Pocket Listing

I can't decide who I have a bigger crush on... Jessica Clark, James Jurdi, or Rob Lowe. Hmmm... I'll take all three. Movie was fun too.

A genre cocktail, mixing Scorsese-light material excess with reversal of fortune drama and high stakes, sexy con man noir. But it works... largely in part to solid performances from Jurdi as an amiable anti-hero, Clark as an irresistible femme fetale straight out of a 1950's Orson Welles crime yarn, and Lowe in a hipster wig and a welcome return to the kind of raspy voiced, cool as ice villains he perfected in such comedies as "Tommy Boy" and "Wayne's World." Wish Burt had more of a presence here though, but just happy to see him in something legit. The film also feels a bit out of the '90's, even late '80's style of action comedy which is a bit over the top but never the less welcome entertainment.

Tragicomic tale of realtor's rise, fall and tricky comeback has some rewarding moments and great performances from James Jurdi, Logan Fahey, and Jessica Clark as the ultimate seductress.

A thoroughly entertaining expose on the treacherous dealings of contemporary real estate agents in Los Angeles.

The film starts off strong then sags a little in the middle, losing its way a bit when main character Jack falls from grace and winds up a landlord at a slum building. Things really pick up though when he is hired by a sexy vixen to sell a Malibu villa owned by her and her quietly menacing husband (a super fun Lowe).

Not the most realistic and by the book depiction of commerce, economics, and recession, "Pocket Listing" soars most when it is combining both crime genre and dark comedy elements. Give credit to new faces Jurdi and Clark for really turning on the heat and delivering stand out performances which more than hold their own opposite experienced vets like Lowe and Reynolds.

"Pocket Listing" takes a bit to build up but when it does, it truly delivers. 8/10

This is a fun and relatively clever little film, far from perfect and a bit slow to get going but generally enjoyable overall.

What's interesting about it is that it is set in the backdrop of the American real estate crises but somehow it doesn't dwell on the drama of that dilemma. Rather, it spins an energetic crime caper about a Malibu villa and all the players that are trying to sell it for their own very shady reasons. As long as the film stays with this threadline, it works. When it tries to become a bit message oriented with a subplot about a Downtown tenement that's tied to the sale of the house and to the main real estate agent, it loses momentum and becomes less zesty.

Fortunately, it maintains enough energy to keep the audience engaged and one most give credit to the younger actors in the film for really carrying it nicely. Lowe and Reynolds have smaller parts but it's really the fresh faced ingenues that make this film pop. Overall, "Pocket Listing" is certainly ambitious, somewhat flawed but undeniably compelling.