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!

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.

This indie sex comedy lives up to its billing. Kisses and Caroms builds up to a humorous and satisfactory climax. There is quite an array of offbeat characters that enter in and out of the Billiards store! For something that was made on the ultra-cheap, I was impressed with the production value; excellent sound, good lighting and all around technically competent.

The DVD has an excellent menu system, including a "Flash" tease. I also loved the play on Dreamworks' opening logo! "Helium" was a nice bonus, as well.

As some others have commented, I would like to see where Mr. Rocca's career goes. It seems that he has the smarts and creativity to pull off something special.

This film was very clearly paying homage and was heavily influenced by Clerk and Kevin Smith films. The dialogue from the characters where they are simply standing around where things are meant to be deep, insightful and meaningful vastly are in similar tone to of Clerks. The problem is we don't necessarily care for the characters and the story is just generic and not interesting.

It's very clearly low budgeted and the acting isn't too bad but the story is just predictable and everything that turns out in the end is as expected. This film definitely feels like they were trying as an effort but it's just not interesting.

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.