Fifty Pills

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.

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.

It's too bad that someone took such a good name for a movie...I mean the title alone gives anyone an idea or three about what this movie could have been...(almost famous, requiem for a dream...just to name two extremes...and extremely good, creative movies with similar resources)...It's like when a band takes a great name and shoulda' just named themselves 'another lame-ass band'... Well, the same thing holds true here...a great writer could have taken the same concept (forget the name) and driven this movie into a completely original direction with some real drama, real comedy and real emo-tion...instead, we get what we get...plus now this great title is attached to this run of the mill, halfass storyline with so-so performances...

I don't know...Whenever I take on a project (regardless of what it is) I find myself 'forced' to 'climb the mountain, burn the candle at both ends', etc, etc...to get the best result I can...even if 'those' results weren't required, expected or asked for, I just find myself pushing it as far as I can with the resources I have. So I really don't get it (or maybe just let down) when I see something that has been given great resources and it's not even nearly the best it could be..Specifically, when I see a movie that has had a decent budget thrown at it and it turns out mediocre (at best)..well, it's just too bad...someone fell down somewhere...I think in this case it was a combination of people not giving it their all...starting with the screen writing and then dribbling down to the casting...then onto the direction and the actors themselves...it's just not as good as you would hope for (especially with the great movie name, again)... and that's all I gotta' say about that....F...F.G.

Interesting that this movie has received some bad reviews. I think it's being treated too harshly as it's overall a nice tale, with decent acting, cinematography, and a well interwoven soundtrack.

In general, the plot was amusing enough and any ills it may have contained were overcome by a great soundtrack. While, Lou Taylor Pucci can be almost a little too cute sometimes and his character's naivety is a little overplayed, the overall the story moves along, is captivating enough, and the characters both entertaining and compelling enough that you want to see the movie resolve in its predictable but happy ending. It's a nice movie and left me with happy feelings.

I really liked this movie and thought that the acting was good for each individual.