User Reviews

While I agree that some of the acting was sub-par, it was not embarrassingly so. Tarantino-influenced or not (who cares? not me), I like revenge-by-the-underdog movies, and this was especially good with women getting revenge against a bunch of guys who didn't know who they were dealing with.

Good movie. More please.

Nice movie with a different style,nice music and main female character is karismatic for this role..

The intro scene was captivating with it's mood and colours. But after that, it became a mess. The director has painted the villains black and white like Sin City but the pacing is off, a bit too slow and never really gets your attention. I get that this is low budget but with skill, it should engage the audience and sadly it failed to do this. Other scenes they used soundtrack Eric throws the mood continuity of the movie and it now felt like a mish mash of music videos that makes you wonder what is this movie trying to show??? After 20 minutes, I still couldn't figure it out and the acting has just become worse and amateur that I decided to turn this off. So here I am writing a review to warn you that you can waste your time on something better.

Its not often I watch a movie and think "Damn, I could be an actor". Fifteen minutes into the film I exclaimed "Does anyone know how to act in this film?" that comment was matched with many laughs from my boyfriend who was idly listening to it while he painted in the other room, not long later he shut the door. Had I any sense I would have just watched him paint as I'm sure it would have yielded greater meaning than this wet fart of a Kill Bill ripoff replete with wholly unnecessary visual effects and a neo-noir narrative that could have been written by a 6th grader. I stayed for the whole stupid ride figuring just maybe something cool would happen. It does not, the fart just gets wetter and wetter until finally the credits rolled and I grabbed a much needed drink to wash away the wet fart stains this movie blasted into my face.

It's an OK film at best. Could be good, if it weren't a huge Tarantino ripoff, especially of Kill Bill. I mean even in small details like the coma of the main character. That's beyond reference for me, it's just lazy writing. Also the whole vibe is "tarantinesque", like same camera angles, old western-like soundtrack, titles for characters on screen and overall style.

New filmmakers should be original, or at least try to. Otherwise what's the point? To do something that someone already did?

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Although I usually like some, there are waaay to much musical bits, to the point it gets annoying. Like watching a sequence of music videos, while you just want the story to flow.

Beside all that, there are one or two cool things in it. Not enough to really recommend it.

Many great films were made with shoelace budgets, that is not an excuse. And this is not one of them.

This was front loaded with fake stars but it is a completely clumsy snooze in reality. This isn't even a B movie but someone seems to have thought that they were making a hip masterpiece the way it focuses on being artistic and full of technique. Someone should have pointed out that they were supposed to be making a movie with a plot and that made some sense in someway, being interesting would have helped.

This movie looks and feels like a big budget Hollywood movie. The visuals, cinematography, effects, and sound mix are impressive as hell! The story-line and plot do "feel" indie, and you can tell that the movie was made by a first time director / screenwriter. But the editing makes the whole thing flow smoothly, the movie goes by very quickly and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Some plot elements are a bit weak and some of the characters are cheesy, the one element in this film that screams "low budget" is its expositional animated sequence, I don't want to give anything away - but it was my least favorite part of this film, I think the movie would have been better had they found another medium to tell that part of the story. However, for a $350,000 price-tag - I'm amazed that they had the ability to produce 5% of what went on screen. This movie has gunfire, action, comedy, special effects and beautiful visuals that make it look like it came right out of the mind of Quentin Tarantino, especially their use of music.

It's violent, but humorous, dark, but FUN! and overall - as a single piece, Pickings works! And it works well. It's not for everyone, but I really enjoyed it! Looking forward to seeing what Usher Morgan, Elyse Price and their rest of their team does next.

When I went to see this movie, I did so because it had a 7/10 rating. I had expected it to be a good movie, but what I was met with was a trope and cliché filled attempt at a revenge film by a director/writer who is trying way too hard to be Quentin Tarantino.

Imagine Tommy Wiseau directing "Kill Bill" and you would get something in the vicinity of this movie. It's been a while since a movies dialogue made me cringe this badly.

I feel it is my civic duty to warn others away from seeing this, so I made an IMDb account with the sole purpose of writing this review. That is how disappointed I am with this film.

At first I didn't really warm to the movie, the first few minutes proved to be coming from a jagged, low budget perspective... Yet somewhere lurking was a Tarantinoesc bombshell that went from lukewarm to boiling hot and easily could have been far darker than it actually was. What could have been a horrific ending up being dark poetry. The direction, continuity and acting sometimes felt a little lacking, but it's easy to forgive as everyone seemed very genuine and all those involved are likely to mature into making a higher production value despite the low budget. All in all, it felt more authentic than many big budget movies that wow us with CGI and global actors that earn millions. Personally I will keep my eyes open for more from Usher Morgan...

After the first 40 minutes of art breaks, vauge plot revelations and gratuitous semi violence I was ready to pack this heap in. The acting if it can be called that, was trite and ham handed at best and willfully stupid at worst. The villan filmed in Black and white cameo was the most thinly scripted ghoul yet. Please don't waste your time on this dreck you may want to kill yourself before the end - much like the cast and producers should have done early on.

This is one of those rare films when one individual wears too many hats - and succeeds.

Novice director, writer, producer, cinematographer, sfx, vfx, and editor Usher Morgan makes his full length feature film debut in most of the above categories in this low budget (350K) B-grade indie film with many novice actors.

Sure it's not an original production (the theme paying homage to Sin City and Kill Bill), and it had its writing flaws, overplayed cliche's, overzealous cartoon scenes, overloaded with cringy slow-mo's, and the acting was certainly not Oscar-worthy. But let's remember that this was an ambitious independent low budget production and should not be compared to big budget Hollywood productions with A-list actors. I can see many of the wannabe critics on IMDb will slam this film and not appreciate its production values. Having said that, I really enjoyed it. It felt like it was a "industry friends and family get together to make a fun film", and fun it certainly was. Most of the cast members wore more than one hat as well, and for such a small production, it showed really well. The cinematography was nearly flawless and the directing really good.

This neo-noir crime film isn't for everyone, but I for one can look past the flaws and see it as a gem, one that certainly qualifies for a cult following. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. Would I see it again? At least one more time. A well deserved 8/10 from me.

This movie clearly tries to impress, however it doesn't fully succeed in all scenes, it's not awful but still don't expect too much. I didn't regret my spent time watching it and i suppose what made this movie special and distinguishible is the effects put in it, i genuinely believe that Elyse Price performance was on point but the soryline is somewhat weak

The entire thing is unbelievably amateurish, the acting in particular (most specifically the bad guys). My hat is off to anyone who can actually get a movie made, much less get it onto Amazon, which are very difficult things to accomplish, but it hurts my heart to see this kind of unoriginal, extremely poorly written drek having success. Definitely worth avoiding.

I've sat watching this and thought after 20 minutes what the hell is this about? now I've watched it all the way through I'm still confused, I can't make out wether this is suppose to be a Clint Eastwood style 70's Italian western a cartoon, a mafia revenge movie or a Tarrantino movie has it just took all of that and put it in a blender. Definately wouldn't recommend any one to pay money to see this. Hell what do I know I'm not a critic I'm just someone who watchees films

Very painful to watch. So many fake shill reviews on here. Dont believe any possitive review. From front to finish, this is a very poor attempt to rip off Tarentino. Same style, same diologue, same adding of animation, same rip off recurring theme music. It was brutal to watch. I was forced to watch it because of my wife seem to be enjoying it. So I had to sit there and watch this Disaster of a movie has the blond lead actress, who is just horrible ....ripping off Daryl Hannah but without the style and talent. Some gangster at the bar is maybe the worst actor ive ever seen in a movie. This is a blatant ripoff of Kill Bill and the Hateful 8 combined. If I were Tarentino, I would sue. Heck, i want to sue to get the 90 minutes of my life they stole.

I read the Usher Morgan's book on directing films. That's how I found out about Pickings. Reading the REAL reviews below tells you all you need to know. The real imdb users have spoken: the movie blows. As for the raving FAKE reviews: click on the profiles. You'll see. Usher Morgan (the director) or someone related to the movie created a dozen fake imdb profiles to pump the film's profile with positive reviews. How can you tell they are fake? First of all, they all contain the same essence and style. Second, look at how many reviews the profile has. Often it's just one, and it's Pickings. Strange. And if it's several reviews, then the "user" wrote those other reviews on the same day as the Pickings review, and never reviewed a movie ever again on that profile.

I really liked the spaghetti western based music. It really brought me back to the early days of Clint Eastwood.

Well, it seems someone went to film school.... But, at least it's not another insipid comic book movie.

Okay, so this is a super low-budget indie film from an unknown, first-time filmmaker, made with a group of unknown, first-time cast, I knew going into it that it was going to be a student film of sorts, a bunch of kids with no money making a movie for the first time (like most low budget indie films). But boy was I surprised! This movie is IMPRESSIVE! The cinematography, acting and story were very well crafted, and some of the actors were amazing!!! (looking at you, Elyse Price). Some of them, not so much ("Hollywood" Sam Barone). Overall - this movie is a very well made "low budget indie film", and if you're an indie film fan you should go into it expecting to see a low budget indie film. You are going to be in for a really fun ride! So manage your expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Definitely worth the watch!

PICKINGS is a VERY low-budget film, and as such, I was willing to make some allowances. I figured it would feel small, and lack some of the zip and verve that seems to come from movies with more resources. And I'll give director & writer (& producer) Usher Morgan some credit for having a nice visual style and for coming up with some amusing post-production flourishes. But it's all in the service of some a Tarantino rip-off.

It tells the story of a single mom, who, along with her kids (from grown-up Scarlett, down to a little girl) are just trying to get along in their new home in Michigan by running a neighborhood bar. They all have southern accents, because they've come up from Tennessee or somewhere, and this also means they have to keep wearing clothes that make them look like refugees from a bad Western. The only other characters in the film are the local gangsters, who look like refugees from every bad mob movie of the '80s. Thick accents that are NOT from New York. Each virtually indistinguishable from another. (One of them, cleverly, is always shown in black & white...fun but calls out SIN CITY all too easily.) Well, it turns out the mobsters are messing with the wrong single mom, cuz she's got quite a back story of her own, and is NOT inclined to work with these thugs. Slowly paced mayhem ensues, none of it particularly exciting, and none of it giving the visceral thrill of Tarantino's best work, because the budget isn't there for truly glorious violence.

The call-outs to Tarantino are everywhere. Lengthy speeches from characters when one or two works would suffice. Bad ass women getting revenge. Even close ups of walking bare female feet. The feeling of mashing up genres to serve the story...even if the mash-ups here feel more forced than fun.

The performances are all merely so-so at best. But these inexperienced actors are hampered by a truly awful script. Wooden dialogue. Nonsensical motivations. The inability to express grief when called for, or to truly find humor when desired. Morgan probably has some skills as a director, and with more resources, he might be able to muster up a fun movie (hence my willingness to give two stars). But he should never write for himself again. The plot is deadly familiar, yet oddly, a bit disjointed and hard to follow (there's jumping around in time, another Tarantino quality). The "banter" is unconvincing. A passably entertaining movie has morphed into something barely watchable.

I'd say keep an eye out for Usher Morgan, but don't bother watching THIS particular film.

As someone who considers himself a fan of independent films, and genre films in particular, I found a lot to enjoy in this movie. It's a mixture of film noir, spaghetti westerns and comic book genre films like Sin City and 300, all that made behind the mask of a super-stylized independent film. The visuals, editing and acting was all top-notch. The story was gripping, and the main character of Jo was bad-ass! Fans of niche genre films would love this movie.

"Pickings" is an interesting little revenge film about a single mom who runs a family bar in a fictional town (Port City), one day some mobsters come seeking to collect protection and things escalate quickly, the scene becomes violent and the gangsters end up dead. This sets up a turf war between a women who is on the run from a really violent past (and the filmmakers reveal the past nicely throughout the movie, in little pieces) and a local gangster who's out for blood. The plot isn't really that innovative or new and you can clearly see where the filmmaker gets his inspiration from (cough... Tarantino), but overall the movie does a really good job of keeping your eyes glued to the screen and I think it delivered. There are some really light moments and some really dark moments which is a staple of these types of B movies. The filmmakers also combined film noir and Spaghetti Westerns in an interesting way and the film does not lack in style, sometimes thou that style can get really distracting and it can take you out of the story, but for the most part it keeps you engaged.

"Southern transplant Jo Lee-Haywood (a terrific Elyse Price) runs a successful small-town Michigan bar called Pickings with her daughter Scarlet. But when mobsters want in on Jo's business, a brutal war ensues between the two factions, with the haunted, hard-boiled Jo and her pistol-packing posse - brother Boone (Joel Bernard) and sisters Doris and May- proving formidable foes.

The filmmaker is aided immeasurably by a superb tech and effects team and a vivid cast. Most especially, though, he's created a cool and crafty anti-heroine in the take-no-prisoners Jo, who would seem to have plenty of movie mileage left in her. Sequel, anyone?"

-Gary Goldstein LA TIMES