FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

“Bums” tells the story of Don, a young man who has just broken up with his girlfriend. In order to move on as quickly as possible, he runs over to a friend’s house to score some drugs then its off to the bar to pick up his first one-night stand – or at least first in a really long time. But he’s not alone on the quest. He brings a couple of buds to help him out. Along the way, Don’s newly christened ex gets the same idea and sets out on a similar adventure that may have you wondering, “Just how different are men and women?”

The Butler brothers (Jason and Brett) are back with their sophomore (and sophomoric) effort. The masterminds behind “Alive and Lubricated” bring us what is essentially a sequel where every character’s name has changed. The big twist is that this time the guy breaks up with the girl, but in both situations she’s a slut. The film still focuses on sex, but also turns its attention towards relationships in general (with some drugs thrown in there for good measure). This second feature actually represents a full step forward in terms of filmmaking, but these two still have a long ways to go.

They’re still falling victim to these horrible conventions used only by people with a video camera and lack of education (or possibly common sense). Let me break it down. The first shot zooms out to reveal a parked car with a title popping up on the top of the screen. Not only does it linger a bit too long, but also the title is completely worthless. There are several titles telling us what time it happens to be. Is there a race? Does the movie ever become time sensitive? No. Why should we care? They have a stupid slow motion shot of the guys walking to the car. Ugh. They use nasty filter effects in conjunction with split screens to achieve some type of goal, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is. The most annoying aspect of the movie is the overabundance of split screen. You’ll see two people talking in a wide shot, and then for no good reason at all, they’ll insert a split screen with a closer shot of one of the people talking, while the other half remains wide. Did the actor mess up? I bet they did. This kind of technique is extremely off-putting, gimmicky, and pulls viewers away from the narrative. None of the split screen stuff served a useful purpose or had any real deeper meaning behind it.

Even besides that, the editing is rather wretched. I’d be shocked if this wasn’t a case of a guy messing around with i-movie. These guys still have no sense of timing, whether its comedic or finding a rhythm in the editing. Once again, I did not laugh during this comedy. The jokes weren’t fresh, hip, or original. And they were delivered poorly by friends of the filmmakers rather than actors or comedians. Like with “A & L,” it seems like a cut was made only when it had to be. There were strange cut away shots and the cut to black moments felt like commercial breaks rather than scene transitions or passages of time. The movie also suffers from horrible, abrupt music cues and extremely muted colors. The video is on the verge of being black and white, but you can still detect a slight hint of color, which leads me to believe it’s a mistake one way or the other. Whatever the case may be, the camerawork is lackluster and void of any visible production value or skill. It’s all point and shoot.

I must say this movie isn’t completely terrible. The story is a little more solid this time, even though by the end I still couldn’t tell if it was about anything. The script, while a blatant homage to Kevin Smith and his inspirations, includes some intelligent thoughts. A lot of what the characters say is extremely basic, yet occasionally poignant. The dialogue may have come across even better and more thought provoking if the people delivering the lines were more effective. The true potential for the young filmmakers lie within this writing, the problem is in being able to harness it.

For more information on Bums visit http://www.subprod.com/bums.html

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