[Smash Cut]
Plot:A TV news personality goes undercover as an actress in a horror film to discover the killer of her older sister, a stripper.

Cast:Sasha Grey, David Hess, Michael Berryman, Ray Sager, Herschell Gordon Lewis.

My Thoughts:Nothing new.

Review:"Smash Cut" is another slasher movie where an indie filmmaker goes off the deep end, and begins to make life imitate art, by basically killing people in a slasher movie fashion. There have been many indie horror movies before this one to use the same formula. The recent "Skeleton Crew" comes to mind. Then there was "Hack!", which was released last year. This one however is not as edgy as "Skeleton Crew", or as fun and entertaining as "Hack!".

Rather, it's a boring, tepid film which uses too many cliches and doesn't provide the viewer with an interesting enough antagonist. Able Whitman, an indie filmmaker, sets out to prove his critics wrong when his latest slasher-piece bombs with audiences. So he visits his muse, a stripper named Gigi Spot...(no I'm not kidding). After he becomes inspired by Gigi, the two are driving home, when all of a sudden he has a car accident. Able survives, but Gigi ends up dead.

Able however, through her death, becomes inspired to make his next project. Pretty soon, Able begins to realize that real-to-life death is his new muse, and do disposing of people to fit his film becomes his latest hobby. As this takes places, Gigi's sister, a smalltime reporter, decides to go undercover as a horror film actress. Hoping it will lead her to the murderer of her sister. With a rich plot like this, "Smash Cut" should've been a lot better than it was. Instead, it relies on what all horror films that show a movie within a movie rely on.

Showing how much of an asshole or a prick, people in the business can be. Yes, we're all aware that Producers and financers can be capitalist assholes, who are more concerned with getting a return on their investment than making a good movie. They believe that because they put up cash to make a film, they know what does and doesn't make a good movie. Thus the conflicts of interest and creative differences with the director. We've seen all of this before.

"Smash Cut" has too much going for it to fall back onto such a cliche storyline. Instead of taking it's material right to the viewer, it just coasts along on a whole basket full of "been there, done that" material. And while the deaths are bloody, gory, and brutal, they're doused with bad comedy and cheap laughs which just don't work. If you've ever seen slasher-comedies where the killer whacks people in a funny way, and manages to stack a bevy of bodies in some storage closet, which no one finds until act three. And everyone is clueless to the fact that the person is a killer, that's what "Smash Cut" pretty much is in a nutshell.

Able is surrounded by very naive people, who either don't suspect he'd ever hurt a fly, or don't think he has the balls to do so based on his lack of backbone and power over a movies production. So he manages to get away with most of these murders for the duration of the movie. But the way a lot of them go down is just so corny, cheesy, and unbelievable that you can't help but roll your eyes at it all. All of this is sprinkled over with inside jokes about the filmmaking industry, and the people in it.

The ditzy slasher starlets, the asshole financiers, etc., etc. Of course the third act of the movie pans out just like you'd expect it to pan out. And that's pretty much the final nail in this movies coffin. The finale had an opportunity to mix things up a bit, but it followed through too predictably and took the easy way out in wrapping up the story.

Although the conclusion is good for a laugh, or two, or three. It's not very creative or unique. And a movie where you can guess what will take place at the end, is never any fun. "Smash Cut" had a good idea, and some big opportunities and chances to be something new and different. But it squandered that all when it became bogged down by so many cinematic potholes that it should've avoided from the jump.

Positives:A good story idea, lots of blood and gore, the final act inspires a few chuckles.

Negatives:Most of the comedy doesn't click well, too many cliche moments, cliche characters, and predictable unfolding of events.

Overall:One and a half stars out of four.





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