Color Me Sucker

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 1999)

Yes, I bought into the hype and paid 8 bucks for the tripe. I know at least a dozen other people that have seen the film, and not ONE of them thought it worth the prize of a chiclet, much less what they're charging for admission these days. I considered the comments of one of the reviewers, that the theater atmosphere would have a large impact on your appreciation for BWP, but I dismissed that right away when I considered that I saw it at an indie theater with a very eager college crowd. Yes, they were silent during the course of the film, but the consensus was, after the credits, "was that IT?!? You HAVE to be kidding me?!" Wake UP people. Don't feel compelled to jump on the indie bandwagon and wave the BWP flag JUST because they spent only $60,000 (and believe me, it shows). Don't feel compelled to say you liked it because of the couple of weeks of sold out shows due to extremely limited release (which propagated the hype). Admit it to yourselves and you'll be happier: THIS...MOVIE...SUCKED. It was a dreadful bore. It was also misleading. The snippets shown in the trailer are (virtually) all from the last 5 minutes of the movie. The trailer also featured a haunting score. Yes, it would make sense that in a documentary style film that there would not be a score. This was simply "found footage". Then why not sell what you really are; why put a score in the trailer? Because a score creates atmosphere, of which this movie has NONE. The beginning had some promise, but if you get riveted and scared from watching 70-odd minutes in between of footage of trees, sticks, rocks, and people whining at each other about being lost and tired and hungry, you need help. "Oh! shall we go south? No! Let's go north! We saw that tree this morning! We saw that tree yesterday! We're lost! Waaaah!" Give me a break. The most agonizing part is that I realized what they were TRYING to do...they were TRYING (but failing miserably) to illustrate the psychological breakdown of three documentarians in the woods. If THAT is your construct, wherefore this contrived background of "..footage found one year later..". Why make that up? Did you not want the female character to shut the hell up after 15 minutes? Boring, boring, boring.