I'll admit that toward the end of the film, something about Lo warmed to me. The costume was impressive for the obviously low budget and some of the dialogue was fairly funny. I even enjoyed the ending, which is probably what got this film from the grueling 2 it had in my mind for the first half.
There are a lot of difficulties in making low budget films look good. The main issue is having a good story. This one wasn't bad, but from there on it misses the mark on so many fundamentals.
1) Cast - The actor playing Justin was horrible. His hammy and frantic facial expressions made it hard to take him seriously and even harder to care about him. The actress playing April, though invading less screen time, had an equal difficulty finding realism in her character.
2) Script - Some of the script was funny, most of the script was forced. The jokes felt like they too crafted and unnatural, and the occasional bit of laugh-track didn't help. But worst of all...
3) Staging - Or rather, stagey. This film has play written all over it, which I am certain is how it originated. The problem being that it never took advantage of its new medium. The set never moves (which makes sense in the last scene when you at last see daylight and realize what cheap filming equipment they must have been working with). Not only does the film stay stationary like a play it also leaks into the aforementioned problem areas.
The acting is over done because it is performed for someone in the back row, not up front and personal. The script suffers from unnatural pauses and deliveries for that reason too. I think that this "film" could someday be remade quite well, but as it is it just holds the audience at too much of a distance instead of drawing them in.
There are a lot of difficulties in making low budget films look good. The main issue is having a good story. This one wasn't bad, but from there on it misses the mark on so many fundamentals.
1) Cast - The actor playing Justin was horrible. His hammy and frantic facial expressions made it hard to take him seriously and even harder to care about him. The actress playing April, though invading less screen time, had an equal difficulty finding realism in her character.
2) Script - Some of the script was funny, most of the script was forced. The jokes felt like they too crafted and unnatural, and the occasional bit of laugh-track didn't help. But worst of all...
3) Staging - Or rather, stagey. This film has play written all over it, which I am certain is how it originated. The problem being that it never took advantage of its new medium. The set never moves (which makes sense in the last scene when you at last see daylight and realize what cheap filming equipment they must have been working with). Not only does the film stay stationary like a play it also leaks into the aforementioned problem areas.
The acting is over done because it is performed for someone in the back row, not up front and personal. The script suffers from unnatural pauses and deliveries for that reason too. I think that this "film" could someday be remade quite well, but as it is it just holds the audience at too much of a distance instead of drawing them in.