This is a great guilty-pleasure flick full of idiots and anti-heroes in a string of crazy situations. Straight from the dvd jacket, this is a movie about the unlikely connections between a group of people that comes to a head at 11:14 p.m. in small town USA. For most of this movie I found myself laughing my butt off while I knew I should be shocked and horrified. What fun! Trust me when I say that the real key to this movie is to approach it with low expectations. I watched this movie late on a Friday night when I couldn't find anything better to watch. I honestly expected an indy drama, but it is really closer to a dark comedy... really dark. Good stuff.
Movie to Skip:
I really wanted to like this film, but it just fell kind of flat. The movie is based on a silent movie with the same (or very, very similar) name, and it looks like the director simply wanted to add 'voice' to the film as a kind of experiment. Everything else, exactly the same. Identical costumes, makeup and that iconic silent movie over-acting with broad movements and hyper animated facial expressions to overcome the lack of sound. While I thought it was an interesting concept, I just couldn't buy into it. When you can hear the movie, you have to adjust... make things more subtle... or else it just comes out as a lot of squawking and lame melodrama. For film buffs that like experimental movies, you might enjoy this. For everyone else, you'll probably enjoy the original version a lot more. Ironically, what might make this one better is to mute the film and click the subtitles button on your remote...
