FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Hellmant 'SHIMMER LAKE': Four Stars (Out of Five)A crime thriller told in reverse order, about a sheriff investigating a bank robbery involving his brother and two old high school friends. It was written and directed by first time feature filmmaker Oren Uziel (who previously wrote the horror-comedy 'FREAKS OF NATURE', and he also co-wrote '22 JUMP STREET'). The movie stars Benjamin Walker, Rainn Wilson, Stephanie Sigman, Wyatt Russell, Adam Pally, Mark Rendall, John Michael Higgins, Ron Livingston and Rob Corddry. It was released by Netflix through their streaming site, and it's gotten polarized reviews from critics (from the small number that have seen it that is, but some rave about it). I really enjoyed it too. The story is told over the course of one week, in reverse order, starting with Friday. It's about a bank robbery gone wrong, in a small town, being investigated by Sheriff Zeke Sikes (Walker). The robbery was carried out by Zeke's brother Andy (Wilson), and two old high school friends of theirs, Ed Burton (Russell) and Chris Morrow (Rendall). On Friday, Andy is trying to get away with the money from the robbery, while his brother is looking for him. We see Andy's fate, and then we learn what happened to everyone else, and everything that happened leading up to Friday, in reverse daily order. The movie is pretty cleverly written, and acted, and it even has a pretty fun twist at the end. It seems fresh, and pretty original, but if you take away the 'reverse order' storytelling gimmick, it's not really that original or memorable. Still it's highly amusing, and always interesting to watch. It should keep most viewers guessing (until the very end) as well. It did for me, and I definitely recommend it.

Bob An This film is really not bad. It was entertaining and interesting from the beginning til the end. The fact that it goes from the end to the beginning of the story makes it even more interesting in a way that you have to remember all the details with hope not to miss anything important and solve the story - like the tattoo arm that killed the guy.I have to admit that I was surprised by the truth and that adds to the + of this film.Low budget but the actors were all pretty good. Nice thriller with elements of comedy which I must say I did not find funny at all, but that does not make this film less interesting.Maybe the back story which triggered all of this - the accident in which a child is killed could have been explored more - though on the 2nd thought - it may not have added anything to the story. But as it is the one thing that started all...All in all, good way to spend your 90 minutes. 7 from me. Though it is close to 8.

edgalarza I'm not sure why this film is considered a crime-drama. It is really a dark comedy and mystery told in reverse chronological order. It's certainly not a serious crime-drama at all. Unlike most comedies of this sort that make local police look like the buffoons and the FBI agents the serious crime fighters. This film spins things around by making the FBI the buffoons. The exception is the sheriff's sidekick who doesn't seem to get a chance to sit shotgun with his partner in the squad car. Almost always relegated to the back seat. I thought it was creative and funny.

Harrison Tweed (Top Dawg) **SPOILER? I checked yes as it's borderline, but if you've seen the trailer, then this review should be OK.For the first time in all my many reviews, this film will be the first to receive two different reviews from me. Confusing? Let me explain.1) Initial review: 4/10From the start, and from reading the IMDb summary, I was expecting a Crime, Drama, Mystery. Then I got confused when at least two of the actors are know primarily for comedy, specifically Rob Corddry and Rainn Wilson. So the first flag went up. The premise of the story, being told in parts going backwards reminded me of one of my favorite films, Memento, so thus I had the same high expectations going into this film.From the start I was very disappointed. The characters where trying to play off some bad unnecessary humor, and it was, but it also explained why Corddry and Wilson where in it. But it was still bad, I guess bad enough that the Crime, Drama, Mystery classification intentionally left out Comedy.Then as the film progressed in reverse chapters, I started to hate it even more, thinking I would have enjoyed it more (and rated it higher) if it was simply told in the old fashioned chronological order. From the first 10 minutes forward, the film was predicable. I pretty much nailed every chapter.As I was watching from the start to about 90% to the end, I had already decided my 4/10 IMDb score with a lousy review cutting up this film to shreds. I couldn't wait for it to finish so I could slam this with negativity.2) Second/final review: 8/10 So now we're at the last 10% ending of the film. All along I thought I had it figured out, constantly complaining how I would have enjoyed this more had this story been told going forward. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised... and wrong!The way this was played out (backward chapters) had to be done so, for the ending to have the shock factor it had. My prediction of 'who-dun-it' and 'why' was way off!It was so well done, my score went from 4/10 to 8/10! Granted, if the comedic actors where replaced by more serious actors, and the dumb humor was omitted from the script, I may have given this a 9/10 and maybe even a 10/10. The ending was that good, especially when I had so much hate for it in the first 90% of the movie! I'm not sure why the writers/director chose the part-comedy portions but nevertheless, it was their decision and the ending still left a great impact on my final review.So my final review stands at 8/10 due to the surprisingly and unexpected great ending!