No - not by a long shot.

It is, however, a film of two halves. On the one hand, we have a Chinese drug trafficing film, where a ninja called Billy is fighting to save his family from the evil gangsters who are terrorising them. This is randomly interrupted by some Ninja fighting scenes, involving western actors with headbands saying "Ninja" - the idea here is that Ivan the Red, the evil ninja, is killing another ninja once a month.

Their ninja skills are very impressive, however, since they manage to kill their opposition without leaving even a trace of blood on the body or their sword. A more skeptical viewer might think, in fact, that the sword never even made contact with the enemy.

Finally, all I can say is "Dub good". Halfway through the film we are introduced to a random women with an awful Southern drawl, who luckily gets killed soon afterwards, but shows just how awful the casting of the voice actors was.

In conclusion, this film has got to be seen, if only to understand just how bad it is.


This is a film about women from third world countries hoping to get a better life by marrying to a developed country. These women from South America married Spanish men in a singles party, and they thought that they would become rich and happy. However, things are not what they hoped to be. They had to live in rural villages, their husbands were middle aged farmers.

The film concentrated on two couples. One couple were truly in love, they got along well but the woman got kicked away by the husband because she lied that she already got a divorce from her ex-husband. Another couple were not in love, the woman had another boyfriend in Italy and she constantly wanted to leave her husband to go to her boyfriend. In the end she left her husband by fleeing away to Italy without any notice.

This is an interesting film. I never thought that this problem was a worldwide problem before. I know that there are a lot of women from Mainland China who wants to get rich this way by marrying a Hong Kong men, but I did not know this phenomenon occurs in other countries too. When I watched this film, it made me think about this phenomenon. Why are there so many women who want to do this, when there are so many failure stories already? Marriages like these often do not result in happiness. The women have unrealistic expectations and dreams, that they would become disappointed after finding out the truth.

The pace of the film was quite fast. Although the story seemed simple, there were a lot going on in the film that the viewers are kept busy with different events continuously. I liked the leading actress, the woman who loved her husband but got kicked out. Her acting was good, because she showed her emotions without being too exaggerated. Another actor who played well was the apprentice of the carpenter. He tried to have a relationship with the woman who did not love her husband. When he approached her, he was nervous and shy. I think he played his role well.

Another aspect of this film that is worthy of comment is that, when the woman who left her husband first appeared, she was wearing a pair of tights with the pattern of the American flag. I think that this symbolises the fact that she wants to be rich and happy, like the American Dream. We can tell from the start that she married only for money, and she would leave and marry another man if she could not become satisfied.

I would recommend people to watch this film, not just for enjoyment, but for educational purposes too.


Three couples on the making in a remote Castilian village. The physical horizons are as vast as the mental horizons are narrow. The three men are local, the three women come from distant places (the "Flowers from another world" of the title). While telling three short stories, the film makes perceptive observations on what makes relationships start and hold on, cultural shock and wear, coexistence of the poor and the less poor, antagonism between cities and countryside. The actors are natural, the script, intelligent and with a point of humor.


This film addresses serious issues without being heavy-handed or pedantic. The characters are complex individuals, the setting is authentic, the dialog is realistic, often tinged with humor. Some of the film's most charming moments are silent, with only a child's face filling the screen. The humor comes from the characters' personalities, not from contrived situations. There is not a single false note of melodrama or farce in this film. Luis Tosar gives such an understated performance that he disappears into his character. Lissete Mejia and Marilyn Torres anchor the film with nuanced, memorable performances. They are the reason to watch this film.


There are films for holding sticky hands in the back row, looking into each other's eyes; there are films for getting all excited with tons of special effects to bedazzle eyes and minds of onlookers; there are films for filling up the useless hours of television when only insomniacs are available; there are films hyped up to smash shattering box-office record sales with all those glorious glamorous Hollywood stars; there are films to put on at Christmas and Easter every year, supposedly to remind us what the heck we are celebrating; there are films for just dozing off; there are films for Saturday afternoon so that the kids won't go out.

And then there are cinematographic works of art that remain in your memory forever, that reach down into your soul, that quietly leave a tremendous feeling of immeasurable satisfaction. There are not many and as a rule they do not get to Hollywood and do not get any Oscars, though they may make their mark in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, San Sebastián.

`El Sur'(1982)(qv) directed by Víctor Érice is one such exquisite gem; and in this film we have playing the part of Estrella, aged 15, Icíar Bollaín. Because of this I await anything she might now be doing, twenty years later. At last I have my reward: it has been worth waiting. Srta. Icíar has matured and is indeed herself a `flower from another world'. In this film we have proof of this. Ms. Bollaín, in common with a few other European directors, has chosen to make films of socialogical import, and this is well achieved in `Flores de Otro Mundo'.

The script was co-written by herself and Julio Llamazares. This writer is well-known in Spain through hundreds of newspaper articles, letters, several books and so on. He is an ardent defender of rural Spanish life, which, over the last 30-40 years, has been declining, and indeed he lives in or spends large parts of his time in such places as the mountainous `Ancares' in the province of León, north-western Spain, or in the pre-Pyrenean areas of Huesca in the north of Aragón. Ms. Bollaín could hardly have found a better person for helping her with this film in the greatly depopulated central province of Guadalajara, north-east of Madrid.

In the 30s, 40s and 50s Spain emigrated to Argentina, Chile, Mexico, France, etc. However, today the boats are turned  literally  and the country is now a receiver of immigrants. Indeed, rural areas of Spain have even been advertising for people to go to their villages with children so as to keep their schools open, or just simply advertising for women to be future wives for the unmarried men who remain working the land. Against this sociological background, Icíar Bollaín sets her film `Flores de Otro Mundo'  in this case Cuban and Dominican women  who arrive at a village lost in the sierras of Guadalajara. The film narrates the experiences of a group of these women, as all concerned, villagers and new-arrivals alike, suffer problems in differences in culture, opposing mentalities and concepts of life, especially over the issue of rural and urban life.

Well-conceived and well-acted, the film is an excellent vehicle for conveying real human issues. The leading actors  such as the well-known Chete Lera and the Cuban actress Marylin Torres  are ably supported by the whole cast, as well as the real local people in the village of Cantalojas  baptized Santa Eulalia for the film  in the extreme north-west of the province, and where the film was given its first public showing! Some intensely dramatic moments are carefully combined with warmer human issues, such that the film achieves an endearing credibility. Take note of the scenes with `Janay' for example. Recommended film, though people learning Spanish might find some of the accents a little difficult at times. Well, the worst you have to do is bear with the subtitles; it's well worth your while.


If aging population and decline in birth rate are any indication of a troublesome European identity which will continue to haunt all Europe by year 2020,European subcontinent is in desperate need of a poetic film which talks about issues related to population.It is really a wonder that "Flores De Otro Mundo" has not been criticized by feminists.This is primarily because Spanish actress turned director Iciar Bollain has ensured that the female protagonists of her film "Flowers from another world" are not treated as mere objects as the title of her film makes allusion to the word "flowers"."Flores De Otro Mundo" is a supreme example of a work of entertaining art with a serious message which one can take home and share with family members. It is amazing to experience how there is plenty of dignified humor in scenes of match making exercises involving lonely,middle aged Spanish men from farming community and desperate Latino women.By watching this film one can have a first hand idea of why there is dearth of brides in some communities.This is something which is not related to Spain only. This phenomenon can be felt in many countries all over the world.


Beautifully executed drama that rouses the soul. Excellently potrayed film of lonely men in a small village in Spain. I congratulate Luis Tossar for his acting and the rest of the cast are excellent also. The echoing silent atmosphere touched my soul of the loneliness and desperation of these characters. A film I could watch and watch again.


Although painfully GIRL SHY, a tailor's assistant uses every ounce of strength to keep the young woman he adores from an unwise marriage.

Harold Lloyd produces another winning entry in his series of silent screen comedy classics. This time there is a healthy dose of old-fashioned romanticism, as Harold and beautiful Jobyna Ralston yearn & commune alongside a bucolic stream.

Such tenderness never cloys, however, as Lloyd makes sure to leaven it with healthy helpings of hilarity. His attempts to hide a small dog on a passenger train are uproarious, as are his demonstrations on how to make love to vamps & flappers. And when the viewer thinks Harold can't possibly top himself, he ends the film with one of his marvelous chase scenes, in which he uses every sort of conveyance (train, jalopy, horse, fire truck, trolley, motorcycle & sand wagon) to stop Jobyna's marriage to a cad.

Throughout, Harold displays the remarkable athleticism for which he was celebrated, made even more astonishing when one remembers that he had lost half of his right hand a few years before in a freak studio accident, a disfigurement he disguised with a prosthetic glove.

Movie mavens will recognize some OUR GANG kids in uncredited roles--Fat Joe Cobb & Jackie Condon in the tailor's shop and Mickey Daniels as a newsboy on the street.

Jim Parker has composed an excellent film score which perfectly complements Harold's antics on the screen.


Slapstick takes a back seat to wit and charm - especially wit. This is the Harold Lloyd film that contains the often-quoted scene where Harold imagines he is a latter day Shakespeare. One episode is so good it was copied decades later in THE GRADUATE. I won't say what it is immediately recognizable.

The only disappointment is that one of the original day-dream sequences was cut following adverse comments at the preview. Apparently the audience wasn't into wit, and got bored waiting for more slapstick. (Nothing changes.)


I initially went to the Film Forum's presentation to experience what going to the movies might have been like 80 years ago. To have an experience like my grandmother had (she used to rave about Harold Loyd). I thought the film was going to be OK. I was astonished at the wit of the film, its emotional content and the joy it brought to the audience. The gags were plentiful and quite clever, the action kept everything moving and the audience enjoyed themselves immensely (obviously a self selected group). The entire experience was enhanced by a live piano player and I think by the communal experience of seeing this film at the movies.

I highly recommend the film.


The great Harold Lloyd has a total triumph in 1924's Girl Shy. This films is jam-packed with wit, slapstick, and old-fashioned sweetness. Lloyd found his perfect leading lady in Jobyna Ralston, who had just the right amount of prettiness and comic timing. Lloyd, of course, was the master of comic timing in everything from set pieces to still-spectacular chases across Los Angeles downtown streets. I especially liked the daydream scenes where the shy Harold conquers 2 great 1920s stereotypes: the Vamp, and the Flapper. I'd love to know who plays theses women in this film. I think she also appears as the girl with the hole in her stocking. This actress is a hoot as the parody of the vamp and flapper..... Altho I admire Chaplin, Keaton, and Harry Langdon as master comics, Harold Lloyd may have been the most complete of these star performers. His acting range was the broadest and his characters were never quite as vaudevillian--Harold Lloyd's everyman persona still rings true 80 years later. Bravo, Harold Lloyd!


Long live Harold! This is a charming silent comedy where my hero plays a shy boy writing a book about the ways to seduce a woman. He wants to publish it, but the editor thinks this is a funny book. In his way, Harold fells in love with a beautiful young woman. This love helps him to stop being girl shy. Very funny gags, and also a sensitive way to illustrate love (such beautiful scenes are frequents in Harold's movie). This is also a great opportunity to see the beauty and the talent of the wonderful Jobyna Ralston. See it! And see all the Harold Lloyd movies of the 1920's! He was and still is one of the best comic actors in Hollywood history.


This particular film was shown on TMC tonight with several other Harold Lloyd films which are being sold in new DVD form. The new film DVDs have full scores that were composed for them. And, at the start of this film (unfortunately just the first five minutes) there is an attempt to show hand tinting of the scene.

Harold Lloyd plays a shy, stuttering country boy who has never had a girl friend (the local girls like to tease him about this), but who has written a ridiculous book about how to get girls, which he is trying to get published. He meets Jobyna Ralston, a wealthy girl from Los Angeles, on the train to that town. He manages to reunite her with her pet dog and she, in turn, is the only girl that he finds himself comfortable enough to talk to. To protect the dog from an intrusive conductor, Harold eats some dog biscuits meant for her pet (he keeps the box). He buys a box of cracker jacks for her, and she keeps the box. They become symbols of the tight feelings they feel for each other. But Jobyna is being pursued by a suitor named De Vore (Carlton Griffin). She does not know of a nasty secret he is hiding.

Due to a personal humiliation, Harold decides he has to break with Jobyna, and she decides to marry Griffin. But Harold learns the secret, and is determined to stop the wedding. In the last half hour he proceeds to go from his village to Los Angeles, using automobiles, horses, buggies, trolley cars, and motorcycles. In the course of the chase he makes comments about prohibition bootleggers and agents, about 1920s automobile driver's training, the way streetcars could accidentally run themselves (if one is not careful), and on the lack of preparation some fire departments showed regarding properly tying down their hoses. It is a well done, amusing chase, and wraps up the film quite conveniently. Only the chases in two later Lloyd silent comedies would duplicate it - but not beat it as the best of the three.


This film is the story of Harold Meadows (Harold Lloyd), an apprentice to his uncle, a tailor. He is very shy in front of girls and stutters uncontrollably in front of them; however, he writes a book entitled "The Secret of Making Love." His heart is caught by a wealthy girl he encounters by chance, Mary Buckingham (Jobyna Ralston). In front of her his stuttering ceases. She is, however, engaged to be married to another, undivorced man, and the plot advances from here. I enjoyed this film very much because of the many funny scenes that had me laughing all the way through; it also had me very nervous waiting for the ending.


GIRL SHY is one of Lloyd's classics where that tight structure as the trademark of his comedy is most obvious. Every gag is so closed linked to another. It really leaves you marvel at his ability of building up and controlling his work. Besides, it is one of the great romantic comedies of the silent era, full of breath-taking imageries(like the scene when the Boy was dreaming about the Girl while fishing under a bridge..). It is hilarious throughout(especially for those 2 fantasy sequences). The great final chase is full of typical thrills that only Lloyd's comedy can provide(and, as we know it, `inspired' the final chase in The Graduate). Lloyd showed some wonderful drama acting ability too(when he had to dissuade the Girl from seeing him any more).


I really liked this film a lot. In particular, the cinematography was absolutely lovely--very artistic and it set the mood for romance between the leads.

Harold is a very shy guy who has zero luck with girls. Much of this is due to the fact he is painfully shy and tends to stutter around women! However, he has created an alter-ego who has written a manuscript for a book on dating and details his many, many "conquests". He's sure the book will be published and allow him to quit his job as an apprentice tailor.

A little later, a very sweet and unspoiled rich girl, by chance, meets Harold and they are both smitten. Their romance is really pretty sweet and, perhaps, DOES border on being a little syrupy--but I still liked it. However, through a misunderstanding concerning his book (he thinks it won't be published and cannot afford to marry), he breaks off his engagement to this lovely girl--only to have her accept the offer from a BIGAMIST! Well, Harold finds out later that his book WILL be published and that she is to web this scoundrel, so with no time to lose, he races to stop the wedding. Much of the last portion of the film is devoted to this incredibly long but funny mad dash to save her.

About the only negatives, and they are minor, are that the chase at the end has been done before (though rarely as well) and the whole stuttering thing seems like a cheap way to get a laugh. Really--these aren't terrible complaints--it still is a nearly perfect film.


Girl Shy is phenomenal. It really has it all. It is a fantastically funny movie about an innocent "girl shy" everyman who ends up at the end with the big break and, of course, the beautiful girl. The romance is absolutely breathtaking. The pathos is inspiring--practically had me in tears. The comedy is genuine-indeed, the fantasy sequences are very, very interesting to say the least. The ending chase scene is cinematic genius. Its similarity to the ending of The Graduate is eerie. Released 82 years ago, this film had me on the edge of my seat throughout. One of the greatest movies I have ever seen. Harold Lloyd is a forgotten Hollywood icon. With the 2005 DVD release of his greatest films (including Girl Shy), that will undoubtedly soon change.


To begin, this is a great movie! The plot is well developed: a horribly girl-shy, wanna-be author is writing a book about women, leading to some funny imaginary scenes from his book. He meets a rich woman, Mary, who another sleazy man is dating. The boy and girl go on their way, but end up meeting each other again. However, the boy is too shy to tell her that he loves her. Then Mary is about to be married....leading to an exciting climax. Though there is not as much constant humor in this movie as others, but there are some good points, like the workers at the publishers who are crazy about the boy. The last scene where the boy is racing to the wedding is very nicely shot, considering the time this movie was made. This movie is very enjoyable and fun to watch.


I had watched this for the first time while I was in Hollywood as part of a TCM marathon of Harold Lloyd films in November 2005 (to coincide with the DVD release of New Line's 7-Disc Set). I must say that in the past I had underestimated it, because I did not pick up the "Connoiseur Video" PAL VHS a few years ago (as I had done with 3 other available titles by this great comedian). The plot deals with a painfully shy tailor's apprentice (he stutters terribly at the sight of a woman) who has secretly published a lovers' manual, and himself falls for a wealthy girl (the demure but utterly charming Jobyna Ralston, a frequent Lloyd co-star) who is about to be married off to a bigamist heel.

The film displays dazzling invention throughout and is frequently hilarious, but also laces the proceedings with just the right dose of sentiment: the climactic exhilarating chase is spectacular and one of the very best of its kind, while the disruption of the marriage/abduction of the bride ending might well have inspired THE GRADUATE (1967)! Some of the funniest stuff includes: the fantasy sequences depicting Lloyd as an irresistible ladies' man, illustrating his theories on how to seduce a vamp and a flapper; the car exchange sequence (which sees Lloyd losing the ramshackle vehicle he ended up with down a cliff); and his hitching a clandestine ride on a car which is about to be parked in its garage.


This film is a great film that show cases Harold LLoyd at his best. The film manages to be funny, entertaining, have a meaningful plot, & includes great stunt work all in one great menage of entertainment. While Harold LLoyd has other films that rank up with this one, I find this one is one of the best I've seen. The pace of the film is perfect & Harold fits his role in this film better than a form fitting glove. This film is so good, that years later Harold Lloyd was hired in the 1960's as a consultant for another film which borrows from this one & goes on to win Best Picture. I won't spoil this for you except to say watch this film when you get a chance, & when your done viewing it, find out the other Best Picture's title, watch it, & you will be able to tell what was borrowed from this film in the other one. Great Comedy from beginning to finale makes this a classic silent film!!! Harold was so proud of the chase scene in this that he borrowed from it in the 1960's & because of that borrowing, he helped make another comedy star whose name is Dustin Hoffman. While the technology of the 20's in the forms of horse & street cars in the chases seem ancient now, they are never more skillfully employed in a film than they are in this gem. I like it more every time I watch it. You can see in this where W C Fields borrowed from it for a sequence in The Bank Dick. My favorite scene is where Lloyd gets the letter with the check from the publisher & tears it up without realizing what it is. His indignation upon finding out his what his novel has been re-titled is classic. This is a must for any Lloyd fan.


I must admit that I completely underestimated this film. Though I had enjoyed the Harold Lloyd features that I'd seen previously, somehow I expected 'Girl Shy (1924)' to be a rather tame slapstick comedy. Never would I have anticipated a film of such staggering comedic brilliance, a romantic tale with enough emotional pangs to please Chaplin, and yet an astonishing climactic action sequence that would make Keaton proud. Harold Lloyd, the oddly-neglected genius of 1920s comedy, here justifies his incredible popularity with silent cinema audiences {in fact, he enjoyed more commercial success than both of his famous contemporaries}. The film was the first to be produced under Lloyd's newly-founded production company, The Harold Lloyd Corporation, but both Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor {who had previously collaborated to direct the legendary 'Safety Last! (1923)'} returned to helm this latest production. 'Girl Shy' is what Lloyd liked to call a "character story," as opposed to a "gag film," though the plot does an exceptional job of retaining room for significant elements of both.

'Girl Shy' tells the story of Harold Meadows, a bespectacled young apprentice at a tailor shop who stutters uncontrollably at the sight of a beautiful woman, and yet, ironically, fancies himself experienced enough to write a best-selling instructional manual on how to "make love" with the opposite sex. When Harold unexpectedly meets the girl of his dreams, a modest beauty from a wealthy family, his views on woman suddenly do a somersault, and it's going to take every ounce of his energy to prevent his newfound sweetheart from marrying a coarse and arrogant bigamist. The first half of 'Girl Shy' plays out like a typical silent romantic comedy, with the Harold boarding a train at his hometown of Little Bend to present his completed book to a city publisher. A pretty girl, Mary (Jobyna Ralston), despairs at not being allowed to bring her pet dog aboard, but Harold selflessly aids her in concealing the pooch, even barking frantically and devouring dog biscuits in order to maintain the deception.

After the publishers laugh at the ineptitude of his work, Harold dejectedly decides that he's not worthy of such a lovely woman, and, in the film's most heartbreaking sequence, pretends that their entire romance had been nothing but a callous experiment. Mary reluctantly agrees to marry her long-time suitor (Carlton Griffin), a rich and conceited already-married man, and so Harold, upon hearing the announcement, frantically attempts to prevent the wedding. It is then that the film truly kicks into full stride, temporarily forgetting any notions of romance and embarking on a frenetic cross-country excursion that is, without a doubt, one of the most exhilarating sequences of the silent era. Hijacking every known means of locomotion  a car, a horse, a tram, a motorcycle, a horse-and-carriage  Harold storms towards the wedding ceremony with all his might, confronted by every misfortune imaginable and then defeating it with his incredible resourcefulness and quick-thinking. Storming into the wedding like Benjamin Braddock in 'The Graduate (1967),' Harold lifts the bride over his shoulder and escorts her towards a lifetime of happiness. He's certainly earned it.


I have watched very few silent movies over the years, but was very pleasantly surprised by this one. Harold Lloyd plays - as the title suggests - a shy tailor who is deathly afraid of girls (to the point at which he stutters every time he talks to one - interestingly done in a "silent" movie) and yet writes a book to teach young men how to understand and win girls. The book captures the attention of a well-to-do young lady, and we wonder if the two of them will ever manage to get together.

The story was delightful, and although entirely predictable, was fun to watch. The chase scene at the end of the movie as Lloyd attempts to "get the girl" before her marriage was quite well filmed, and the humour throughout, while not outrageous, was amusing. My only criticism is the message that a "poor boy" can't win a "rich girl" unless he has the money (although in fairness this seemed to be a problem for Lloyd's character and not for the girl.) All in all, this was a very pleasant way to spend an hour and a half on a lazy Saturday morning.


Girl Shy finds Harold Lloyd exactly that, a poor kid who works in a tailor shop and can't get a date even with the object of his affections, Jobyna Ralston. To pass the time of day Harold writes a diary about how to get different types of women (talk about fantasizing). Some of the chapters are played out in imaginary sequences.

Jobyna is eventually driven into the arms of Carlton Griffin who's a villain in the best Snidely Whiplash tradition. In the meantime a publisher whom he sends the book to rejects it, but later changes his mind when he finds his staff roaring with laughter over Harold's described romantic technique. He releases it as a comedic book and sends him $3000.00. By the way a very funny sequence happens when Lloyd initially thinking it was another rejection letter tears it up and then sees the torn check. Piecing it together like a jigsaw puzzle with his employer at the tailor shop, the zeroes start adding up as his facial expressions change. For that amount of money he'll stand a little humiliation.

Of course the whole idea is a reworking of Merton Of The Movies where the protagonist thinks he's a great dramatic actor, but in fact his scenes are being filmed for comedy. Still why not copy a good thing.

In the end he discovers that his true love Jobyna is about to marry a bigamist. At that point the last half hour is devoted to a madcap chase with the resourceful Lloyd using every means at his disposal to to get him to the church on time and save Jobyna from a fate worse than death. Best scene is him commandeering a streetcar for part of this chase and hanging on to the rod used to connect it to the overhead cable. Lloyd did a lot of these himself, he was known for his daredevil escapades, it's what his fans expected.

Girl Shy is a great example of the comedy of Harold Lloyd who in real life was anything, but Girl Shy.


This movie rocks, especially if you update the music a bit, and why not when Silent accompanists just adapted the standards of their day? All of Lloyd's '20s films are good, but this one is up there with "Safety Last" and "Why Worry?" and it might even be better. It's nicely paced and the writers put in a wide variety of gags. Cultural historians who want to know what a Vamp and a Flapper were need look no further than this film. (A bit with the Mary-Pickford type got cut, but you can still see some of her as the third town girl in the opening scenes.)

Lloyd's nebbishy everyman has been reworked many times, not least by Woody Allen. But this everyman could do stunts. He does most of the tricks in this one. The big chase at the end is a feat of invention, daring, and humor. In "Safety Last" Lloyd got the comedy through timing; in this one he gets it from kinetic invention. What he goes through to get the girl makes the kid in "The Graduate" (which rips off this film) look like a putz by comparison, and the girl (Jobyna Ralston) is funnier and cuter.

Also of interest are many scenes from pre-freeway L.A. The old streetcar system is used in the chase. The climax was shot at Harold's own house.

This is one of the rare Silents that can be recommended to people who hate the idea of watching a Silent.


I found the beginning of this Harold Lloyd vehicle a bit weak (the first person to watch the tape, not a silent film regular, later told me he had given up after ten minutes, and I can understand why), and compared to later films it seems very heavy on the intertitles. However, things perk up considerably with the entry into the story of the lovely and talented Jobyna Ralston and the transformation of a two-dimensional situational farce into a character-driven romantic comedy. I particularly enjoyed the scenes in the publisher's office, and of course all the scenes between Harold and Jobyna! (There is also a very ingeniously-worked little sequence in the park, in which a passing encounter with a complete stranger turns out to provide the subsequent denouement to the lovers' interview.)

Given that a second, bigamous marriage would in any case have been invalid, though, I'm not sure that Harold needed to put quite so much effort into reaching the altar in time: whether the ceremony had been completed or not, the girl would still have been free to marry her real lover half an hour or so afterwards...

Definitely better than "Safety Last", although perhaps more uneven: danger stunts in themselves leave me fairly cold, but there is some enjoyable character work in this picture.


The only Harold Lloyd film I had seen was "The Kid Brother" at a film club about 35 years ago. I remember the theatre being filled with laughter but back then Lloyd was considered "the funny guy with the horn-rimmed spectacles" and not in the same class as Chaplin or Keaton. But back in the 20s he was far and away the most popular with films like "Girl Shy" and "Safety Last" continually topping the list of the year's most favourite films. I watched this today and don't know when I have laughed so much.

It had me from the first title - "In Little Bend three things happen everyday - morning, noon and night". Harold is a tailor's assistant, who is painfully "girl shy". Girls turn Harold into a quivering mess - he has such a bad stutter that only a whistle can stop him (one of the funniest parts of the film). Little Bend's Saturday Dance is in full swing but Harold is far too shy to participate. He uses the excuse of having to get his book ready for the publishers - "The Secret Art of Making Love"!!! On his way to the publishers he meets the girl of his dreams and she is not put off by his speech impediment!!!

The publisher and his staff find it hard to keep a straight face when they meet the author of the "Love" manual face to face and decide to publish it as a funny book entitled "The Boob's Diary" - unbeknownst to Harold who thinks he now has nothing to offer "the girl" (played prettily by Jobyna Ralston). She, in turn, agrees to marry a persistent suitor who has a secret - he is already married!!! The film is one big laugh from beginning to end - highlights include - imagining himself a great lover as he overpowers vamps and flappers with his charisma. Rescuing the girl's little dog and keeping it away from the train guard's prying eyes. The huge chase at the end where Harold leaps from car to trolley to policeman's motorcycle to horse all for the sake of true love.

Highly Recommended.


Harold Lloyd ranks as one of the three greatest silent comedians next to Chaplin and Keaton. He combines great comic timing with crisp editing and physical daring-do that wows audiences. Girl Shy, written by Lloyd and the first film he produced, tells the story of a sweet-natured, stuttering bonehead who can not approach the girls. The irony is he has been secretly readying a book on how to be romantic with girls while working his day job as a tailor's assistant, back when a guy could still be a tailor's assistant. He takes a shine to Jobyna Ralston, his co-star in his best films, but then he's embarrassed by his publisher making fun of his book. The publisher decides to publish it as a joke to make the public laugh, and then Harold must spring into action quickly to save Jobyna from marrying a caddish two-timer. Did someone put a gun to her head though? Never mind, it's all in good fun and a set-up to the magnificent thrill comedy Lloyd was known for at the time. He employs just about every item of transportation known at the time to arrive to break up the wedding on time. It's all the more thrilling when you realize these are actual hands-on stunts Lloyd performs without a stuntman. Some of them are obviously quite dangerous upon viewing them. The large estate appearing near the end was Lloyd's own property. It's a terrific piece of good old-fashioned entertainment. *** of 4 stars.


I did not enjoy "Girl Shy" quite as much as Harold Lloyd's most famous feature length film, "Safety Last!", but I still had a good time with it.

Lloyd plays a hapless tailor's assistant who stutters terribly whenever around women (watching Lloyd stutter in silence, by the way, is hilarious). To make up for in fantasy what he lacks in reality, he writes a book about the conquest of his many (fictional) women, and travels to the big city with the dream of having it published to tremendous success. The publisher takes it as a big joke and thinks it will be a hit as a piece of comedy. Lloyd is, of course, crushed that no one will take him seriously, but the joke's on everyone else when he manages in true Lloyd style to win the girl of his dreams.

I'm only a very recent Harold Lloyd convert, but now that I've seen a few of his films, I have to say that I like his brand of silent humour much more than Charlie Chaplin's. Lloyd's physical stunts are stunning, and "Girl Shy" builds to a tremendously fun and exciting climax as Lloyd rushes to claim the girl before she's wed to another, braving every manner of transportation imaginable in ever-increasing outrageous set pieces. But Lloyd's acting impresses too -- he's not just a silly clown with a knack for physical comedy. Lloyd does as much with his face as he does with his rubber limbs.

Another Harold Lloyd winner.

Grade: A


PC Version.

This game runs very smoothly. I didn't experience any glitches during game-play. However, there are some patches that should be downloaded to this, regarding a save issue.

Ash has been locked up in the looney bin, and Dr. Reinhard is using the Necronomicon to achieve great power. There's all kinds of zombies everywhere. Sam is a half-dead person who accompanies Ash on his mission. Sam Raimi is freakin' funny as Sam. You can play this with a game pad, if you have a good one. Otherwise you can use your keyboard. But I recommend using a gamepad with extra knobs for camera view.

This game is totally gross. Blood and guts everywhere. I get a gross feeling inside me after playing it. But I totally love it. Very fun, very worth buying.


To be honest: I did not even finish this game. I am definitely a big fan of the evil dead trilogy and that was the main reason why I bought the game but I have to say that I have not been that disappointed by a movie-game since..let's say Terminator 3. The story begins in the well known little wooden house deep in the woods where you are introduced to the controls. One button for shooting, one for the chainsaw. Oh, and you can jump! Then you wake up in a hospital where you continue your work from inside the little house only that you now miss the chainsaw. That's pretty much it. The graphics are OK but everybody should know that the Xbox is able to provide something better. I think the most obvious problem of the game it s its lack of variety. No game developer can be sure of his game to become liked by gamers (even if they were movie fans) if his game only consists of running from one room to another where enemies that pretty much all look the same attack him. The best example of the boring game play is a situation in which ash (you) has to fight against the invisible evil that has followed him into the hospital and that is now throwing chairs, tables and doors on him. Your task is it to hold the L button and keep shooting. Almost 5 minutes takes the hold and shoot scene. You didn't even have had to watch what you were doing if you just kept hitting the button fast enough. sometimes funny are the finishing moves in which ash does some crazy moves with his guns but they keep repeating themselves a little too often to. So finally I think I have to advise you not to buy this game unless you don't want to have to think while playing a game and you are a blood-fetishist. But for any fan like me thinking this game could be any good just because "evil Dead" stands on the cover-you'll be disappointed. But I guess for those seeing "Evil Dead" on the cover and buying the game just because this fact is enough for them, if they are satisfied with playing their favorite movie character then I z'think I could also recommend this game to them.


Alright first off if you have seen and liked any of the movie trilogy these games are a must. This is the third game that THQ came out with and it is pretty sweet. The game retails for about $19.95 and has playing capability on X-box, PS2 etc. You Got That!? The game, although rather short, is still butt loads of fun to play. It has all the deadite killing, chainsaw swinging action of the movies but you control Ash. As usual Ash has great one liners, and so does his half deadite half human sidekick Sam. Although the aray of weapons is not as great as the previous titles, there is more along the lines of combos with the chainsaws and boomstick. The graphics are pretty sweet, and the game play is great. It's fun to see how many ways you can just sever limbs off of the deadites. Also the story that goes along with it isn't bad. And the short clips are pretty funny. Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart.


OK first things first,this game is not the greatest game ever released.It will never win awards for graphics storyline or gameplay.It's really just another devil may cry clone yet even with all these stacked against the game it's still brilliant. Yes it may sound like a contradiction but this game really is fun to play.It may be repetitive and unoriginal but what sets this apart from most games of a similar nature is of course,Mr Bruce Campbell.Hell one of the only reasons that most people would have bought this game would have been to see Ash once again slice and dice whilst delivering the most cheesily entertaining one liners imaginable. Is this game worth 50 quid?No far from it,but if you pick this baby up second hand your in for a treat.The extras featuring campbell alone make this game worth buying


Well I've played almost all the Evil Dead games and have to say this one has a great action level,(love the combos with the Chainsaw) but I didn't really care for the other weapons, they really should of added more weapons. although very short the storyline was good, didn't really like the fact that it is a "What If?" game but I got over it. Sam was especially fun to play as. although it got really repetitive, also they could of gave Sam more weapons. Ash was funny but he couldn't speak on command like in the other two games. so every new addition adds but takes away as well. I did not like the ending (AT ALL!) but everything else was awesome!...If your an Evil Dead fan you will enjoy this game. Oh yeah the end level is a fresh idea they added to the series. so over all good game could of been better.


Rated M for Strong Violence,Blood,Gore and Some Language.

The most recent game I got was Evil Dead Regeneration which was about a week ago.This is the newest game in the Evil Dead series of games which were based on the films.I have never seen the films.This game is not bad.Its pretty fun especially when you have the little midget sidekick named Ssam who you can kick around.He also makes funny comments.At first the game is pretty hard especially when you have hoards of zombies coming at you but after you get Sam it gets easier.This game is a horror/action game with comedy.Bruce Campbell who was ash in the movies is the voice of ash in the game and he has really funny one-liners.So does Sam Ash's half deadite sidekick.The game is about a man who must kill all the zombies.Evil Dead Regeneration is an alright game but I suggest buying it at a cheap price.

7/10


I FELT this movie. I understood it on a cellular level. I'm Afrian American, I'm over 50, and I didn't grow up in a neighborhood like these kids. I had ballet lessons, was a Brownie and a Girl Scout, yada, yada, yada. But I FELT this movie. I understood how and why they danced the way they did. I would have liked to know how the Asian clowns/krumpers got started and if they compete in the dance-offs. The same for the white genexer who felt he belonged with the clowns/krumpers. My hope is that some of these kids will find their way into society. Not every producer/director can feel proud of his or her work. This one can.


Tonight I ended up unexpectedly seeing the advance screening of "Rize" today.

My suggestion: When this movie opens on June 24, stop everything and see it at your first opportunity. It is an eye-popping, total delight.

David LaChappel has accomplished a cinematic triumph in filming the true story of the rise of a phenomenal new dance style. The movie is not what you would typically expect. The main characters let you know right away that they have no intention of succumbing to the exploitive commercialization of hip hop with it's guns, violence and persistent misogyny. The filmmaker avoided that tired approach too.

Instead, these amazing young people have invented a way to transform their grief, anger and fears into a vibrant new art form that will make your spirit thump to the beat. They are over-comers who have decided to move beyond surviving to brilliantly thriving against the dire odds of South Central LA.

You will love this story. You will respect these people. You will rave over David LaChappel's stunning, original and immensely entertaining film.

But hey, don't take my word for it. Go and see Rize for yourself. You'll see why Rolling Stone calls this movie "a visual miracle," and why the Sundance crowd was so taken with this movie.


Before you can understand "krumping" and "clowning," you've got to understand the history and people of South Central Los Angeles. Director David LaChapelle opens his documentary, Rize, with news footage and images from the 1965 Watts riots and the 1992 Rodney King riots. Out of the violence and hate came Tommy the Clown, the hip-hop clown who got kids to stop fighting and start dancing. These "clown groups" gave kids an alternative to gang life. Clown dancing grew, expanded, and evolved into an entirely new form of dance  "krumping." It may look aggressive and violent, but it's pure release, expression, and art. When LaChapelle shows footage of African tribal dancing, one can't help but see the resemblance to "krump" dancing, from the quick and deliberate body movements to the face paint, as if that dancing was in their blood. Rize gives these dancers something the rest of society has long denied them  dignity and respect. See this one.


When I saw the "Rize" trailers at first I was afraid that this would be yet another movie depicting the African-American experience through slanted and distorted filters ignorance and the media would have "White America" and the rest of the world believe. After a few minutes though I found that I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Rize" is a wonderful piece of cinematic gold. It shows us what movies can really accomplish. It shows that what makes a movie "good" isn't a "Big budget" rehash of the same mindless drivel Hollywood has shoved down our throats for the past years. But a movie with substance.

If you have read the other reviews and summaries for this movie me telling you about the "plot" or "characters" is a waste of space. Also If you have read the other reviews you will see that quite a few people believe that "Rize" is just "You got Served" with face paint. People who have written this make me believe that they must have been watching a "spoof" on TV or watching commercials, and coming to there own conclusions.

"You got Served" is to the African-American Dance culture as "From Justin to Kelly" is to musicals. YGS was a the same type of group vs. rival group with "mild" drama of a betrayal of a former member that was depicted in "Bring it On" or "Good Burger" and countless other films for the 12-17 age demographic. It was a film mostly for fans to get a last few glimpses of the former music group B2k and leader of the former group immature (or IMX) together for the last time (sort of like "Spice World"). In this since it served its purpose well.

Knowing this you can see that it would be a "closed minded" and "ignorant" person to even link these two movies together. And my advice to those who choose to do so is: To actually see the movies you choose to harshly critique. You may even find that "One of these movies is not like the other" As one is a documentary and the other a "teen flick". Also I have noticed in reviews previous to mine that the movie "Be cool" is mentioned due to its brief "cameo-esque" snippet of the dance style. "Be Cool" was mentioned to be the first discovery of the dance style. This is simply not true, as ONE of the first showings of this dance style can be credited to Missy Elliot in her music video "I'm really Hot".

Another method of discrediting this movie is by attacking the director for just being "Christina's music video director" or a "photographer". Though I can honestly say that I am nor have ever been a fan of Christina Aguilera's work...I certainly do not hold this against Mr. La'Chappelle because unlike most respected and honored directors who turn a blind eye to movies like this because they aren't "Oscar worthy" he stepped in, and in his own artistic and beautiful way shuns the myths and stereotypes that have plagued the African-American people. (Especially young people residing in urban areas and ghettos for no fault of there own are labeled as "thugs" and "gangsta's" are now being known as "Artists" and "Visionaries" due to them turning back to their roots in Africa).

I hope more movies will come out like this and liberate all races from their own stereotypes.


Primus fans, admittedly not exactly the target audience for this film, will immediately recognize the lyrics above and hopefully get a little kick out of it. People who don't know Primus, probably most of the people who would watch this documentary and read about it, will most likely send me angry e-mails.

I am not the biggest fan of hip-hop, rap, r&b, etc., but I decided to check out this documentary because I recently moved to LA and I appreciate seeing people who take difficult life situations and turn them into something positive, and that is exactly what happens in this movie. All of these kids living in the so called dangerous parts of Los Angeles take their frustration and their fear and channel it into a unique style of dancing, which is often quite a spectacle to behold.

It starts with a man who calls himself Tommy the Clown, who entertains at children's parties much like most other types of clowns, except that he specializes in an amazing dance performance rather than magic tricks and balloon animals, and before long other dancing clown groups are popping up all over the place, mostly staffed by kids and teenagers who otherwise would more than likely get involved in a life of crime.

This is an amazing look into the reality of the lives that these people live, right down to individual dance parties, some of the unwritten social rules of the people who dance together (the styles change so quickly that they can tell who has missed even a single day of dancing), and tragic events that take place in their everyday lives. Even if this is not your style of music or dancing, this documentary is definitely worth a look to see how some people take something so difficult and so bad in their lives and turn it into something good. Truly inspiring.


Perhaps imperfect as a neatly tied-up documentary statement, the film raises real contentious questions about ethnic stereotypes, youth, sexuality, and art (kudos for that). But from a purely experiential perspective this is an intense, original, and completely ecstatic trip in both the cultural and aesthetic dimensions. Personally I see nothing compromised or shallow about mixing in a healthy dose of gratuitously beautiful, highly stylized photography for the pure raw aesthetic bliss of it. The film is also quite interesting from an anthropological angle in terms of how the documented phenomenon quickly takes root, consumes these good peoples' identities 24-7, organically grows, divides, mutates, rapidly spans generations and groups, sweeps up even infants who intuitively jack right in to the main line, and seems to strongly channel ancient ancestral rites straight into South Central, where it weaves a crazy web of hope and ecstatic optimism through the beleaguered community like beautiful wildflowers in a cracked asphalt lot. I may just have to start wearing my clown outfit to the office in tribute, but I guess I should work on my moves first. For that I suppose I'll just have to wait for the inevitable krumping class at my local gym! :p


I am sorry, but it is a SIN that this film is not getting more recognition. It literally is one of the greatest movies about the art of dance EVER MADE. I mean, people, this is an awesome film about the ART of movement in its rawest most creative stage and there has never been a film like it.

Please don't miss it.

And also don't miss the Ab soundtrack CD.

The use of music in the film is truly exceptional and not overwhelming.

The documentary style is clever (even if it is a little hazy on detail and maybe stretches a few truths).

And finally, please bring some children to see this so they can see the "other side".

Secret political message of the film: why are we spending money in IRAQ when there is so much need here?


We need movies like this. we need to allow ourselves to be touched.

So we can learn to be human beings, people need to learn to be humane to each other. Forget gender, forget color, forget beliefs, we all human underneath, we all drown, we all bleed, we all are scared, we all want to express ourselves, and we all deserve that respect.

Learn to give that to everyone you meet. You might never see them again.

I feel privileged these people shared their lives with me. We can learn so much from what the people in this documentary are sharing with us about community, and culture, and humanity.


I can tell I'm in the minority here, but I was really aggravated after seeing Rize. I was very excited to see the film after hearing so much about the dancing itself and the social impact of clowning and krumping on kids' lives in L.A. I feel like what could have been a very interesting, enlightening film about inner city youth culture turned out to be little more than a poorly cobbled together mish-mash with flashy flourishes that took away from any resounding impact the film could have had. The film had very little idea of narrative flow and jumped around from point to point haphazardly throughout, but especially towards the end which just about falls apart. In Rize, David LaChappelle criticizes contemporary hip-hop for it's exploitative hyper-sexual consumerism, but then proceeds to spend an excruciatingly long stretch of film showcasing close-ups of the glistening Krumpers greased-up bodies in slow-motion. This sequence is reminiscent of countless commercial hip-hop music videos. The point that Clowning and Krumping is the antithesis to this world is undercut by LaChappelle's desire to make Krumping into some kind of Inner City Abercrombie and Fitch commercial. Given LaChappelle's professional background as a visually talented, but intellectually vacuous photographer, I'm personally surprised that anything socially resonant came from this film. I'm apt to attribute any of the considerable energy and vitality in this film to the dancers, their lives, their strength, and their intelligence.


I don't even have words to express how I feel about this movie/documentary. All I can say is that it moves me to tears every time I watch it. And for what it is worth...I am a 50 year old white male school teacher. Well..that was all I was going to say, but I see I have to do ten lines. I could actually write a 1000 lines about this movie but I won't. How about some adjectives.....brilliant, breathtaking, stunning, moving, tender, brutal, harsh, real, beautiful, heartbreaking, uplifting...just a few off the top of my head. Thank you so much Mr. Lachappelle for making this wonderful film...it changed my life.


I approach most movies with a jaundiced eye, because most of them activate no thought, creativity or originality. Ultimately this movie has all three of these things, and profound emotion also.

As I started to watch this, it was no exception. I expected it was an attempt by photographer David La Chapelle to associate his name with (and commercialize) the next big dance craze, grab some cross-racial street credibility, and introduce a new fad to push product. La Chapelle may have been attempting that, but the movie did not bring a lot of attention to the movement, or make his name measurably more known. So all bets are off on that front.

But I'm glad the movie was made for offering me an experience I have no prayer of ever participating in. I must admit I fast forwarded over some of the early stuff, where La Chapelle is feeling his way through an unfamiliar format. But the immense creativity that continually issues from poor black cultures, in this case quite sweet & pro-social, is simply astonishing.

By the end of the movie I'd warmed up immensely to the dance-form and even shed some tears over a person named Queneesha Dunford who never made it out of south Central L.A.. How many movies can accomplish that?


Before the movie starts there is a note to the effect that none of the camera work has been speed-ed up. Once the kids start dancing, you know why this is mentioned.

The film starts with historical footage of the Watts riots in 1965, and then the Rodney Kind riots of 1992. Things are ablaze. People are getting beat up.

And then enters Tommy the Clown who is a hip-hop clown and I guess celebrity in Watts/South Central. He is a sweet man who has taken in kids who's parents are in jail, abandoned them, etc.

The dancing in this film is amazing, to be sure...you will wonder how people can move like that, so fast, so crazy, particularly when you see a 4 year old girl or a 300 pound woman do it.

But what was more astonishing was the kids in the movie. These kids have a right to be the most angry, aggressive, horrible kids ever. And yet they are generally thoughtful, generous, and very wise.

I realize some of this is in the editing, but a 20 year old kid who takes care of his siblings while Mom is in jail until she gets her act together is quite a human being, and most of these kids come across like that.

They dance as an expression of their anger, as a way to create family, and an alternative to the gang families that pop up in the void of traditional nuclear families in places like South Central.

Yes, at the end there is a scene with a bunch of them dancing in slow-mo and it looks like they've been oiled up and their hair is fabulous and you know, so what? David LaChappelle has a background in photography, and if anybody deserves to pretend to be supermodels, it's these kids.

Great great movie.


Rize is a documentary about "Krumping and "Clowning". Its not about Anger Its not about being "ghetto" or "hood" like many people perceive when they see this movie. You don't see this type of movie, you Experience it.Rize is about staying positive in a not so perfect world. The youth in the masterpiece of a film are amazing.Talented,good hearted and intelligent, they are all definitely the stars of this movie. The movie is not all about the fancy dancing that you see, it is about the reasons behind the dancing. All that I'm trying to say is that this movie has a "spirit" This movie has heart. And if you are open-minded enough to leave this film grasping that you will have a new outlook on a number of things and possibly a new outlook on life. I have watched this movie over 15 times now and it will always be my favorite. Not only is it all of the above, Its gut busting hilarious at times, Extremely entertaining, and all around fun. Watch it,Experience it. Share it.


I watched the movie many, many times after buying the DVD. It is inspiring and every time I see it I never get tired of it. I recommend the soundtrack. This movie is very lively. I loved it, and don't know who wouldn't. A movie about people who rise no matter what the circumstances, or challenges in their life, mostly young people. The people in the movie, show the inside of krumping, and clowning. My favorite characters for clowning are Tommy the clown, Larry, Black, Swoop, Little momma, and Big X. My favorite characters for krumping are Lil C, Tight Eyes, Miss Prissy, Baby Tight Eyes, Daisy, and Dragon. Go by the DVD!!!!!!!!!

RIZE!


As amazing as the dance styles themselves are the lives of the dancers. Most of the dancers profiled in this incredible documentary name Jesus Christ as the reason for their dedication to krumping and the transformation of their own lives. But David LaChapelle (mostly a director of MTV videos) evidently didn't know how to let the dancers communicate this important motivation. The DVD extras contains footage of the dancers speaking to an audience after a preview of the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and they make clear in their own words what LaChapelle would not let them say directly in his film. Rolling Stone is right to call this a 'visual miracle'; I only wish LaChappelle had let the dancers tell more of their own story.


One of the better films I've seen in a long time, totally not LaChapelle's style, but as Littlepirate stated this, he must not have watched all the commentary, as to why and how he shot it, without tons of lighting, and using a cameraman with a home brew backpack steady-cam. Its not anything like his Christian Agularia's videos. Its unique and the DVD's bonuses made it a definite must buy. Rent the movie, and watch the extras, and believe me, you'll want to go buy a copy for yourself. Amazing dance moves, and those that say it's just a seizure, well probably don't dance. ( different moves are explained in the extras section, they are not just shaking around, there are actually steps to their dances). Tommy the Clown is an inspiration to see, he could leave and actually progress his way of life, but instead chooses to stay and help out the youth in the inner city, this man should be given an award for his courage. (even after being robbed, he still stuck it through).


This is a knockout of a film. Krumping really is a positive way for children, young adults and even parents to take out negative energy and feel the positive energy that this type of dancing can provide. I was not born to this type of violent society but my husband was and he was very excited when he saw this movie that he said that he was going to buy it. Believe me, my husband only buys the best movies and this one is amazing. I can feel the power of this dance and it is electrifying. I hope more kids that are born into this type of environment have the opportunity to join the clowns, the stripper dancers (which are not sexual at all) or the krumpers because it is a positive way to not be into any negative activities and to be surrounded but nothing else but positive people.


This is a fabulous picture that redefines documentaries. This is the real SHE GOT SERVED. Yes, there are some missing explanations and to put the contest in the middle seems a little odd But OK. Contrast this to TV doc's that are talking heads. I see LGF did about 3.0 million with it-pretty good for a very limited subject. One could argue with the African cutting but th editing and cross cutting was brilliant-yes, the insight may be not the greatest but we've never seen it before I loved that the director was able to get away with putting the dancing to different kinds of music-even the hymn-and it still worked. Cpyright was 2002-does this style even exist anymore ? As the kid said- the style change every day. Go back and look at Charlie Ahern's WILD STYLE from about 1992


This movie definitely moved me. It was something that was so amazing to watch that I want to do it. I really believe it to be and great way for people to put their energy to positive and inspiring use.

I went to the theater not knowing what to expect. I sat down and began to see all kinds of previews for other black movies. I really thought it was going to be a really cool break dancing movie...but it really was....so much more. I was inspired. I really found it to be an awesome display of what the human body is capable of doing physically. I really did not know 'We' could move like that! It's so, energetic and spiritual. There definitely is something spiritual about the whole thing. You know, spirituality is an individual concept, and people collectively reach it together through group prayer or showing affection or keeping their word or many other ways that if you look deep enough and hard enough you can chose to interpret as spiritual. I saw spirituality in this form of worship. They are worshiping being Alive with Energy! Like it was stated in the movie, it really goes back to their African roots. It's definitely a tribal ritual that has evolved greatly.

We all can trace our roots to ancient tribes. We all still have primal instincts in us. We all can learn something from this film.


An enlightening view into a dance movement that was born out of pain and turmoil. I like how they tied in the influence of the Rodney King beating and the African dancing. I was pleasantly surprised by how much cultural roots still show up in Black American culture hundreds of years later. The rawness of the energy and the stories of everyone involved reminded me about Hip Hop, west coast style, in the days before Ice-T and NWA made gangsta rap popular. I loved Ms. Prissy. Even though it seemed like her life was incompatible with the ballet, church dancing and krumping, she was hard core, beautiful and made it work. I'm glad they included the part about Tommy the Clown's house getting jacked. Just in case people thought they were watching some kind of fake Hollywood story. In reality, everything doesn't have a happy ending, no matter how deserving people are. Sometimes good works and positiveness is punished by jealous people.

The two things I missed were 1) something about Crip Walking (C-Walking) and 2) seeing the Asian American kids battle. Crip Walking is another popular dance out of the same communities that was also popular in the 1990's and 2000s. I didn't get why the Asian American crew wasn't invited to battle or to the Tommy's Acadamy. Is there something going on that we weren't told about? Are there any Latino crews doing this kind of dance? There are more Latinos and Asian's in southern California than Black people. I only ask because the movie kept making the point everyone was invited to participate.


I really enjoyed the movie because it allowed me to see another culture than the one i live. I truly was amazed how they expressed themselves. I thought it was good to see young people expressing themselves thru other means than just violence. It is good to see that something good can come out of any environment that you are in. I like seeing the kids doing something different with there lives. There is so much they could get in to but they did not. This showed made me want to take up dancing. I think this helped a lot of people to stay in shape. I think this kind of dancing makes for an excellent work out, or just getting your anger out. I have already rented the movie and have watched this twice at home.


I actually had no intentions of seeing this movie when I'd first heard about it. Yet another You Got Served, Drumline, etc. But as fate would have it, I obtained a job working at AMC Theatres in Tenlytown, DC, during my summer break. If you don't know that theater, they only show about 5 films, and only two are new releases. I worked three or four days a week, and since I usually arrived for my shift hours earlier than I needed to...well. I decided to sit in on a showing.

What a surprise! It was an interesting portrayal of an "urban" dance style, shown in a way that didn't bore the viewer. Actually, Krumping reminds me of a dance style that's unique to DC called Go-Go Dancing... which is probably why I find it all so interesting.

Anyway. Great documentary-movie, definitely check it out if you can.


I give this a 10 out of 10...it was a great movie. You got to understand what these dancers were doing and see why they were doing it. It seemed like a good way to get out their anger. The company I am in, we all went to see it and we all came out impressed. Especially us younger ones, I even said I wish I could do that :D Dancing is so much fun, and when you find out why others dance like that, you start to respect it little more. I think everyone should go see it, you'll love it. Its sad, its happy its entertaining! SEE IT NOW!!!!.....WHY Haven't YOU SEEN IT YET!....jokes..you have to see it, its a great way to understand dance...NOW GO!!!


This film is a moving investigation of South Central LA from the perspective of an opportunist music director who uses his street credibility in order to penetrate black inner city life and not get shot.

You can read the other reviews to see what the movie does well. It's aesthetically pleasing, emotionally moving (thanks to appropriate musical cues), etc. However, there are moments within this potentially progressive film that takes 100+ years of black "freedom" and flushes it down the toilet.

Does anyone not see a problem with opening up a film portraying black clowns as community heroes? Blacks fought for decades to rid themselves of the stigma of the minstrel -- of the CLOWN. It was unsettling for me to know that while sitting in the theater I was supposed to, in the spirit of the film, be moved by these former gangster's stories -- stories of being saved from the street by clowning. I suppose history is merely repeating itself and once again, the black man can only "rize" from oppression if he takes on the role of the public fool.

My other problem with this film occurred midway through the film during the montage of Krumping. LaChappelle interviews a Krumper named "Dragon" who states (and I'm paraphrasing) that Krumping (the "street" version of Clowning) is something that "we do because we can, because we were made to do itwe were born to do it." Immediately following the statement, "we were born to do it," LaChappelle launches into a montage sequence where he juxtaposes flashes of men and women Krumping with found footage of naked African men in face paint and loincloths (holding spears, nonetheless) engaging in tribal dance techniques quite similar to the interspersed Krumping moves. But the cuts are so fast that any isolated Krumping movement could easily be viewed as similar to the dance of the primitive African tribal members. In this moment, I literally felt sick. Is LaChappelle trying to draw the parallel between 21st Century black dancers in inner city ghettos, to primitive tribal Africans (who were probably filmed for a National Geographic special??) LaChappelle, are you saying that black men have the cross-continental genetic disposition of primitive tribal dance?? Giving LaChappelle the benefit of the doubt, I'll write this off as a careless decision. While granted, there very well may be elements of traditional African tribal dance in Krumping and Clowning, this connection needed to be further explored through either interviews or a better ethnographic investigation. As is, I merely felt second-hand embarrassed and horror at the visual connection the director actually made.

My last complaint that I feel most people are overlooking is that this film should have moved us emotionally without the musical cues. Music that speaks for the film, instead of footage that speaks for itself, is lazy film-making. LaChappelle takes the easy way out several times in this film, and ruins many moments that would be better left silent (also, there was no need for the overdub of "Amazing Grace," either. Sometimes raw is better).

But still, I do contend that this film is a must-see. At the very least, you'll learn something. Yet you can't leave this film without acknowledging that inner city youth need a way out. LaChappelle crosses dangerous territory in leaving us feeling like maybe, just maybe, all of these kids will be OK. And that's just not true.


Michael J. Fox plays Dr. Benjamin Stone, who is on his way to Beverly Hills, where he has a well-paid job waiting.He takes a short cut to avoid the traffic jam but hits into a fence in a small town called Grady.He has to do 32 hrs of community service at the hospital.In Grady he meets all these people, like Dr. Aurelius Hogue (Barnard Hughes), Hank Gordon (Woody Harrelson), Mayor Nick Nicholson (David Ogden Stiers), Nancy Lee Nicholson (Bridget Fonda), Judge Evans (Roberts Blossom) and the most interesting of them all, ambulance driver Lou (Julie Warner).George Hamilton plays Doctor Halberstrom.Ben has all the reasons to leave the town as soon as he can, which is harder than he thought, but he also has one good reason to stay.He has strong feelings for the beautiful Lou.So will he leave or will he stay? Michael Caton-Jones' movie Doc Hollywood is a really nice romantic comedy, and way too underrated, if you ask me.The cast is great.Michael J. Fox is doing a great job in the lead, just like he always does.It was while filming this movie when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's.He was only thirty and one year earlier he was still playing a teenager in a movie.That movie was the third part of Back to the Future, where Mike was of course Marty McFly.Now he's doing much less acting, but still he is doing something.Recently I saw him in two parts of Scrubs, where he played Dr. Kevin Casey.He is great playing doctors and whatever. This movie has lots of good stuff.It has the romance thing working, like in the wonderful dancing scene, and it has the comedy thing working as well, the pig is there to prove that.Doc Hollywood may not be a perfect masterpiece, but it is a movie with a heart.And sometimes, that's all we need.


This film had all of the cliches of its genre. But, even so, it just kept up a certain charm. Michael J. Fox had none of the irritation factor that I have long associated with him. The movie is pure corn, but somehow you know this, and it's still OK. Maybe my lust for Julie Warner has unfairly inflated my estimation of this movie.


Michael J. Fox earned every penny he got from the industry, and it's with films like this that I feel he is vastly undervalued by the movie watching public. This cheeky and funny film is criminally rated low for reasons I just can't begin to fathom, it's got a sharp script with a very honest message driving it on.

It's concept of putting a big fish in a little pond is always a tale worth telling, and who better than M J Fox to realise the big fish character here,? he has the quips, the sarcasm, and most of all an aura of believability to the character of Dr. Benjamin Stone. The film pans out as one would expect, but the fun is there to be had by all, and come the finale it's just flipping lovely cinema. Get into the vibe of a big city Doctor stuck in a small southern American town, a place that a big city Doctor can't quite comprehend, a place where big city folk surely can't function properly?? The supporting cast are just fine here, Julie Warner, Barnard Hughes, Woody Harrelson & Bridget Fonda are all in on the fun, and all of them give performances in keeping with this other side of the fence comedy. It's a smart and undervalued piece that deserves a better rating than this particular site gives it.

"I'm in the Twilight Zone" 8/10.


In my opinion, its a movie you can watch over and over and still over again and still get the same emotional impact every time. This movie is just that. A feel good movie that compares big city life to Mayberry-type charm and innocence. Great characterizations and casting. In regards to the movie,I find myself reflecting back in my own past life living in a small city where everyone knows everyone. One of my favorites scenes is the the scene where Ben Stone has left Grady and is in Hollywood. He finds himself actually missing all of intimacies of Grady. One evening, He calls the Grady city phone number and gets a recording of a gal(Bridget Fonda) who has this peaceful southern Grady-draw accent as he is overlooking the busy Hollywood skyline. I think it is a this point, he decides he wants go back to Grady.


"Doc Hollywood" is a lovely film that deserves a wide audience. It captures some wonderful truths about small-town life in modern America, namely that it is wrong to assume naiveite among its inhabitants, and that the most mundane practice of arcane knowledge, such as medicine, can be the most fulfiling. My only caveat in the entire film appears early on when Julie Warner appears fully frontally nude. She's lovely naked and the shot is completely within the context of the story of the film. But many people might be put off by the nudity and it might be enough for them to not want their children to see the film. That is completely understandable but it is also a shame because with the exception of that shot, the film is wonderful for all ages. I highly recommend "Doc Hollywood" but if female nudity bothers you, then avoid it.


Broad, flat comedy is straight off an assembly-line. While on his way to California to practice plastic surgery to the Hollywood stars, a doctor gets stuck in a backwater town and quickly falls in love with the lovably uneducated, unspoiled yokels residing there. Another ridiculous comedy posing as a sentimental valentine to Hicktown, U.S.A., based on a book by Neil B. Shulman. Michael J. Fox (looking bloated and sleepy) struggles valiantly through it, and supporting players Woody Harrelson and Frances Sternhagen give it a little juice, but this screenplay leaves everyone stranded in sitcom-land. * from ****


Along with Point Break and Spice World, Doc Hollywood is in a three-way horse race for the title of worst movie ever made. This "film" induced so many boredom-induced migraines that I prayed for the sweet release of death more than once.

Okay, maybe I'm going overboard, but this truly is one movie I hope I never have to experience again. What makes it so bad is that it is meant to be taken as a plausible movie, what with stars like Michael J. Fox and Woody Harrelson (worst actor ever) at the helm. Such a pointless story with no laughs, the one lingering highlight of the film is the breast-shot of the chick in the movie. The fact that they were no more than B-cups yet remain the most memorable aspect of this movie should say it all.


OK, I had more fun watching Microwave Massacre that this steaming loaf. I enjoy a good B-Movie with some beer and a buddy, but this one hurt. I have a friend and we get together to watch what we term "Schmeg Movies". We enjoy the low budget gag/horror films. We have survived the likes of Manos The Hands Of Fate, Jack Frost 1&2, Psycho From Texas, Street Trash, Brain Damage, etc... But this movie was one of those where the people involved took themselves WAY to seriously! They actually thought they were making "Pulp Fiction" meets "Dead Alive" or something of the sort! The whole thing is very weak! It even looks like it was shot on a home video camera! Artisan should be ashamed of themselves for marketing this piece of trash like it is a real movie! Even the DVD case is deceiving! From the looks of it you are getting a real movie. 16x9 anamorphic, DD 5.1, commentary, etc..... You have been warned.......


I have a lot of movie endurance. I have sat through almost all of the bottom 100, including the godforsaken "Troll 2". So when a man at the video store said this was the worst film he had ever seen, I had to rent it out. Man, was that a mistake. I had to shut this off halfway through(making it the only movie I havn't sat all the way through). This movie was so impossibly bad in every way. The acting was atrocious. The plot made no sense. The dialouge was as interesting as a blank wall. But the worst part was the monster. Note that the cover shows the eye of a reptilious creature. So imagine my surprise when the monster was shown as a giant "love pump". Seriously. no one involved with this picture graduated from grade school. So please, please never watch this movie. If you come across a copy, you should probably burn it. Zero out of ten, and wishfully lower.


This is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and I don't mean "bad" in the 50's Sci Fi B-movie way, I mean "bad" as in bad! Bad script, bad acting, even the blood and gore is badly done. The "item" itself, nothing but a horney muppet, isn't even the worst thing about the movie. An hour and a half of my life that I'll never get back.


I went to this expecting....well, I had no idea what to expect, but I imagined it'd be pointless gore with a badly written plot and idiotic dialogue. Yes, there was tons of pointless gore, but there's nothing wrong with that when properly used. But, to my surprise, it was funny, well-written, and the best damned movie I've ever seen about a 40 lb. psychic worm. It also definitely beats any other movie with such a ridiculous idea like floating brains and creeping hands, with some of the freakiest scenes I've ever sat through and one of the best scenes of girl-on-psychic worm action ever plausible, with a great ending. If only there were more psychic worms that reveal people's inner truths, this world would be a lot better place.


The experience of watching this movie is akin to watching a train wreck and loathing yourself for the indulgence afterward.

There's virtually nothing redeeming that I can say about this exercise in cinematic excrement.

Correction, there IS one. While perhaps not the worst movie ever made - so long as Battlefield Earth is still in circulation - this movie is DEFINITELY the worst digital-video-transferred-to-film flick yet to come down the pipe (notice the sewer analogy there).

Simply put, the film is a mess. It reeks of pretentiousness, is chock full of bad acting (and after watching it I really don't know or care if the acting was intentionally bad or just naturally so), terrible writing and a completely lame and pointless plot.

The real villains of this film are Artisan, the same company that brought the Blair Witch Project to cinema screens.

These jokers have pulled every lie and deceptive marketing trick in the book in packaging this travesty.

To begin, there's the box cover art, followed by the plot outline on the back. Taken together one is led to believe that the film is a grade B thriller with an interesting story premise.

WRONG!

If only it were that. Instead of a simple yet crackerjack story about four people who act as go-betweens in the purchase of a strange creature locked in a box, we are treated to gobbledygook that involves copious and ludicrous gunplay, a battle to the death with ninja transvestites, and a creature that looks like a modified Doc Johnson sex toy that psychoanalyses its victims to death.

There is only one way to get anything remotely resembling payback on your rental investment, not to mention the 90 minutes of your life that it will end up wasting, and that is to watch it with some friends where you can mock the thing to scorn. Just make sure there aren't any bricks handy as someone might very well be tempted to lob one at the TV fairly early on.


There is so much to say about this film. None of it is good. Sometimes I wonder if film festivals, and Artisan Entertainment in particular exist so weirdos and nutcases, i.e. people who truly should NOT be allowed to make movies, can make movies. Don't take my statement wrong. Film festivals often ensure that worthy directors, writers, actors, etc., hit the spotlight and have a chance to become great. I KNOW this. But geez, with stuff like this coming out of them... violence for the sake of violence, murder, extremely thinly veiled references to sex and sex objects (I mean the disinfectant scene with the worm makes you suspect, but then she talks about the worm being phallic just in case we were mysteriously struck blind), and the language are almost unforgivable. We're supposed to believe that they're criminals and that criminals swear naturally, but to imagine these people as felons we'd have to be on drugs. The lead protagonist, while attempting to play someone who's tough and not afraid to die, is so pathetically thin and pale that you simply can't believe he's done time. His 'Second In Command', so to speak, cries at one point in the movie because the other felons 'make fun of him'. Another of the four criminals, played by Dave Pressler, actually gives a good shot at doing his part, and you really feel for him at a couple of points during the movie. The last, the woman playing Lauren, has so few lines of dialogue that you can't really tell if she's a good actor or not. Maybe that's a good thing.

The last gripe I have is about the 'special effects'. Most of them are extremely over done. Bullet holes smoke like a Yosemite Sam cartoon, ricochets throw off bright blue sparks like downed power lines, during a chase scene that should never have happened in the first place everyone seems to be on roller skates (I can just HEAR the smug voice of the writer/producer saying to himself 'oooh, it's art') and idiotic little squealing tire and whoosh effects accompany actor movements from time to time that just leave you shaking your head and trying hard to stop the fingers of one of your hands from pressing the eject button. I maybe should have given in, it had more sense than I did. By the way, are the drag queens an attempt to satirize the lifestyle or were their parts simply a favor done for someone in the movie biz to get the video distributed? They are unnecessary and rather... sickening.

An EXTREMELY pointless and slow-witted movie with one or two funny and/or interesting scenes (read 10 seconds) which is why I gave it a 2/10 and not 1/10. Oooh, look, it's art!

-The Dude


Look, I love good and bad films, but this film is terrible. I'm not one who needs linear plot, but the level of convulution (Is this a word?) here is staggering. The movies tries to tell an interesting story about a box with a worm and fails, badly. Jeez, where to start. For one, the "chase" sequence where SPOILER everyone is on rollerskates, come on. How about the faux tension build up when the team of transvestites arrive (leading to the afore mentioned chase scene). Oh, what about the dialogue between the main thug and the scientist, explaining what is in the box. Bad, Bad, Bad. There were some interesting parts, about two. But after that another terrible scene, like the ending SPOILER SHE HUMPS THE WORM!!. Look, this film was made by an pretentious under skilled director in conjuntion with woefully bad actors using a script penned by a commmunity college screenwriting class drop-out.

PS There is no relation between this film and Eraserhead or Shallow Grave. Those are two good films, this one is the opposite.


It's pretty clear that this atrocious movie was largely trying to be an over-the-top dark comedy with plenty of Tarantino-like dialogue and characters. It sprinkled in a touch of disturbing imagry (crappy, pretentious goth art and an alien penis-creature with its eye-lids sewn shut ala "Hellraiser 2: Hellbound"), low-budget camera stock (video), ninja transvestites and tried to pull off a Sam Raimi kinda feel.

Boy, did it ever fail.

I like dark comedies and I love off-kilter, disturbing fare but -geez- this was just so unprofessional that you had to wonder why anyone watching it even cared! Clearly, the actors were having fun but none of that translated to me, watching it.

Heck, I could almost respect it for some of the nice camera angles and filming techniques but just about as I was ready to give credit where credit was due, something appallingly stupid would happen. People get shot for no reason (and I'm talking NO REASON, here ... not even within the context of the four thugs who are the centerpieces of the film), the stereotypical drag queens were -well- kinda offensive (rather than funny), the pacing seemed sporadic, the dialogue -while peppered with realistic jargon and cutesy internally-referential life-comments that made you think these characters were real people- was superficial, and the "monster" of the movie was never given any real build-up before it started messing with people's minds. Worst of all, there was no real explanation for any of it other than the director/writer/star decided to throw so much blood around that "Kill Bill, vol. 1" would look pristine and "white" by comparrison.

This is a very bad movie. Extremely bad. "Manos..." and "Invasion from Inner Earth" bad... Not "cult-classic" bad.

It's just ... plain ... bad.


After reading a few of the comments posted here about this 'film' I have only one thing to say...you got off easy!

Most people seemed to have rented this tripe and had the ability of just pressing stop. For those of us unfortunate enough to see it at the Toronto International Film Festival we weren't so lucky. The 'director' and 'cast' of The Item were present (and I think were watching the doors) and spending $12 on the festival ticket is much worse than seeing it in a "rent one, get one free" deal.

Worst movie ever made? I'd be inclined to agree.

What can be said that hasn't been said before? Some mediocre gore aside you're left with what the film has become famous for; Ultra cheap Super 8 film, dialogue written by a third-grader, and a penis-like slug that resembles something Jim Henson would have created on an acid bender. I used to be able to sleep at night feeling "The Item" would probably never be seen by human eyes again, but the fact that it's out on DVD now is just shocking... Apparently someone thought there was a demand for it!?!

A film to avoid at all costs (unless you watch it with "A Beautiful Mind" so you can have a craptacular double bill) but trust me, watch it and you'll want those 2 hours back on your death bed.


I rented this movie because the back of the box sounded awesome and I love horror flicks. Little did I know I was renting one of the cheesiest movies of all time. This one goes right up on my list. I don't mean cheesy as in funny B movie and worth watching...I mean cheesy like I wish I didn't waste my time and the $1.99 to rent it. I would have had a better time trying to count the blades of grass on my lawn. It had a couple of chuckle-worthy parts but that lasted for all of 1.9 seconds. The only saving grace for this movie was the "Kung Fu Transvestite" and the little weird parts that you might miss if you blink. Of course, they aren't worth the effort to actually see what I'm talking about.


This movie has to be the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. This movie is the definition of B-Movie's It's horrible, and not even funny horrible! Some films your just like wow that was so bad it's funny, but no, with this movie your like, wow that was so bad it makes me want to rip out and swollow my own eyes. Even though it is the worst movie ever made you should still watch it, just to be able to say I have seen the most HORRIBLE movie ever created!

Thats all I have to say! Bye

hor·ri·ble Pronunciation Key (hôr-bl, hr-) adj. 1. Arousing or tending to arouse horror; dreadful: `War is beyond all words horrible' (Winston S. Churchill). 2. Very unpleasant; disagreeable. 3. The movie "The Item"


anyone who was associated with this abomination as well as anyone who enjoyed it is cordially invited to board the bus for Royal Oak, Michigan for an appointment with Dr. Kevorkian...can't really pinpoint whether it was sicker or stupider than anything i've ever seen...the cover of the film promises something that seems interesting...when you are subjected to the Chinese girl doing her art thing during the beginning credits, you know that's not going to happen...if i had any sense i'd have turned it off at that point...horrible script, poor excuses for acting and an overall mean-spirited attitude make this a candidate for the absolutely worst movie EVER...do yourself a favor...dodge this bullet...


a 6 average? Ridiculuos. I saw a preview for this movie, and admittedly it looked interesting. i did notice it was shot on video, but it looked like it had some blood and monsters, demons, whatever. So i checked the good ole IMDB, and saw a fairly high rating, so holding my breath I gave it a shot. What did I get: The usual boring amateurish crapp representative of every SOV production. It's trash folks, plain and simple. I will admit some of the acting was decent (the hispanic woman was pretty good, and deserves better opportunities), but this is a piece of junk apparently lauded only by a bunch of independent film fan boy geeks, willing to praise anything not financed by a studio. Nothing happens in this movie and it feels like a cheesy soap opera for the most part, and no, what I thought were monsters in the preview were nowhere in the film.


Oh my god!!! this is the ABSOLUTE WORST movie ever created in the history of the entire world. i've never seen anything this BAD in my life. the cover is very deceiving. the "worm" doesn't look anything like what they hint at on the cover of the box. Basically, it looks like talking p*nis. Honestly, it's TOTALLY RIDICULOUS. I worked at a video rental store and rented it. I got off work at 5 pm, walked home (i didn't even have a car at the time), watched the first 20 minutes, ejected the DVD and walked right back to the rental store after walking all the way home, and put it in the drop box. I wouldn't chance being caught dead with this CRAPPY MOVIE in my house or be seen returning this garbage!!!! Afterwards, whenever a customer came up to the rental counter with it, I refused to rent it to them. People asked us for our opinion on movies all of the time and trusted us. I was brutally honest but some people still wanted to rent it. Those that did, I made them rent it from another clerk...not me and promise that clerk that they would not come back mad at us and demand their money back. Of course, I had a great relationship with my customers so they told me that I was right, it was a waste of time and money. Is there a way to give it negative stars, like putting every copy of this HORRIBLE movie that exists in the world into a rocket and shooting the thing straight into the sun??


I've seen so many movies and when somebody who is a movie buff like me throws out the term "the worst movie i've ever seen", that is a comment to be taken seriously. I sat through the entire movie for one reason... 5 minutes through the movie I thought "This might be the worst movie I've ever seen"... I was curious. It kept getting worse and worse... it was so painful!!!!! Everything about this movie was horrible! You know, all I really ask of my horror movie rental experience is that it's not made by someone with a hand-held camera (excluding Blair Witch) and has SOME kind of entertainment value. This movie should have had a huge brown scratch and sniff turd on the cover. If you see this film on the shelf, run away. Warn others.


"The Item" is an incredibly lame, blood-spattered hybrid of Tarantino crime thrillers and Woodsian sci-fi, shot on video, which makes the proceedings seem that much more amateurish. A gang of grating young criminals (each with 'issues') meet a Rick Moranis-ish scientist in the desert in order to procure the titular character for an Internet client who is promising to deliver a large sum of money (it seems as though they lack common sense when dealing with those junk chain-letters that arrive in the 'ol Inbox). By the time these dopes are at the ringleader's girlfriend's apartment, eating Chinese food and blowing away transvestites for no real reason, 'The Item'--a button-eyed, phallic-looking psychic creature that is disturbingly comic--lulls each character (and the viewer) into a murderous daze. After the first five minutes, which possess a quirky, 'so-bad-it's-good' charm, the film (snicker) slides into the territory of endless 'ironic' dialog, exaggerated bloodshed, and sheer, plodding obnoxiousness. Writer-director Dan Clark (who plays the head criminal) wants us to think he's crafting a deliberately self-conscious homage to B-cinema, but ultimately doesn't have the dumb 'luck' of an Ed Wood to convey it at all proper. Your time would be better spent watching the MST3K'd version of "Manos: The Hands of Fate."


When I first rented this I looked at the case and thought "Hmm looks descent", hoo boy was I wrong. This "thing" that shouldn't even be called a movie much less a B-movie, was nothing more than a muppet show with horrible camera shots, paper cut-out effects, and action scenes that just baffle the imagination. For example, whenever there was a shoot-out, even when all the person had was a pistol, they NEVER reload their guns after firing like mad for five minutes. Another example would be when a lady attempted to kill a group of people(with a knife an inch long) was shot repeativly as she ran what looked like 30 feet, you think she'd die after getting hit by a combination of bullets of an Uzi and two 9mm pistols.

It's as if a group of 8 year olds made this movie. It deserves a 0/10


This is a feeble and desperate attempt to tap into what is left of the underground comic book audience. Film makers have made other attempts like this and they always seem to go wrong. "Fritz the Cat", "Heavy Metal" ... they just don't seem to work. But this is hardly even an honest attempt. It is a dodge that claims to succeed if they just get your attention. They got mine, don't let them get yours.


I ask myself , what did the producer thought when he was making this crap. it is very low budget (not that that's the problem) but you can see that the whole movie.(ohhh god , the monster)

No good story and the acting is also very crappy. (really . look at the drag queens)

This film has nothing i like and it's a total waste of time to look at. Please watch something else. I give this movie 2 out of 10 and only because they had balls to film it.


this movie is appalling.

it isn't camp. it isn't smart. it isn't cool. most of all, it certainly isn't entertainment.

the only comedy found within is the revelation that the people who made this movie obviously think it is worthwhile. and even this is somewhat embarrassing - making one feel the same sensation as being in a public place with your father when his low tolerance is becoming blatantly obvious.

it's sad.

this is the movie that those sweatpants nerds you avoided in high school would have made if they had some money for special effects, a parent in puppetry, a vague understanding that chicks dig 'deep' things, and no aesthetic abilities whatsoever.

but these weren't the dorks who went on to invent recyclable styrofoam or to decode the human genome. no, these particular losers aspire to something much more unattainable - coolness. and these guys think they have cracked the code.

it has all the awkward earmarks of unaware nerd-made cinema: pathetic dramatic scenes, unconvincing tough posturing, getting excited about swearing, and offensively bad comedy.

a piece of advice, guys: next time you make a bunch of money puppeteering kids shows, don't make another lame attempt to impress babes. they won't care. make a down payment on a townhouse. your parents will be proud and being a homeowner is at least something to talk about at the high school reunions.