Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Jekkyl This is a fun and funny documentary I recommend checking out. The two friends are great and loyal and say what you want about their dream, they do get it done and have a nice premiere screening.

begob Assertive, mullet-haired white trash dude ropes his family and friends into a shaky realisation of his movie-making dream.Interesting documentary that plays around with the truth. Lots of reviews flag this up as comic, but I wasn't laughing, and when the feel good came on toward the end it seemed fake - but was the fakery part of the story? The characters are extraordinary - I haven't met a single person of that type, but like to think they exist. Uncle Bill especially. But how much of that is down to the director, how much to the people playing up to the camera? Fake or not, it does have a complete feel - like Grizzly Man, which also played around with the real life of a delusional performer.Overall, engaging story but I want to know more. So I guess it succeeds.

capone666 American MovieThanks to crowd-sourcing your movies online, your film's financial investors are now faceless strangers without legal representation.But as this mockumentary confirms, in the late-90s', aspiring auteurs were indebted to their families.When Mark's (Mark Borchardt) feature film project is put on hold due to a lack of funding, he redirects his focus to an unfinished horror movie of his called Coven.With his senile uncle Ben backing the short-film and his best friend (Mike Schank) serving as sound-engineer, Mark and many of the townsfolk begin to make one of the worst movies ever made.Marred by his alcoholism, lack of organization and ongoing custody battle with his ex, Mark's cinematic debut is threatened at every angle.One of the first and funniest found-footage documentaries to follow around down-and-out losers, American Movie is inventive, inspiring and awkwardly uproarious.Nowadays, however, the hardest part of movie-making is choosing which bestseller to adapt.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

oneguyrambling No Hollywood hasn't got this lazy yet that they just tell you what it is and where it was made, American Movie is a documentary about a man with perhaps the greatest divide between ambition and ability currently working in film, and his efforts to make his debut film.As a digression though I have found altogether too many films that just say "whack American in front of something and there's your title!", maybe it's familiarity, maybe misplaced nationalism, but these films always seem to make a few bucks, leading to more and more.So we have "American… Pie / Gangster / Psycho / Beauty / History X / Splendor / Dreamz All in the last decade off the top of my head, with dozens more out there.Back to Mark Borchardt the subject of this American Movie. Mark is a movie devotee who clearly has at least put in the time watching and studying film. He has grand plans to become an established filmmaker in his own right, he just needs to make his debut short film to drum up some money so that he can make his name with a full length feature.The film will be called NorthWestern, and while early goings of this documentary introduce us to many people already associated and indoctrinated into the process it is clear early that this won't be a tale of cinematic triumph against the odds.Even Mark's most ardent supporters admit that years have passed with little or no progress. Mark is idealistic, ambitious, passionate and sincere. But he is also delusional at times, ill equipped and has a chasm between his ideas and capabilities.Low budget is low budget, and it worked for Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, but Mark is an ideas man without a clue. In any case the intrigue isn't what the film will be like or even if it will be finished, it is the people dragged into Mark's life because or at times despite the film.Mark's Mum is his biggest supporter, his Dad seems to be hopeful but doubting, and resentful of Mark's open animosity and hatred of a 9 – 5 existence, seeing as that is what his Dad himself did. Mark has kids, exes, a girlfriend, cast and crew to deal with day by day. But it seems only one true friend in Mike Shenk (who deserves his own movie – I'll get to him) and dear old Uncle Bill.Bill is an elderly man who Mark nags incessantly for money *ahem* film financing capital, with tales of future Scorcese style glory and Snyder sized box office returns until poor old Uncle Bill gets exhausted and relents… again… fully expecting never to see a penny for his outlay.It seems Mark's unerring sense of self belief and endless optimism convinces others to get involved without the slightest assurance or inkling that anything will ever eventuate.But even Mark has doubt at times, it is obvious to all that when he drinks his resentment of authority and a more hardworking existence rise quickly to the surface, and he lacks the ability to say "no" to alcohol, allowing it to set himself further and further behind, both financially and cinematically.But enough with the serious stuff. American Movie is a well made doco about a man trying to make his own personal Citizen Cain with a Troll 2 budget and skillset. Mark is enigmatic and at times compelling but it is Mike Shenk who provides the reason to watch American Movie.Mike is a self confessed unemployed former habitual drug user. He never seems "there" even though he is right… there. His dazed expression and half breathed high pitched voice continually suggest a room with the "Vacant" signs up, and his bizarre stories to nowhere only provide further assurance.In limited screen time Mike steals the film with his rambling stories, acoustic guitar noodlings and tales of personal punishment suffered through his previous drug abuse, all laced with a familiar blank smile and a shrill girlish laugh.When Mike steps to the mic (Beastie Boys style) late in the film and lets loose with the most blood-curdling scream I can recall on film for audio looping it is simultaneously incredible, bewildering and hilarious that this deathwail can come from such an unassuming stoner.Final Rating – 6 / 10. Mark Borchardt is a walking, drinking, profane, bespectacled dichotomy, and evidence that film smarts don't necessarily mean smart films. On this occasion it does make for compelling viewing – albeit perhaps more about a man triumphing over his limited abilities.