Scorched

Devoid of any hype "Scorched", is one of those movies, which totally takes you by surprise, and I mean this in the best of ways. It reminded me of Nick Gomez's "Drowning Mona", because it is set in a small town, its fresh, off-beat, and very funny. While it may not be everybody's cup of tea, individuals with a liking for fresh comedy will probably lap it up, just like I did. The movie tells the tale of average people who are fed up with the problems of everyday life, and so decide to take their revenge by robbing the local bank, which happens to be their place of work. The movie is well written, and awesomely directed by Grazer. Even the casting works very well, by mixing established, semi-established and young and up-coming actors, which include John Cleese, Alicia Silverstone, Woody Harrelson, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Paulo Costanzo.

I have to admit that after ten minutes I was ready to turn off the movie, I'm glad I didn't, it got a lot better and funnier. A good cast with an OK plot and a decent amount of humour. Well worth a try.

This movie is about three bank tellers who are ready to make drastic changes in their lives and over the same weekend each decide to rob different parts of the bank unbeknownst to each other. If you are a Paulo Costanzo fan you will not be disappointed. His angst about robbing the bank is priceless. He truly steals his scenes. So does Rachael Leigh Cook. As Paulo's roommate she plays a Dungeons and Dragons fanatic who is set on getting revenge on a John Cleese because she bought his get rich quick material after seeing it on an infomercial. Rachael is charmingly impish and is wonderful to watch. I also saw this in Cannes and thought it was the best comedy there.

Sitting down with this, I was afraid to see what was going to appear on the screen. I had no real expectations of the film, and I had no idea what it was about, other than who was in it, and the cover looked like a good heist kind of movie. Wow. It was so much better than I ever would have imagined. Not only was it actually funny, and not just trying to be funny and then totally failed during the trial, but actually, truly funny.

The lines were well-written, the acting was all right on, and I thought everyone was perfect for the characters they'd been given except for one person, and that was Woody Harrelson. He was good, but I just don't consider him all that funny, and so it was kind of a bad choice, in my opinion anyway, to cast him in this role.

Alicia Silverstone was really good, surprisingly enough, and didn't carry any of her 'Clueless' days along with her for this role. John Cleese was just right for the role that he was given, David Krumholtz was annoyingly good (because that's what his character required), and drum roll please...the best person in the whole movie was, Paulo Castanzo. He was hilarious, as he always is, and very smart. He delivers his lines perfectly and without failure, always makes each and every one of his scenes priceless and memorable.

The basic plot of this film is that there are three employees of a bank in a small no-name town, who all want to rob the bank for different reasons. The movie starts off at the end, and works it's way backwards, so that you see what happens, in order for the rest of the film to make sense.

It was cleverly written, and very much over looked. Although we won't be seeing any Oscar nominations for this film, it still was noteworthy and definitely worth the rental fee. There is no sex, no violence, and no language as far as I remember, so the whole film would be appropriate for younger audience viewers.

I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it without question. It's rare that a movie like this comes along, that's quick and smart. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

'Scorched' tries hard to draw laughter from the viewer and it does succeed in parts but overall it doesn't impress. The pacing is too slow and some of the gags fall flat. The comedy surrounding the heist is quite funny and John Cleese, towards the latter part of the movie, is laugh out loud hilarious. The subplot particularly the one surrounding the grudge Harrelson's character holds against Charles is one of the brighter parts of the movie. Woody Harrelson and Paulo Costanzo act well. Alicia Silverstone makes for sizzling eye candy but her performance is not up to marks. Rachel Leigh Cook is miscast. What 'Scorched' also lacks is style. It is set in a remote desert location but it could have used a little more energy boost. In the end, it makes for a decent one-time watch.