Kisses and Caroms

Okay. So life at a billiards store is usually pretty tame - except when you're working at Breaktime Billiards. Man. Seems like in 24-hours you get to see all walks of life, eavesdrop on people's sex lives, learn about how to almost get killed, and chalk it all up as a hard day's work.

I happen to know the director is a big fan of Kevin Smith, but that didn't prepare me for all the insanity scattered throughout this tightly conceived independent flick. I really enjoyed the customer "curve" balls. Having worked retail quite a bit, I could see where Rocca was coming from and going to. "Do you have pool cues?" Duh! Made me laugh.

If you're not into racy rendezvous, this movie might not be pour vous. But if you enjoy and good romp through blue-collar sex fantasies and can relate to random retail madness, this movie is bound to rack up some laughter.

I say, give it a shot!

This movie hit me as an updated West Coast version of Clerks. Vince Rocca has created a real feeling of life in an area where "just sex" and "meaningful relationships" are often blurred by "glamour" of being a player. The characters all handled their roles with ease and both the writing and the acting nailed the point home. The only real misses where the toilet and sneeze scenes that seemed to in the movie for a shock effect. Ginger Lynn showed that she has a sense of comedic timing. Vince may just pick up where Kevin Smith left off with this gritty but real look at the illusion of promiscuity as a glamorous lifestyle, with a tongue in cheek delivery.

I was looking forward to seeing this film due to the hype I was reading on the IndieClub web site. This film on many levels disappointed me.

Bad sound: I had trouble hearing several lines and the sound bite of the doorbell always sounded the same which made it sound like an obvious add on. Poor editing: nearly all scenes lingered too long. Cutting a few seconds off the end of each clip would have really helped the pacing.

The main story line is weak - we have an introduction to the situation at the start of the film - but then the story is dropped only to return at the very end of the film. Plus the characters are always talking about things that have happened – its always better to show the audience than to tell. And there is too much unfunny toilet humor in the film which seems to be used as filler. This film is modeled after the film Clerks but takes place on a billiards shop. It seems that every character entering the store is retarded. Many of the jokes are taken from the old Month Python routine where a customer comes into a bookstore and asks if they sell books. The video quality is generally good but they should have used better lighting instead of just the ambient light.

I assume this is billed as a comedy because it sucks as a drama. Turns out it's just as bad if viewed as a comedy. Quite unfunny and dull.

Avoid - this doesn't work as any genre.

I thought that it was a cute and funny. A great start for a new director and writer. It builds off of a fun evening with a couple trying to save their relationship with a threesome, but turns into the uncomfortable and funny situations that are created after-wards.

Than you add in the group of friends to fan the flames and add a little extra action of their own, and you get this fun film.

I think it's a great start and can't wait to see where this new directors career is going to go. I was especially impressed when learning that they were able to create this project with a budget of only around $5,000. It adds to the fact that there is something to be scene from Vince Rocca and Mike Hutchinson in the future.