Answer This!

This film, set on the campus of the University of Michigan, makes the U look as good as it really is. Yes, I'm an alum, so I'm biased, but the story is well written, the cast well-chosen, and the direction excellent. The minor revelation of a secret identity is a great way to end this film. The professor who plays the father of the story's lead is an actual professor (now emeritus). He is held in high esteem by the many students whose lives he touched. It was a stroke of genius to build this role around him. Then, again, maybe it was so obvious, it wasn't genius at all. The film captures the procrastination and angst so many doctoral candidates suffer as they try to complete their theses. If you ever went there, you'll identify with this film. If you ever attended or visited the University of Michigan or wanted to, you'll find that aspect alone worth the trip to Answer This!

I was fortunate enough to attend the world premiere screening of Answer This! at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor last October, and since then I have been waiting for the film to be picked up for wider distribution. Wrekin Hill Entertainment has picked up Answer This!, and to celebrate that, there was another red carpet premiere screening at the Emagine Royal Oak this past Thursday, October 13. I was interested in seeing if the distributors had made any changes to the movie, and if they had, they are little; however, the movie was just as good as I remembered it.

There are no great twists in this movie and nothing ground breaking. It's not remarkably funny, it's not extremely bad. It just is a very average blend of a growing up movie that tries to be a comedy.

The plot line follows the basic boy is stuck in life, boy meets free spirited girl, boy gets girl, boy gets a wake-up call, yada yada yada storytelling. Very easy to predict once you've been introduced to the main characters. The whole trivia thing is just an excuse to shoot in a bar and in the end is actually a pretty small part of the whole movie. There is one scene where the main character gets very philosophical in class about the concept of questioning what one reads and it's relation to creating something holy, which is actually surprisingly thought provoking (although the setting in which it is presented again is pretty cliché).

If you're into the whole "growing up in college" thing, or if you just want something where no brain power is necessary, then you might have a few enjoyable hours with this one.

When I sat down here in 2024 to watch the 2011 movie "Answer This!", I assumed that I was in for a comedy, as the movie was labeled as a comedy. However, it turns out that the movie was rather devoid of fun and comedy. So talk about a disappointment from writer and director Christopher Farah.

The storyline told in the movie was more of a light-hearted drama with light elements of comedy, but without the ability to get the audience to laugh. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, that's for sure.

The only familiar face on the screen, for me, was actor Chris Parnell. It should be noted that the acting performances in "Answer This!" were fair.

This was definitely not my cup of tea, and I found very little entertainment and enjoyment in the movie. This is definitely not a movie that I would recommend people to spend their time, money or effort on. Nor is it a movie that will ever finds it way back to my screen a second time.

My rating of writer and director Christopher Farah's 2011 movie "Answer This!" lands on a three out of ten stars.

"Answer This! is a modern comedy with a great cast. The acting is uniformly good. I've never heard of this Director before, but I'm sure we're going to hear and see a lot more work from him. The quality of the editing and photography is excellent. Having not heard anything about this film, I walked in not knowing what to expect. Someone should think about changing the Film's Poster because it doesn't project what this film is about. Some clever person will figure this out and "package" this film, and then, a studio will make a lot of money. I'm looking forward to see the next film this director makes. I'm sure we will see much more of the cast. Take my advice and see this film.