waste your time watching this movie? No! If you value your family time, go to a park or something, but don't use your time to watch this film with them.

I can go on, but why bother. Pass on this film.