Live!

This fictional movie titled Live stars a really cute Eva Mendes for writer/director Bill Guttentag. It follows a mockumentary style feauturing Mendes as an ambitious network executive deciding to produce a show where contestants will play Russian roulette LIVE (that's where the title comes from) and for real. She thinks (rightly) it will be the most watched television program ever. The movie is social jab at all those reality programs based upon real life human emotions and drama to win audience figures (X-Factor and Big Brother for instance but in general all the programs that are now too many). Eva Mendes is impressive in her cynical role, but what also impresses is certainly the fact that everyone ends up being even more cynical than her, the network Counsel as well. Don't know whether this kind of show will take place sooner or later, that is mainly the massage of the story, but certainly this flick delivers a strong and effective message/warning for everyone. The movie is also somehow funny (another paradox) when showing audience's and TV staff's feelings immediately turning from desperation to a "the show must go on" mood after the two deaths.

I thought this was great, but I'm not a fan of reality shows at all. "Live" raised questions I think we need to think about. How far are we willing to go for fame? It raises the questions on fame vs life etc. I loved how it played like any other reality show but showed how sometimes the choices we make in life for attention can be devastating to us and everyone around us. I remember watching "Running Man" a few years back and thinking that the events that entertained the audiences in that film could very well be a reality in a few years. People might be entertained by watching people murder each other for sport. I saw a preview version of "Live" and anxiously awaited it's release. I was so surprised it came and went and I don't remember seeing a single preview trailer. "Live" was a great example to show humanity that reality TV may not be the best form of entertainment. I give it at least 7 stars.

Well... I am a fan of really serious movies. This one had me jumping starting 01:30:44. Although, I wouldn't advise the future viewers to skip to that part. In that case - you will not understand the plot of the movie. Everything else - the way the movie was shot, the dialog and etc - are pretty good. Although the director of the movie has debuted (as much as I know - he used to be a documentary director) very well. This movie really make you think. Makes you think about your decisions in life, about the life itself and it's value... Makes you think about the things people do and the reasons behind their actions. I would recommend this movie to everyone that is old (and smart) enough to understand it.

P.S. "Live!" is well under-rated...

If you can suspend your disbelief enough to accept a reality TV show featuring Russian roulette, then you might enjoy this movie. If it bothers you that they're even insinuating that this is possible, then you should probably just skip it.

Unfortunately, there really isn't much more to this movie than the initial concept of an offensive reality TV show. The first half of the movie is downright boring at parts. People argue back and forth about whether the concept is moral or not. Then they argue back and forth about whether it's legal. Then they argue about budget, advertisers, and other crap. Maybe all this setup is necessary, but it's not very interesting. Some of the actors were pretty good, but I found most of the writing, direction, and acting to be of TV quality. In fact, when I was watching this, I assumed it was a made-for-TV movie, and I was somewhat surprised to find out that it wasn't.

Of course, one could look at this as yet another commentary -- satire layered on top of satire -- but I'm simply not interested in analyzing whether poor camera work was some part of an overarching statement on TV, media, and film. The movie was not compelling enough for that.

The story is original and shocking. I don't understand people saying it's implausible, because "there would never be such a show on TV". After years of reality TV, facebook, no privacy, no anonymity and attention seeking people, I think this is exactly what could happen on TV soon. People get bored too fast, you see and read lots of crazy stuff on media nowadays and yes- people love to see other people suffer, get embarrassed and get hurt. We are a mean species of animals and this movie shows exactly that- Schadenfreude and Unfallglotzer (people starring at car crashes). I think this story is telling us something about ourselves. Even tough I would never want to approve such a TV show by watching it, I would probably still watch at least one episode out of curiosity and the pleasure of being shocked by something far away, that doesn't concern my life at all.