Shuffle

Okay, direct to DVD's are usually unoriginal, badly cast, and have lazy performances. This had none of those problems. It had three actors from the show Bones, which usually is terrible when TV actors do a movie between the break, but they were all enjoyable, especially Ty Thyne. Newcomers like Paula Rhodes were excellent, and I felt like the story was beautiful. Despite bad production values you never want to leave the screen. This captures you in ways most films forget to do: story, characters, humor, heartbreak, and balances them so well. While I don't like most dramas for trying too hard this film never seems to force emotion out of you, you give it freely. My only complaint is the lighting department gave it a strange look, and the cameras were bad. Other than that, the film making is surprisingly spot on, check it out, it's on Netflix.

The beginning of the movie hooks you completely, the story presents itself as very interesting and full of mystery, to some extent it reminded me to Memento (2000) or The Butterfly Effect (2004) but as it progresses the film becomes Premonition (2007) mixed with Déjà vu (2006), the cuts in the time-lines are completely lose and end up telling you the story in a linear way until the end that concludes extremely cheesy pretty much like Hallmark Channel style. The message is nice but freezes up there, does not go further, and it is unfortunate since the initial approach was to be an excellent thriller but the script ended up being a soap opera. A real shame.

I was expecting this to be a time travel thriller/mystery, but it ultimately turned out to be more of an "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of thing. And oddly enough, I wasn't disappointed when it headed in that direction. It definitely has its issues: needless melodrama, cliches all over the place, a twist that isn't too hard to figure out, and an ending that just seems superfluous. However, maybe I just watched this on the right day or something because I found myself sucked in by the sweetness of it. With all the bad stuff going on in the world every day, this movie was a nice little diversion that made me laugh and cry, and left me with a nice case of the warm fuzzies.

What an incredibly talented writer, director and composer Kurt Kuenne is! The movie really kept me intrigued and the music was just beautiful. I really didn't expect much at all from this obviously low budget sci fi movie, but wow did it deliver. It really did have that feel of 'Its a Wonderful life'! Do yourself a favour and get past the low budget look and watch this gem....

Gosh!!!! I wish i could give this movie a 10! After seeing "Validation" short movie so many times, i was already a fan of TJ Thyne. Well, he does not disappoint in Shuffle, neither any of the other actors. The plot is clever, the photography is amazing (the B&W really works!), and time flew by as i was living the story... until the VERY END almost ruined it all! I agree with other review here... After those last minutes, i felt like i was slapped on the face, after being swept away! I did not understand the need of that last scene, as everything falls in place without it.

Watch it if you can. It's a very nice piece of cinema art!

P.S: Only after yesterday's episode of "Bones" i realized that Thyne is Dr. Jack Hodgins!! Maybe my head was focused because i was "getting shuffled" latter on!