Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Assassination of a High School President

Release Date: October 6th, 2009 (DVD)

Genre: Comedy / Crime / Mystery

Stars: Bruce Willis, Mischa Barton, Reece Thompson, Michael Rappaport

Synopsis: A school newspaper reporter gets his big break when he outs the student body president for stealing the SAT tests from the principal's office but further investigation suggests a frame job and a much bigger scandal.

AltAss Ratings (On a scale of 1 to 5 asses)

Plot:                                           

A well crafted premise and certainly a strength for the film.

Writing / Production:            

At times "Assassination of a High School President" is down right entertaining and others it is completely boring and uninteresting.  The biggest criticism for this film is that it does not harness momentum efficiently and winds up a series of peaks and valleys.

Acting:                                  
          
It is a shame that Michael Rappaport was not used more often as he was absoultely hillarious.  Bruce Willis is very nice in his role as the principal but the rest of the players which include the leads left a bit to be desired.

Originality:                           

"Assassination of a High School President" feels a lot like a bad tribute to classic detective mystery movies and if it had done enough to more closely mimic that genre it would have been a pretty novel concept.

Overall:                                   

This movie put a lot of stock in a fantastic finish and while the ending was pretty good that doesn't quite make up for the fact that the audience has to labor through a painfully hit or miss feature length fare to get there. 

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What did you think?  Leave a comment below to tell us how you'd rate this film!

Monday, January 17, 2011

The Town

Release Date: September 17th, 2010

Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller

Stars: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Ham, Jeremy Renner

Synopsis: A career bank robber finds himself involved with a manager taken hostage during one of his heists and fights the strong currents from his life of crime in an attempt to change his life for good.

AltAss Ratings (On a scale of 1 to 5 asses)

Plot:                                          
                                           
The premise of exploring a love relationship between a criminal and his victim is a strength for this film.

Writing / Production:               

"The Town" has some very nice heist and chase scenes with hit or miss dramatic efforts in between.  While its nothing extremely special, the film is still pretty good and has a lot of entertainment value.

Acting:                                      

Ben Affleck has been responsible for some the worst acted scenes in recent history but he is much better in "The Town" and even shows some signs that he has the ability to be a really good actor at times.  Jon Ham and Jeremy Renner probably turned in the best performances in this effort.

Originality:                                

The fresh and creative feel is why "The Town" has impressed a lot of audiences in my opinion.

Overall:                                   

This movie isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it is a breath of fresh air from the steady diet of cookie cutter big budget and big name films steadily shoved down our throats.

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What did you think?  Leave a comment below to tell us how you'd rate this film!