Sorry I'm a bit behind on this show, but there just so much to complain/love about this show that I needed to get it off my chest. I immediately loved the premise of this show- 50 directors competing for a million dollar deal with Spielberg's Dreamworks Studio- but I knew I would be in for some trouble when I saw who the judges were:
Brett Ratner, the franchise-ruining director behind Red Dragon, X-Men 3 and the Rush Hour series.
Garry Marshall, director of such classics like Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries and Georgia Rule
Carrie Fisher, who has never even directed a film, but did write the autobiographical screenplay for Postcards From the Edge (which is a pretty good Meryl Streep film) and, of course, starred in the geek classic Star Wars
It got even worse when the contestants found out who the judges were and weren't disappointed. In fact, a lot of the male directors claime that they wanted to make movies exactly like Brett Ratner. This is where I nearly turned off the show. Why would all of these directors look up to a hack like Brett Ratner? I can understand looking up to Spielberg because for all of his dumb crowd-pleasers (Jurassic Park, The War of the Worlds) he makes really interesting challenging dramas (Schindler's List, The Color Purple). But Ratner doesn't even have a good film to his credit.
Thankfully, the show did get better and some of the directors were somewhat interesting. They went from pitching a film to directing a short film in groups of three to directing their own short film. And it was this past Monday that we got to see these short films. Some were great, some were good, some sucked and some were plain disasters.
Great: I really liked the creativity of Zach's Danger Zone and the balls to shoot it all in one take. The special effects were kind of cheesy, but it was pretty funny. I also liked Mateen's Soft. The beginning was a little weak, but the comedic twist was great. Sam's Replication Theory was interesting and took risks that many of the other films didn't. I thought Carolina's Deliver Me was brilliant, but apparently America didn't since she was voted off.
Good: Will's Lucky Penny was very Keaton-esque, but not as fantastic as the judges claimed. The premise was good, but it wasn't as funny as a Keaton short. Trever's A Golf Story, like the judges said, could have been improved with a couple extra shots, but what was there was very good. No matter what Carrie Fisher said, I liked Jason's Getta Rhoom and didn't find it offensive that the geek was kinda retarded. I find that shit funny and Carrie needs to get over herself.
Sucked: Andrew's Spaced Out didn't deserve the praise of the judges because it's one joke (aliens barfing on a cop) wasn't really that funny or original. Marty's The Big Bad Heist wasn't bad but it really was a trailer, not a short film, and really didn't follow the directions.
Disasters: Kenny's Wack Alley Cab was just a random collection of crazy ass shots with the colors changed and tinted. I really wished he would have gotten voted off because he really annoys me. Jess' "metaphor" ...To Screw in a Light Bulb really made no sense and was as funny as Larry the Cable Guy.
The judges really got on my nerves after awhile. At first I thought they were going to heap praise on everyone, but after awhile they just shot down every film (some deserved it, but others didn't). The thing that made no sense was that they picked and choosed which films with "potty" humor were acceptable or not. To them, sometimes it was good and other times they just hated it for no discernable reason. And then there was Garry Marshall who, everytime a female director came up on stage, had to mention how "fantastic" his sister Penny is and then shot them down when they "didn't direct it like a female" or whatever. What a pompous ass. Women should be allowed to do whatever they want and not just limit themselves to Nora Ephron-Nancy Meyer's style romantic comedies. Actually. one of my dreams is to someday see a woman direct a Scorsese-style gangster picture because it would be interesting to see what that would look like.
If any of you watched On the Lot, what did you think about it? What films rocked and/or sucked? And what did you think of the judges?
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