The Truth About Average Guys

For a non-major Hollywood production, then "The Truth About Average Guys" actually came off as a rather good movie.

The story told in the movie is fairly straight forward, though at times it is a tad over the top. But all together it works well enough. The characters are well-played and work well enough, though at times it is a bit tedious. There were some funny moments throughout the movie, and the story did progress at a fairly steady pace.

As for the cast in "The Truth About Average Guys", then people did a good job. The movie was carried by Ken Gayton (playing Jason Lewis) and Erika Walter (playing Katie Banks). The funny guy in the movie made it all worthwhile, Jason Schaver (playing Troy).

"The Truth About Average Guys" is great for a single viewing, at least for me. This is not a movie that I will be returning to for a second watching though. The movie could have been much more with bigger funding, but hats off to the movie guys for managing to put this movie together with such a good outcome.

I was pleasantly surprised by this comedy, made on a micro budget (5 grands according to IMDb) by two guys. Ken Gayton and Jason Schaver are not only the two male leads in this flick but also wrote, produced and directed The Truth About Average Guys.

The limited means obviously show everywhere in the film but nonetheless, it offers several funny moments, some which are golden. The premise is nothing new. An average guy decides to get the attention of his dream girl with an elaborate lie, requiring the help of his best friend. Once the plan works, he must maintain the lie or risk losing her. The movie works because the treatment is often raw and very indie underneath the clichés.

Ken Gayton adequate as "the average dude", a classic underachiever with an ensemble of weird friends. I thought he was the weakest of the three leads and some of the characterization is just awkward. Better writing could have fleshed him out more which would have led to a much stronger film. A scene where he "rehearses" asking Katie on a date talking to himself in a mirror just makes you cringe because of its unbelievable nature. How can you properly act scenes that make no sense and no one can relate to? Yet overall, he does okay.

Jason Schaver plays the best friend and sidekick. I have no idea who this guy is but I wouldn't be surprised if he had done stand up comedy. Oozes natural comedic talent and timing and makes all the scenes he is in better. Unfortunately, sometimes the writing lets us down again when it tries to hard to be hilarious or outrageous. I'm thinking this movie will be a great calling card for Schaver to get small roles in comedies at the very least. He was the best actor on display here.

Erika Walter was a good casting choice as "the girl", mixing very well a hot, unattainable young professional vibe with some depth as a genuinely nice gal. Walter wouldn't work as just a "hot bimbo". It's the fact that she adds soul and personality to her character that makes us find her so damn gorgeous.

So the three leads are very solid choices overall. The basic characterization is there. It's just the delivery that sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. The micro budget doesn't help, of course. But that's why many indie productions will instead focus on pre-prod and go for more ad-lib dialogue. Here, the actors stuck mostly to their lines and it shows at times.

The writing is a mixed bag. I can't help but think this thing needed another pass. Then again, these guys didn't get the luxury of Hollywood writers, who get their "bad stuff" cut off in the editing room. Overall, I appreciated the raw approach, several of the jokes and many of the peripheral characters (TTAAG has an ambitiously large cast of quirky characters, considering its budget).

If there's something that disappointed me, it's how sometimes, I got the impression both writers took the easy way out. For instance, how the relationship between Troy and Stacy was "resolved" in a neat, Hollywood way. This kind of convenient resolution is what prevents characters like Troy from growing.

The worse aspect of the movie by far is the crappy editing. Again, one of our two jack-of- all-trades (in this case, Gayton) was in charge and it shows. It's just terrible and hurts the potential of many scenes. The rest of the direction is adequate considering the budget but these days, there,s no excuse for the poor editing.

Overall, you'll laugh a few times and be introduced to Gayton, Walter and Schaver. All three of which may have a bright future ahead of them. I do hope to see more of them, be it behind or in front of the camera.

I watched this movie because of the comments on IMDb but hmmm... i understand the effort from the actors , i understand the low budget , but the thing with the retarded people is insulting, so the whole movie takes advantage of how retarded people looking funny and makes them to look like clowns in the circus , i loughed with one or 2 scenes but thats all very insulting i think.In my opinion maybe i am wrong on this its not a nice thing to make fun with retarded people.The plot is something we have seen on every movie out there so the conclusion is i give it a 3 because of the absence of everything that makes a movie watchable.Maybe those actors under other circumstances could have made more effort and got the applause's but here no.In my life i have learned how to respect the other people with special needs and to live with and making fun not fun of them.

I don't know where all this reviews come from, just watched this movie and must say: One of the worst movies ever!

Don't get me wrong, its a nice movie, and the actors really try and Erika Walter is gorgeous, but the script, the lighting, the colors, the choreography, cutting, dramaturgy, casting, production design, closing credits, even the graphic design for the film poster, everything seems more like a high school project.

If i would not have read all the positive reviews and was curious what might happen to get them, i would have stopped watching the move after 20min...

But: Nice Idea, and with some tweaking the script could become a nice one for a good movie...

Maybe this movie is genius and i simply don't get it, but until this is proved i have to stick to the above written!

No hard feelings, i love you guys!

ya this is pretty bad. i admit i really couldn't sit through the whole thing there was allot of fastforwarding. its basically someones high school project that got on the IMDb. the premise is another recycled hackneyed idea only done poorly. if your doing a comedy on video you also have to have good actors or otherwise its like a porno without the sex and thats what we have here. the lighting is terrible on half the scenes and it looks like they reused locations that are supposed to be different locations lol. the lead girl is supposed some 'super hot babe' but shes not in anyway. some of the lines were pretty lame. i would be embarrassed to say them if i was in this. it is just a bad production in every sense and frankly im amazed it was able to get on the IMDb.