Finder's Fee

Despite the fact that this movie takes place in one location, it does not drag or get boring - that in and of itself is a HUGE accomplishment! I thought the story was great how it put the main character into a sticky situation. All the characters had distinct personalities, which kept their conversations entertaining. The psychological suspense was strong. It's a movie wrought with tension. I applaud an indie filmmaker (Jeff Probst) for pulling off a good movie on a budget that is tiny compared to the studio budgets.

If you liked it, watch the director's commentary. Jeff Probst is very open about the process and how this film came into fruition (before he got his Survivor gig, by the way).

If you are looking for an indie film with some humor, psychological suspense, and good acting, check out this film.

The whole scenario is contrived and predictable. This independent feature has a relatively well-known cast who do an adequate job with a one-act play concocted as if it were a two-week writing assignment from James Lipton (and it might have impressed HIM). Unconvincing, unenlightening, turgid little melodrama on modern ethics and greed. Simpleminded stuff.

I saw this film last year at the Saugatuck Film Festival (and even got to meet the stars of the film Robert Forster, Dash Mihok, and Erik Palladino), and loved every minute of it. The place was sold out and everyone at the theater loved it.

What would you do if you found a wallet containing a winning lottery ticket worth $6 million? That's how the movie is set up in this fast paced film with great acting. James Earl Jones is great as always, Robert Forster has a small but memorable role, but I was very surprised that Matthew Lillard did such a good job in the movie. But the obvious star of the movie is the script. Written and Directed by Jeff Probst, there are so many great plot twists that keep you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next. You won't believe some of the things you discover when watching this movie.

If you can find this movie somewhere, I highly recommend it.

**** out of ****

To the person from Saskatchewan. "Would you put a (expletive) sock in it!" was what Palladino yelled. Heard it the first time and wasn't even paying attention that closely. Guess it got lost in the NYC/Regina translation. Although none of the 4 friends were raised anywhere remotely near NYC based on their generic handling of the dialog. Otherwise, my main problem with the flick is that Tepper should have made a much better effort to recover his girl's losing ticket. At least his ruse could have gone on longer. Since lots of people play the same numbers, he would have been smarter not to replace the ticket with another, but then again, we wouldn't have had a movie...

I talk about with my ex-fiancée how I enjoyed and used to go see movies and know there would be some good ones in the mix of what I saw at the theaters but for one and a half years it has been horrid but luckily while sitting at home late at night I caught much of the latter half of this movie. It is definitely worth a rental for someone and what is even better is that if there is some sort of special edition with Jeff Proebst talking about the movie he made well that would definitely be interesting. I wish the guy would show some guts and dump the money maker that is Survivor ,which is now only interesting if you are on the show, and make another movie. I think that attempt shows he has the talent to make something else. It was a real nice surprise to see that kind of ending and also a nice surprise to be shocked at who wrote and directed the movie.