Pinching Penny

What a brash hodge podge of stolen material. Only a few notes off from being made of material copied and pasted from the peers of this genre. Don't let friends and family convince you that this is some grand opus. This is merely a student film far longer than it ever need be. Actors do what they can but sadly they can do little when a project is flawed from so many directions. The main character and his setting seems completely forced. It's one thing to enjoy a Guy Ritchie film but it's an entirely other thing to forcibly shove a bad knock off of one of Mr. Ritchie's characters into a place he has no good reason being in the first place. The only explanation for this being in the Top 500 is probably because calling in some family favors to make a few simple clicks is rather easy.

One of the great things about HD filmmaking is its affordability. These days pretty much anyone with the willpower and a few months savings can buy a camera and make their vision a reality. This is great for the artist on a shoestring budget with a unique and creative story to tell, but the problem is most peoples vision is of little interest to anyone but themselves. Pinching Penny fits into the latter category.

As reviewers have said before, Pinching Penny is a film that takes stock characters from myriad other films and places them in situations where they clearly don't belong. The result is an entirely disjointed and unbelievable experience that, in the end, plays out like an overly-long student film. Now, I can tolerate the occasional student film when it has something interesting to say, but Pinching Penny seems so detached from reality that I wonder if the director incorporated any of his personal experiences into this movie at all, or if its entirely fabricated out of bits and pieces he's picked from other films.

Perhaps the saddest part of all is the fact that so many have given this movie a ten star rating. If Dan Glaser ever hopes to evolve as a filmmaker he'd do best to ignore these high scores, which have clearly been padded by his family and friends, and acknowledge his shortcomings as a storyteller. Once he does this and starts drawing from his own experiences, he'll hopefully be able to give us something worth watching.

I attended a screening of Pinching Penny and was blown away by the performances. Lauren Wertz as Penny was totally believable; Tim Meyer was the witty and fun sidekick; Ginny Glaser was the perfect femme fatale; and Steven Molony as the main character, Alex, was utterly mesmerizing, all the way from the clever hilarious opening to the undeniably tragic end. He definitely has great presence, a lovely voice (!), and talent oozing out of his eyeballs. The four main characters interact honestly, which kept me interested all the way through. Wow...the message is clear: Money isn't everything, and one bad thing leads to another! I think this movie WILL be noticed for its introduction of raw new talent to the movie industry. I predict Dan Glaser will be a famed director who reminds us of Aronofsky and Ritchie, but who develops his own unique tradition. As for Steven Molony, I predict he will carve his place in movie star history at the TOP. He is amazing, and I want to see MORE!

It's been said by others, but this just looks and feels like a looooong student film. And not a good one. It drags on and on while nothing of interest happens. The acting by the lead is good, but the rest of the film is garbage. The characters all look like young friends playing dress-ups and there isn't even a hint of credibility or 'realism'. There's no feeling of any real threat, either. To anyone. The 'medic' was beyond idiotic. Was all the red light meant to make it feel like 'hell' and he sold his soul to the proverbial devil? Well, it didn't work. It just made it look even more like an amateur production. The 'story' is irritating. The editing is terrible and overly complicated, trying to be stylistic and cool, but just coming across as pretentious and annoying. A lot of the slow motion sequences with music are completely pointless. The characters are all silly, boring, and dull, and the swearing feels fake and forced, with no real emotion behind it... or anything, for that matter. I had to sit through this garbage for professional reasons, and was a real struggle. Rest assured that my company at least will not be touching this train wreck. It's a waste of time and money. And the weakness was not the lack of money. Better films have been done for less. The weakness was the over-directing, the pretentious editing, and the utterly terrible writing. As you can tell, I absolutely hated it.

Edit: Do the people posting the fake reviews here really think that anyone would be stupid enough to believe them? If they do then I guess those gullible people deserve to sit through this joke of a film. However, since most low budget pieces of garbage (as opposed to some genuinely good low budget offerings) have a bunch of overly excited fake reviews by family, friends, and people involved in the film claiming it to be the greatest thing ever, I guess that assuming anyone would be gullible enough to believe those reviews is even more of an insult to the public than the film they want to dupe you to see.

ATTENTION: I copied this from my Amazon review. I said it well then and still believe it: This movie grabs you at the first scene and doesn't let go. From comedic crime caper to the riveting emotional end, it's a gritty roller coaster of consequences. Knowing that this was Dan Glaser's directorial debut on a shoestring budget (literally), I was amazed to discover two hours of really great entertainment, complete with powerful acting, imaginative montages, and cool camera shots. Most impressive? Steven Molony's exceptional performance in the lead role. He reminds me of a young Christian Bale in both looks, intensity, and charisma. He's definitely got the chops to make it to the top; this film gives us a glimpse of his immense talent. Other main characters delivered strong, believable support for the story. (Yeah, it's full of F-bombs; get over it. You know what rated R means.) All in all, you won't go wrong with this film. I recommend you buy it, watch it again and again, and proudly tell your friends in the future, "I own a copy of Dan Glaser's first film, the one that introduced Steven Molony as a promising new star." Very cool.........