The greatest movie ever made..!

Really Surprised!

Absolutely the worst movie.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"The Battle of Shaker Heights" focuses on a pedantic high school dweeb (LaBeouf) and his involvements with WWII reenactments, a payback prank on a bully, and, most of all, his affections for two girls. An unfortunate little coming-of-ageish flick, "Battle" is lacking in depth, homogeneity, continuity, and the breadth of things we like to see in stories, characters, and screenplays. Unoriginal, unimaginative, off target, and with too much invested in a rather annoying central character, "Battle" isn't all bad and does manage some warmth, personality, and charm though it's largely overshadowed by its many deficits. Passable stuff which will likely play best with teens. (C)

I've never seen Project Greenlight but I do know about screenwriting so I can only assume that the script that won the contest was a hugely different affair to the one that made it to the screen. Either that or the other 9000-plus entries were real turkeys! The story is totally unfocussed, switching between stories of high-school rivalries, domestic discord, and unrequited love with little or nothing to connect them. I read that Shia LaBeouf is considered to be a future star and he gets the lion's share of screen time as the lead character, Kelly. Unfortunately Kelly is a self-centered and boorish young man who disses his parents, his teachers and his adoring female friend with no regard for their feelings. We are supposed to like him though because he is the victim of a school bully. Getting our sympathy for such a character was always going to be hard and LaBeouf fails to pull this off. Considering the quality of the supporting cast,and the involvement of Affleck and Damon, I was expecting a much better movie than this. The film is not actually bad and there are some good performances, but the whole thing just doesn't hang together. The final twist that reveals why Kelly has resisted the romantic advances of Sarah (Shiri Appleby) comes completely out of the blue - a cardinal sin in all the writing classes I've attended. It sounds like a hastily thought-up excuse for a happy ending. Ironically, the final scene it sets up is actually the best part of the film with LaBeouf and Appleby clowning around sweetly like real young lovers. This review is based on the Region one DVD release. As the film runs for a bare 79 minutes I was expecting some interesting extras on the DVD but there are none (apart from some previews). Poor show Miramax!

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 ****

I don't know who is giving this movie all those 10's. It cannot seriously be based on the quality of the movie. The directors are more talented than they got credit for in the series, but the movie is completely predictable and full of sorry cliches. Shia Lebeouf is a decent actor but, personally, possibly the most annoying person I've ever seen.