The Battle of Shaker Heights

Shia can act. William Sadler can act. Kathleen Quinlan can act. Amy smart can act. Actors do what directors tell them to do, they must trust the vision of the director(s). That is where this picture went terribly wrong.

I saw the 7:45 show at Denver's Chez Artist Theater. This was the last day of the run and the second to last show. There were three other people in the audience. At $8.50 a ticket that's a whopping $34 for that screening. (hardly the $20K Rick Schwartz wanted).

I had read the original script and the changes made to the script. Frankly I wasn't incredibly inpressed. I watched Project Greenlight and made 2 noteworthy observations. The directors wer very petty and unprofessional. Project Greenlight seemed to be more concerned with creating drama for their reality show than they were in creating a quality film.

In comparison I did watch the first season of Project Greenlight and Stolen Summer. Stolen Summer, as a finished product, was a much better movie than I expected. Shaker Heights wasn't.

In the battle of Shaker Heights the character of Kelly wasn't likeable. He was a disrespectful smart ass in school. He treated his dad like a leper. The attractive girl in the supermarket that liked him he threw canned goods at. Why did she like him? Most reactions looked over acted. Characters didn't act in believeable ways. I was never pulled into the story.

The opinions of the final film expressed by the producers in the final make me wonder if they have made a career of winging confidently talking out of their butts.

I'm an easy-2-please kind of a person. With all the crap coming out of Hollywood, all I ask these days is that movies DON'T SUCK. I don't ask that they be good. This movie fails to meet even that low standard I've set. Hollywood crap would be better.

Various reviews below pointed out the movie failed because of this or that. Whatever the reason, it isn't even a half-decent after-school special.

Flaw #0: The movie just drags. If this weren't a HBO's Project Green Ligh (PGL) production I would have changed the channel after 15 minutes (30 minutes max).

Flaw #1: I guess the main point of using "new" directors is to get a fresh look and style that studio films lack. The standard studio look and style would have been a plus. The "look" couldn't be blander, boring even.

Flaw #2: The main character (Kelly) is an unlikable smart-mouth / smart-a**.

I think they were trying to portray Kelly as quick-witted tortured soul but failed miserably. Sometimes there's that kid in every high school who is going through some undeserved hardship and you sympathize with him/her. But then there's that smart-mouth a**hole who deserve all the trouble he/she bring onto themselves. Kelly is that a**hole. Why would I care for his troubles?

Flaw #3: the climax of the film (where he is kissed by an older woman and then eventually emotionally hurt by her) is so short and thin I almost missed it.

Flaw #4: there's nothing new. Style is... no style. The main character (Kelly) is in conflict with his parents. Kelly gets into trouble at school because he is an outsider. He loves a girl/woman who is out of his league. Kelly is tormented by a school bully. Kelly takes revenge on the bully via some "smart", unique and a clever way. Another girl has a crush on Kelly but he doesn't seem to notice her. Yada, yada, yada...

Flaw #5: the story is told in such a way that I can't identify with anybody's pains. Not the main character (Kelly), the older woman who's marrying a man she doesn't love, the mother who is troubled by the schism between the father and the son, the father who might be dying, the friend who's life is already planned out by his father, more Yada, yada, yada...

Flaw #6: The actor Shia (Kelly) over acts every scene. I read in other review how good his acting is in this film, but I strongly disagree. His over acting isn't obvious as the cheesy double takes in a comedy, but still bad. Compare his acting with the young actors in "Stand by me" and you'll agree that it is bad.

=== If you look at other reviews below, there is a large cluster of positive reviews early in the movie's release. I suspect these are people who:

(1) are fans of PGL,

(2) are fellow filmmakers who sympathize with the difficulty of directing a film,

(3) were expecting a train-wreak like the first PGL's "Stolen Summer" but got something "better",

(4) got caught up in the PGL's "opening night" fanfare.

Almost all later reviews are very negative, in contrast. Go do the math.

Even if you get a chance to see this movie on cable TV "for free"... don't bother. It is a complete waste of your 1.5 hours.

This movie demonstrates that you cannot make movies by committee. You need a clear vision of the end product before you begin, which these directors obviously didn't have. But it's harmless enough. I didn't laugh. I didn't cry. I've seen much, much worse.

Oh, how I tried to love this movie. I was so emotionally invested in Project Greenlight, and although the directors seemed like idiots, they weren't evil idiots.

It turned out to be an okay movie, which is almost worse than being awful. There were a few laughs, but for the most part I didn't care about the characters in the movie nearly as much as the "characters" in Project Greenlight, and that is the problem that I have with it. If someone has to see Project Greenlight in order to care about the movie, then the movie failed.

The film was one of those small films that packed a lot of heart. I felt everything that Kelly(Shia LaBeouf) was going through. A parent that doesn't care effects the child I don't care what they say. It hurts because are suppose to be there for their children no matter what. It had it's funny moments too because laughter is human nature. The love triangle worked too. It wasn't too long or too short. So that helped me really like the film. I recommend this film to anyone. Especially up and coming filmmakers. I also enjoyed watching it being made, and this is also the reason Shia is a star. In 2003, Holes, this, and "The Even Stevens Movie" is what made him huge overnight, and I really think people should recognize that.