Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Memorable, crazy movie

A different way of telling a story

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I am a big fan of Shia Lebouf, mostly because we watch a lot of Disney channel at my house and enjoy his acting. I didn't see Project Greenlight for this movie, so there were absolutely no expectations.The themes of the movie were fairly simple and clear throughout the movie. The dialogue was great (witty and funny), and I think Shia Lebouf did an excellent job of portraying the struggles of a "normal" teen. We didn't get too emotionally caught up with the characters during the movie, but we did find ourselves empathizing with them. My husband thought the editing was a bit choppy, but I didn't really notice it myself.

The problem with "Project Greenlight" is that it seems like they promote the show more then the movie, and therefore the movie being made takes second in priority. I'm willing to bet that the original "Battle.." screenplay was excellent, and you can see the potential, but they need to have an experienced director, not a newbie. I know they want to give aspiring directors their first break, but somehow it doesn't work... mostly because they walk on to a the set and go "Now what?" because they've never, ever worked on a movie set, unlike most directors whove put in their share of time as a set- grunt, running coffee, helping with equipment, basically getting their feet wet. I think "Battle..." would have been great in the hands of a good director, its too bad for the screenwriter, I hope she gets more work based on the merits of the original screenplay and not ignored because of the movie. I think Amy Smart was wasted (which is terrible, she is so amazing), the storyline had NO flow, there was absolutely ZERO character development. I mean, in the end Shia's character ends up with his "friend" who we barely ever see, as if there was this tentative relationship the whole time... I don't know , this was like a cake with no sugar in it, there was some substance but so much was missing...

I was totally into PG2, so today I went over to the Archlight CineramaDome on Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood, CA to see the final result of 'The Battle of Shaker Heights'. The movie is about a 17 year old boy named Kelly (Shia LeBeouf) who re-enacts war battles in his spare time. He also works the night-shift at the local supermarket with his friend Sarah (Shiri Appleby) who seems to have a crush on him. The movie centers around the events that take place after Kelly meets a new friend, Bart (Eldon Henson) at one of his battles. He meets Bart's sister, Tabby (Amy Smart) and falls for her. Problem is she is 23 and engaged. The film tries to make what Kelly goes through, too melodramatic. Like everyone is getting all excited over nothing. The plot whizzes by pretty fast. You end up saying 'Well, why is Bart mad? Is that all? Seems like he's over-reacting). Alot of the movie is this, over-reacting. The script (written by Erica Beeny) could have been better served after a few more drafts. And a script doctor. The directors (Kyle Rankin & Efram Potelle) don't accomplish the task of making the movie funny. There are hardly any laughs. I remember only chuckling once, perhaps twice. But I didn't laugh. Neither did the audience I saw it with (which was pretty crowded for a 1:50pm show on a Wednesday afternoon. Don't people in Hollywood have jobs!?!) The show Project Greenlight, chronicled the making of the movie. And they rushed this movie into production (filming only took 3 weeks and editing 2 or 3) The movie defintely suffers because of it. If given more time to be developed, like other movies do, it would have been alot better. It had great potential. Not to say it was bad, it kept me entertained for an hour and a half. I was just disappointed though. It felt incomplete. But, the final shot of the movie made was worth the 11 bucks I shelled out for the ticket. When Kelly finally realizes he belongs with Sarah and walks off with her into the horizon, he jumps on her back and then she jumps on his. It was so sweet, and cute. A true portrait of young love. And the clencher was Peter Gabriel's song 'When You're Falling' playing in the background. It was a PERFECT moment, as the movie faded out. It's rather rare I love an ending so much. But anyway, Kyle & Efram are funny guys, and they should write their own stuff from now on. It's not great, its not bad. It's just OK.RATING: ** out of ****

Like many folks who watched Project Greenlight, I was hoping that the HBO show was just being dramatic and playful about the filmmaking events... but at the end of the day, everything would be okay.Unfortunately for the BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, everything is not okay.With a million budget, this team had the tools to make a decent movie. All one has to do is look at CLERKS, CHASING AMY, the original HALLOWEEN, and BETTER LUCK TOMORROW to see what can be done for a few hundred grand or less. Instead, SHAKER HEIGHTS looks like it was made by a group that concluded a million dollars was no money and they'd put on a good show (more for the HBO audience than the theatre audience, apparently).Once the project was picked, this group had the luxury of making a feature film without using their own money, going in debt to finish it up, feverishly look for investors, or the chore of finding a distributor (that may explain the mediocre result). This movie had NINE PRODUCERS, TWO DIRECTORS, and THE WRITER ON SET to answer questions. Sadly, it looks like little got done.The directors adding a custom "Hot Lips" license plate to the army Jeep served no grand purpose. That use of thought and power could have been better served elsewhere. As a whole, the movie looked like it was hacked to pieces in the editing bay. One minute the lead character Kelly (played quite nicely by Shia LeBeouf) gets to drive the Jeep... then he's huffing it on a bike... then he has the Jeep again... then is back huffing it on the bike. It looks like info was missing as to why the character would alternate.As far as locations, they didn't have many: 3 houses, a school, a hospital, some woods, and a grocery store. Funny thing was, there were never many customers in the store. Heck, the Quick Stop in CLERKS had more customers (a.k.a. production value).Even more strange, the filmmakers appeared to recycle establishing shots. I could swear I saw the same establishing shots of Kelly's house and the grocery store recycled as if they didn't shoot different angles... and used the same shot more than once.Then, there is 'the kiss.' We've waited most of the movie for Kelly's big kiss with 'Tabby' (Amy Smart's character)... and it's a Jr. High kiss.All in all, THE BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS plays like a cheap TV movie that lacked a clear leader.In the future, I hope Miramax and Project Greenlight takes a good look at their system. Maybe a million dollars is too much... maybe nine producers are too many... maybe the crews are too big... maybe having too many trucks doesn't allow the filmmakers to be mobile and do better work.But one thing is certain: With all the resources given, the movies of Project Greenlight need to get better than the first two.