Easter Replacements

Not every movie needs to be life and death with world shattering consequences. Your proof is right here. This is a simple, real time, dinner party comedy with a nice range of characters and plots that come together with a great Easter message that remains light on religious overtones.

A married couple is comically pressured into hosting an Easter for 4 strangers and what transpires is full of quirky people, modern references, mistaken identities, and conflicting motivations. There's lots of back and forth leaving you to wonder who, if anyone, will ultimately get their way. And that's the whole fun of it!

I dug the multiracial cast, uplifting score, and just overall positive message this movie had to share with the world.

This reminded me of some 90's sitcoms with characters coming and going from one room to the other or dashing out to fix a relationship glitch here and there. I think the dialogue was meant to make me cringe at times with embarrassment (did that person really say that?) which adds to the comedy style of the film. Nice that the film was clean and had a decent underlaying message as well as some twists in the story. Nice easy film to watch without overly complex plot lines or character arcs to follow. The filmmakers did a good job with the settings and actors who were easy to track and not mix up.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gem of a film from beginning to end! The actors were all so fun to watch. There were a lot of good funny moments. I thought they were all very good and played off of each other so well! I never found myself getting bored or my mind wonder off (that is a very good sign for me when rating a film). Kudos to writer/director Travis Grenke. He wore a number of hats on this project (he was the editor as well). The pacing of this film was terrific. It moved along super well which is so important and it kept the funny at really nice clip without getting zany or too out there. So for me, this one clearly gets a thumbs up! Bravo folks! Well done!

Although this isn't really my type of movie I was most surprised at the quality of the writing. This is a stellar script and I believe this writer is going places, without a doubt the best and most impressive thing in this film. The dialogue was so good it almost felt at odds with the film in some moments. Witty character interactions galore, this also has astute satire, genuinely endearing character moments, not least from the central protagonist who is thoughtout teetering on the edge of catastrophe in everything he does. And the performances really hold their own which allows the dialogue to flourish even more. My criticisms would be the somewhat pasted in rolling background soundtracks, I would have much preferred an interesting soundscape/sound design to allow the awkward comedy to do its thing. Also I feel that the staging often felt static, no one really moves while they are talking so the film is 90 percent static conversations... Great conversations, but I thought it would definitely benefit from more dynamic blocking. All that said I feel that we are watching a class A writer in his early years, and I have no doubt that we will be seeing much larger TV shows and movies helmed by this writer in the near future.

This was an enjoyable movie to watch which seemed lighthearted but had a nice message. The diverse cast had realistic, finely drawn, strong characters which lent dimension to the story. Each actor had some really nice moments. They were a pleasure to watch.