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Reviews
The Imposter (2012)
Pointless Exploitation of a Missing Child
If you plan to see this documentary, you likely already know the full story. I hope that the director at least set out to shed light on this case and answer questions as to how it could happen. Sadly, the movie falls short in these two key areas. Instead we are treated to a film where the director mocks the victim's families, promotes the perpetrator and ultimately trivializes the disappearance of a 13 year old boy. Since the director has nothing to add, all we are left with are tasteless attempts at humor and an ill-fitting Wes Anderson soundtrack. I understand the need to recoup costs when making a documentary, but sometimes you just hit a dead end and it should be treated as such.
Paintball (2009)
Embarrassingly Bad
First off, Paintball bets the farm that the viewer has never seen a movie before. If this is your first movie, then you're in luck, as it only gets better from here. Paintball's storyline is a combination of recycled, yet shockingly under-developed, themes and settings that attempts to create an air of mystery and horror by keeping the viewer in the dark. This is respectable approach, however, nothing ever makes sense in the movie
and not in the cool Donnie Darko way. It's like a bunch of 8th graders wrote a story in a half hour and never even bothered even coming for a reason why any character in the movie acts the way they do or any situation in the movie would be plausible. You can tell a movie stinks if the only way to move the story forward is for the characters to do the opposite of what any rationale or irrational human would do. Example 1A: People are dying and everyone still walks around inexplicably yelling with their paint guns cocked and loaded. I would think that even the dimmest bulb would realize that staying quite would be to their benefit.
Second, the movie is made horribly as well. You can tell that no shots were thought out ahead of time. The camera will follow someone, they'll drop a helmet, the camera will linger on the helmet, and the helmet will never be heard from again. I can see who a little misdirection can help a movie, but after repeatedly seeing useless visuals, you start to get the feeling that they were just letting the camera roll with hopes of making it work in the editing room. Also, the special effects are terrible. Every effect looks like it had a maximum budget of $5. I can watch a horrible movie and laugh along with the best of them (see American Ninja 3). However, they took so many short cuts in this movie, that there is nothing remotely redeemable about it. You can surely finding something to disappoint you that isn't 85 minutes long.
This gets two stars only because I've seen Gourmet Zombie Chef from Hell.