I just watched the DVD CASHBACK tonight. I saw the trailer when I was home at my parents over Thanksgiving. Based on the trailer, the movie seemed to be something that I'd be really into. While I did enjoy the movie in general, I found myself looking at my CB2 and West Elm catalog during the movie.
After the movie was over, I looked at the special features and discovered that the movie started out as an Academy nominated 15 minute short film. So I watched the short film thinking it would be something shot on super 8 or something. The 15 minute short was actually all the best ideas in the movie condensed into 15 minutes. The 15 minute short was totally captivating and really powerful. Dragging this 15 minute short into a 90 minute film really seemed to dilute it's ability to engage you in the story or what the initial idea of what the story was suppose to be.
I think my attention span must be dwindling because I have a really hard time watching a full length movie anymore. I'll bet that most movies could be condensed down to 15 minutes and it would save everybody a lot of time. The problem I imagine with that idea is that if you have a 90 minute movie and can condense it down to 15 minutes of interesting material, if you only set out to make a 15 minute movie, you'll probably only end up with about 3 minutes of interesting material.
I give the 15 minute short of CASHBACK five stars. The full length feature only gets 3 stars.
After the movie was over, I looked at the special features and discovered that the movie started out as an Academy nominated 15 minute short film. So I watched the short film thinking it would be something shot on super 8 or something. The 15 minute short was actually all the best ideas in the movie condensed into 15 minutes. The 15 minute short was totally captivating and really powerful. Dragging this 15 minute short into a 90 minute film really seemed to dilute it's ability to engage you in the story or what the initial idea of what the story was suppose to be.
I think my attention span must be dwindling because I have a really hard time watching a full length movie anymore. I'll bet that most movies could be condensed down to 15 minutes and it would save everybody a lot of time. The problem I imagine with that idea is that if you have a 90 minute movie and can condense it down to 15 minutes of interesting material, if you only set out to make a 15 minute movie, you'll probably only end up with about 3 minutes of interesting material.
I give the 15 minute short of CASHBACK five stars. The full length feature only gets 3 stars.