Running on Empty

The dramedy Running on Empty has had a title change to the more bland Mort in Sherman Oaks.

Ready to be buried might have been a better title.

Mort (Keir Gilchrist) works in the family owned funeral parlour in San Fernando Valley. He has punched above his weight to be engaged to stunning but vacuous Nicole (Francesca Eastwood.)

They decide to get their Life Day Count checked. Which assesses how many days a person will live barring things like accidents. Nicole has 60 years left, but Mort has less than a year. Nicole promptly ditches him.

Trying to make sense of his remaining days. Mort enroles on a dating service for people with short life expectancy. It is a disaster but makes a friend of kookie Kate (Lucy Hale) who makes the video for the dating site.

However Mort is also being pursued by a pimp after a prostitute Mort met in a bar dies.

This could had been an interesting story. If it was completely rewritten. The movie wants to be a quirky independent feature.

Instead it is full of tired old tropes. The pimp angle is jarring. Mort should had gone to the police and told them some guy stole his car. Katie is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, she even has blue highlights.