Riley Rewind

Time travel movies have always been a favourite in the movie world. The Terminator, Back to the future and so on. Yes i know this is a 'web series' but they were calling this a movie for the most part and then just changed it. The story was OK, a girl tries to save multiple lives using her ability to travel back in time. But towards the end (Act 4/5) it just goes really fast and is a very rushed ending. The actors aren't the worst, but certainly aren't the best. A lot of the time it sounded and looked like they were just reciting the script rather than acting, and that took away from the story and made it feel less like a movie and more like a amateur high school drama skit.

I mean it's an indie film project, which took time, effort, and money to make. Personally, I enjoyed it! - Looking forward for Season 2 if any... Everything from the screenplay/story, (good job Anna!) acting (especially that gay dude!), Editing (Video Post was my favourite part about this film) was spot on! - also Ray (that fake and gay-homo-fag :-) ) did a good job directing, getting the most from the characters. what I didn't like though was the scoring/music - or at least the sound quality. Mix wasn't that warm, and audio didn't stand out to say the least. This may or may not be biased by personal passion in music production, scoring, and sound design, but the music in film left a lot to be desired. All in all though, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, and was hooked almost immediately!

Fist off, I didn't really like the format: five videos of about 10 minutes. I would have enjoyed it better (and taken it more seriously) if it was a 1-hour movie watched in one shot. The mini- series format works when the episodes are published gradually to keep us waiting, or when each episode is long. But 5 times 10 minutes - doesn't make sense to me.

Also it was really over-hyped by RWJ.

The acting gave a very amateur vibe, although Lamar Legend ("Jay") and Christina Marie Leonard ("Angela") were kinda good.

The story pitch is good. Seen before (Butterfly Effect), but pretty good still.

I really liked the effects and overall video editing.

Overall, I think it's got potential. Everyone involved in the movie has potential if set with more experienced professionals surrounding them.

I would love to see a comedy from RWJ.

Good luck on your future projects!

As a long time fan of both Anna and Ray, I was expecting myself to be bias as i was awaiting the release of Riley Rewind therefore I watched it with a purely critical mind.

The concept of a high school teen that can inexplicably 'rewind' time can be misread as cheesy or cliché, but with minimal amounts of verisimilitude the narrative of this story really comes to light. Although there is the occasional cliché moment, (it is set in a high school so what can you expect) The introduction of serious hard hitting subjects negates them into creating a continuous balance throughout the film giving it a really fun yet serious feel. The story, yet being rather simple at the beginning; soon unfolds to be a great climax which had me debating my own morals somewhat.

In terms of production quality, I was impressed by how great it look aesthetically. There are blatant traits of 'semi-low-budget-independent- ness' but this is not a flaw in their film, as the special effects looked believable where placed; the camera framing was good; lighting was well coordinated. It could easily be mistaken for something on a high quality TV show. It's well paced , although scenes can feel a little jumpy at some points, as it can quickly move from scene to scene.

Regarding possible cons, there are some minor elements that could be improved upon, for example the overused repetition of the soundtrack theme; the interaction between characters in a dialogue can feel somewhat staged sometimes. But these are minor, and they will surely learn from this experience and get better and better.

In conclusion, definitely worth watching. The narrative is captivating, the production value was great, the acting was good; and it all came together for a brilliant piece of film.

I'm very impressed with Runaway Machine on their first project, and I hope to see more of them in the future!

While I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it was lacking in a few places, and there were a few things that it could have done without. I understand that this was a first for the director, writers, and producers. I feel they hit the gay story just a little too hard (and by that I mean a LOT too hard. Too much gay story going on.) The acting was pretty hard to not laugh at on some scenes as well. Knowing Anna Akana's work, I felt like she was being herself, and not Riley. I did love the cartoon cut-scenes of introduction. Great for laying out parts of the story. I also loved the humor in many of the lines. Overall, I would definitely recommend to friends and family. I'm excited to see Runaway Machines next project.