Length: 03:43
Logline: An innocent game of the nations fave, Monopoly, turns nasty.
This looked promising. Quality picture, intriguing set up with involving shot composition, colour corrected imagery, the danger music (which was a bit GarageBand-y) over a mundane board game. I had high expectations.
Expectations which fluctuated as the film continued. Once the music dies down, the audio quality changes on each camera shot so suffers without a backing track. Some dialogue isn't clear on the first watch and again, audio levels need balance. And although it consistently looks quite good (something which many short film critics fixate on) it isn't consistently good in plot or acting.
I shouldn't be too harsh as it's made by a couple of kids and what they may lack in performance and storytelling, they make up for in technical ability, energy and enthusiasm. The plot kind of failed for me after the guy gets knifed in the hand and therefore debilitates him for the rest of the film. The guy with the knife is less than convincing and throat-slit guy's over the top crying may have been too much but at least was nicely rewarded by the sweetly delivered lines of surprise when landing on 'chance'. Dialogue is a bit hammy but I got the sense that this was on purpose. Extra points also awarded to the sfx makeup on the wounds.
So it peaks and troughs a bit but on the whole is a good effort with throw backs to some genre that alludes me at present.
Best Bit: The optimistic "Oh, Chance".
Worst Bit: How a stab to the hand is enough to disable someone entirely.
Final thought: Who's that guy that turns up at the end?
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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