Fifty Pills

Having seen "Fifty Pills" last night and subsequently discovered it's score of 3/10 on IMDb, I feel the need to redress the situation.

OK, so it's not the greatest of films ever made in the already massively over subscribed college-comedy genre but it is by no means the worst. "Fifty Pills" is relatively well scripted, and, with one or two exceptions the actors play their parts well; making a good job of portraying believable characters.

Some of the jokes are obvious and predictable, but there was more than one moment when the humour leapt at us with the unexpected voracity of a demonically possessed ferret.

Most importantly, the film flowed well and there were no moments when my concentration wandered towards the events outside of Theo Avgerinos' creation. At just over 75 minutes, the movie was exactly the right length.

The aspects of "Fifty Pills" that let it down for me were the poor dialogue in scenes involving Darren's parents, and the over use of one or two running jokes.

I give this film 6 out of 10.

This is utter crap. There is no two ways about it. The comedy is not funny the acting is horrible and the girls don't get naked enough to make up for the horrible everything else.

PLOT: a geeky thin college kid on scholarship needs to sell 50 pills in one day or he's totally in big trouble. A variety of totally unbelievable and unfunny scenes follow this is an incredibly boring and tired movie that uses a lot of recycled see it coming a mile away jokes.

LAME.

The dominatrix was a nice touch but not anywhere near enough to save this complete train wreck.

Don't bother.

As I said- see a movie that IS funny and WORTH WATCHING with basically the same plot- see "GO" from 1999

Darren attends NYU and is matched with a roommate who is a creep and a slimeball. Before he knows it, he is on probation and on the administration's radar.

Everything seems to go wrong for Darren Giles, except he meets an attractive girl named Gracie (Kristen Bell).

Because he desperately needs money, he spends a day selling ecstasy to the customers of his roommate. These quirky customers include a dominatrix, and a day trader who is passionate about the TV show "Different Strokes."

I'm afraid I can't score this film very highly for these reasons:

1. The romance is a secondary theme that is not well-developed.

2. The primary story--the sale of the pills--is disjointed.

3. The characters are weak. Some of their behavior is inappropriate to the character. I wish Monica Keene, who played Petunia, could have been used more. Kristen Bell's talents were wasted.

4. Some jokes have obvious punchlines.

5. The background music often does not fit the action.

6. In the early part of the film, Darren talks to the audience, narrating the action, similar to Ferris Bueller. This is not carried throughout the film; the style of the film is inconsistent.

Strangely enough, the ending has some congruity. If only the entire film possessed that same quality.

This is a decent attempt at making an original movie about a college student who loses his scholarship and battles having to pay for school and working up the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams. Its pretty ambitious but just didn't seem to pull off neither a professional or gritty-like feel to it, i thought the camera-work and stuff was kind of sloppy, and not in a good way. Some of the acting was good, but for the most part, this movie just didn't cut it. It was neither funny, interesting or serious enough to amaze or be considered a good movie. Overall this felt like a film school project movie, but not a legit studio release of a first-rate movie.IMDb Rating: 4.7. My Rating: 7/10

After partying, groggy New York University freshman Lou Taylor Pucci (as Darren Giles) wakes up. He has lost his scholarship and is unable to pay for the next semester. But Mr. Pucci wants to stay in school, finish his paper on Dante's "Inferno" and lock tongues with pretty blonde Kristen Bell (as Gracie). Via answering machine, his perfectly eyebrow-plucked roommate John Hensley (as Coleman Anderson) offers Pucci an opportunity. Pucci must sell 50 hits of the drug "Ecstasy" for Mr. Hensley, at $20 a pop… We flashback four months ago, to see what happened to prompt this deal; Hensley had a party and, although Pucci didn't attend, he was blamed due to having a bottle of vodka in his refrigerator. Next, we see how Pucci endeavors to sell the pills...

"Fifty Pills" is the kind of movie which fails as a whole, but has parts which are interesting. Director Theo Avgerinos and his team show they are capable of telling a good cinematic story – though this isn't exactly it. This may also be why "Catcher in the Rye" is not represented well on film. The drug peddling plot doesn't make much sense; of course, it's meant to be comic, but it isn't funny. Neither are the tame representations of deviant sex or the dumb gay references. The first segment that amuses is the scene with "Different Strokes" fan Eddie Kaye Thomas (as Ralphie), due to the absurdity of the film's themes reaching momentary cohesion. The crew's work on the "Cross the River" interlude is nice; musicians David Manning and La Rocca contribute well.

**** Fifty Pills (4/26/06) Theo Avgerinos ~ Lou Taylor Pucci, John Hensley, Kristen Bell, Eddie Kaye Thomas