Larceny

This one will have you scratching your head as to why it got made. The film had a nice look, but nothing to say. Fairly nice locations, but it hasn't the slightest ring of truth. Pretty architecture and nice scenery, but not one character seems the slightest bit real or believable. It's one big cliche about the vapid, empty-headed spoiled denizens of The Left Coast. I did like one short scene where the Mid-western "artist" deals with a clerk at an airport car rental agency. For people who have never been to LA, or seen another film about LA. A comedic role for one of the stars of 'The Blair Witch Project' which in itself should have you scratching your head. Rent something else.

"Larceny" was a movie that could have been great. I bought this movie in the used section of my video store for only $3.00 (in a deal that netted me five movies for $15.00 total). When I make a purchase like that for a movie I've never heard of, I do sometimes have this expectation that this small, independent movie will blow me away. It sounds a bit elitist, but I get a lot of enjoyment from films that are shot on a shoestring budget which still manage to get B-list actors (except for Tyra Banks, who is undoubtedly an A-lister) who could turn out great performances. However, it goes without saying that "Larceny" fell short of my expectations for a number of reasons.

For one, anyone who wants to make a great movie should know that putting Andy Dick into it is just a bad idea. Andy Dick is just obnoxious, and he's not as funny as he thinks he is. He was on one good sitcom, "News Radio", and he was far from the best thing in the show. He plays a guy in this movie who is paranoid that a serial killer wants him dead, although the point of this kind of character, even in a comedy, is that you DON'T want him dead. Since he's Andy Dick, the whole idea of suspense is thrown right out the window.

Joshua Leonard plays Nick Peters, the lead character in this film who is the sane person in an otherwise insane situation. Leonard came to fame playing himself (sort of) in "The Blair Witch Project", but you'd never know it from seeing this film. Although Leonard is convincing in this role at times, he strangely reminded me of Owen Wilson. That would usually be a good thing, but Leonard came off to me as an Owen Wilson wannabe, as if the makers of this film thought, "Well, we couldn't get Owen Wilson for this part, so let's hire this lookalike without a broken nose".

Furthermore, the insertion of a serial killer seemed to me to be a very cheap plot device, especially with this killer being more like a ninja (costume and all). That whole premise appeared to me to be so hokey that by the time the killer was revealed, the whole so-called plot twist felt cheap and predictable. Additionally, I found myself rooting for this killer because most of the other characters were so completely unappealing I wanted them dead.

There were other inconsistencies in this film. Among them, you cannot be a serious investigative reporter and have the name Kiki, nor does that job title require you to break into someone's house. Second, Los Angeles is either the second or third largest city in the world, and everyone seemed to know each other in the film as if L.A. was just some sort of small town. Third, Roselyn Sanchez, whose beauty and talent actually exceed those of Jennifer Lopez, portrayed a big stereotype that really cheapened her character. She should have been the true light in this film, but her scenes were so shoddy and skeptic-inducing. Sanchez deserves to be in better pictures.

This movie, on the whole, felt more like a big knockoff of better movie like "Pulp Fiction", "True Romance", and "Get Shorty" among other films. There was unnecessary swearing, gratuitous and unrealistic violence, a lazy plot and storyline borrowed from made-for-TV movies, and half baked character development. It had promise, but it's not a good movie and I can't quite recommend it.

I watched this movie and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The filming wasn't all that bad, but the story was terrible. I didn't know if it just was trying to be a joke the whole time, or if it was actually serious. But after the movie was over, I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about how dumb it was. The acting is bad, the story is bad. Basically the whole thing is bad. I can't stand Andy Dick and the lead guy, Nick doesn't even know what he is doing half the time. It plays the same song over and over. I just recommend not ever watching this movie unless you really have to. Just don't expect much from it.

This is a truly terrible movie. I suppose it's about the fakeness of L.A. and the film industry, but it doesn't work at all. This is clearly a movie made by pretentious film majors for pretentious film majors-- though I can't imagine anyone liking this piece of crap. It's long, and nonsensical, and boring. It's supposed to be a comedy, but I didn't ever feel the slightest inclination to laugh. Normally I don't play too much attention to the music in movies, unless the movie really calls attention to it, this had one song, (a bad one) that just kept playing over and over and over until I felt like I was losing my mind. Right now I just feel angry about wasting my time.

Despite my better self, I actually enjoyed this. An 8 might be slightly high score, but not by much.

Were there bad elements? Oh yes. Very bad. It was very derivative of a dozen better-known films (Get Shorty). It had a very heavy early-90s feel. The music was very bad.

But overall it had a good energy. Quirky. Charming. And very good structure. We clicked in with the lead right away and launched a good story right away. Then there were a parade of colorful and entertaining characters. Within a ton of very familiar elements, arose an originality. (And some good camera work, too.)

This would not have survived a theatrical release but is generally better than what is on the DVD market.

This is for you but only if you like quirky. It wasn't laugh-out-loud. But endearing? Yes.