I Kicked Luis Guzman in the Face

In an attempt to get to know more people, office worker Jason meets up with all of his MySpace friend's list (both of them). Mark And Jennifer are bubbly and friendly and seem to hit it off right away while Jason feels like his usual socially awkward else. In an attempt to keep pace with their energy and stories, Jason tells them that he is a lawyer, but Mark is a PA to celebrities; Jason says he represents celebrities but still not as impressive. As Mark starts impressing Jennifer with talk of his "friendship" with actor Luis Guzmán, Mark suddenly blurts out that he once kicked Luis Guzmán in the face when he was hitting on his girlfriend. The lie wins him their respect and quickly a certain amount of fame with invites to MySpace parties, but surely eventually the lie will catch up with him.

The title doesn't really give you any excuse but to watch it – particularly once you realize that Guzmán himself is actually in it. This hook of the sensationalist title is badly needed too because to be frank there is little else to really recommend about this film. The plot is meant to be a satire about the easier access to our "15 minutes of fame" via the internet and it does this through the viral nature of MySpace. OK, to be up front about it, this dates the film incredibly badly and even though it is only just over 5 years old, it seems much more of a relic than that. This shouldn't be a factor though, the film can be "old" and still be clever and engaging. Unfortunately the dated MySpace references and screenshots are the least of the problems here because it is a film with almost nothing to say.

Maybe there was an idea in there somewhere but it never really comes out with much to say about the internet fame thing. The writing is generally poor though, even in the basic narrative things didn't make sense (the noises in Jason's head) or seemed without point (the party sequence) or just seemed odd (so Jason met Guzmán on-set but the confrontation at the house was delivered like it was the first time?). I was also surprised by how shoddy the production was. The shot selection was awful throughout – with many shots so poorly framed I was trying to figure out why they did it that way as I assumed it could only be deliberate; the very close shot of Jason at the lunch was one example. In addition to this many other scenes seem "good enough"; for example the confrontation between Jason and Guzmán has terrible shadows falling across the characters. I guess they only had Guzmán for a 3 hour window or something? Maybe that explains part of it.

The title is great but that is where it ends. The film has a messy narrative that doesn't work, it says nothing about the culture of fleeting fame, it is poorly acted and shoddily put together.