Ok, sense so many feel SOOOO strongly about this, and demand a place to voice their hatred for this film.. here you go. I am opeining the flood gates by playing devils advocate and posting all the things i feel do work with the film. Put the hankys away, and let er rip.

The Lost Soldiers review
By: R. Michael McWhorter

First impressions
The first time I heard about the film I was a bit discouraged. I (like many here) am quite frankly tired of seeing young kids try and pull off films well beyond their means. Whethere it be a bunch of 13 year olds in WW2 or some 15 year olds trying to portray the hardened Detective hell bent on bringing the crime syndicate down its tired, its sad, and its un reealistic. It had alot of hype, so I went into it with a very "I dont think Im gonna like this" attitude.

My opinion changed a little after viewing it (atleast in regards to this movie) and here is why.
1) The big thing is kids playing rolls beyond their means. Truth be told if your in highschool and going to make a war film, Vietnam is the one to do. Most were just kids and many were actually under 18. So that aspect was distracting.

2) The biggest complaint I hear from people is, "It dosent look like vietnam in Georgia." Really? Have you been to Vietnam? Truth be told several Vietnam films have been shot in georgia and South Carolina because the landscape matches quite well to that of Vietnam. In fact "Tears of The Sun" was almost shot in South Carolina but they opted for Hawaii instead. He avoided pine trees, and did his best to use what he had. I think rather effectivley.

3) The acting. No, the acting ws not stellar, but alot better than most high schoolers films. He got people to cry and show emotion. Better than most everyone on here can say they have done.

4) Production value. Authentic uniforms,good quality fire arm replicas, and even pyrotechnics be it fireworks or otherwise. I have seen some older war films that had MUCH worse speciall effects.

5) cinematography. High schooler or otherwise he has a good eye for composition. This was well shot, and well edited. The only real thing that bugged me was some sound issues, but the imags looked good.

6) Success. If I new he was a good film maker, and he came and told me he was making a war film, i would say, "Dont do it, its a waste of time." In this case, i would be wrong. They made the film for $750 I believe. They had a showing at their school and brought in over $2,000. How many here can say they have turned a profit with their fil? Im guessing few to none. If nothing else i have to respect him for that.

In closing war films seem to be behjind him. It was a guilty pleasure and he got it out of his system. From what I hear he is setting much more realistic film making goals for himself now. Could it have been better with "real" actors? Yes. Could it have looked better if shot on film? Yes. Could he have made a more realistic film using what he had access to? Absolutley. The point is he did what he wanted, and it payed off. After all isnt that the point of what we do? If we dont enjoy it, whats the point?

Love it, hate it it dosent take away from what it has accomplished. Several poked their heads out of the diret when this topic first came up to pipe in their ow feelings on the film. I challenge each and every one of you to make a better one, and quite frankly hope that you do. If I see a film I think isnt good, getting alot of hype it simply drives me harder to make something better. Put your camera where your mouth is.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans
Tizzy Entertainment "Redemption" Hi-Def trailer

(clap, clap, clap)

"What are you doing?"
"Oh . . .uh . . .nothin"

quote:

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Originally posted by TizzyEntertainment:
Put your camera where your mouth is.
http://www.zomp.nl/film/data/detail.php?id=24

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It's too big and doesn't look right! As far as this one in concerned it is okay. From what I gathered it was a Saving Private Ryan rip but who knows. Cool that they made money on it.

I'm interested in seeing the full movie...

P.S. why can't we submit anything over 30 minutes?

- C. Davis
YELLOW HAMMER PRODUCTIONS

huh? I'll read it later...
HOODIE PRODUCTIONS......"making it happen"

tizzy-
1) okay i see your point, but the characters will still stereotypical (the timid medic, the hairy machine gunner, the leader who has no control over his men) and that distracted me more than a high schooler in war.
2) congrads Tizzy, you've confused Nigeria (tears of the sun) with Vietnam! no i have never been to vietnam but niether have you so i dont know what your point is. its a dense jungle, that looked like my backyard...
3) congrads Thomas you made an actor cry! i bow down and worship you...wait errr no. besides it was too dark in the trench to actually see the "medic" crying .
4) they were wearing khakis...
5) it was alright, nothing really spectacular but pretty good i guess. too dark in most areas for my taste...
6) so it made money, so did Freddy vs. Jason...i dont see what your point is? they made a profit, a rather large profit of course, its not that unheard of in student films Tizzy...

BigBudget.
Now that was a thought out retorte. Well done (im serious)

I didnt confuse Nigeria with Vietnam, I am simply stating the fact a film set in a similar geographical style thought SC worked as a double. Like I said, other films have used the South for Vietnam. No it wasnt as dense a jungle as some of Vietnam but not all of Vietna looks like that.

I will agree the characters were steryotipical to a fault. I have even agreed it was "Saving private Ryan" in Vietnam. I wasnt impressedby chaacter development but I was impressed that he got some emotion out of a bunch of High schoolers and wasable to pace what little he got rather well. (Not just the crying, but the dying soldieras well as the fight between the two soldiers.)

It was a bit dark at points, most of which a bounce board probablly could have corrected although it feels very "run and gun" in nature. There were other mistakes as well, most notably whe the camera crossed the axis. But all in all, it worked better than most high school assembled films.

Finally its success. Many student films have made money? Define many? I can spought off some names but that pales in comparrison to how many student films are made each year. "Freddy vs Jason" made money. Whats wrong with that? I have no real interest in the movie, but i can respect them for realizing there wa an audience for it and eploiting that. In the movie "Business" the bottom line is money. Make money and you get to make another movie. Robert Rodriguez has this down to a science. He has low budgets. as aresult, the studio gives him full creative cntrol. He does whatever the heck he wants and they let him because with budgets that low, and exposure that high its impossible to not make money. "OUATIM" was #1 this weekend with over $24 mill. It cost between $10 and $13 mill to make. Besides all that how many colege students do you know that have a feature that they wrote and directed under theirbelt, let alone 2? And He's only in High School.

Again, you make valid poinnts though. It is by no means the greatest film I have ever seen, nor even the best on this site, but its one that has stood out in recent time. I have this hobb of trying to notice film makers I think have a greatdeal of potential that others may have ignored. Two such previous people have done very well in studio Holywood. I noticed something in thsi film i liked. Could be something, could be nothing. we will see.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans
Tizzy Entertainment "Redemption" Hi-Def trailer

this is ridiculous. You people should be ashamed of yourselves.

My grandfather's been to vietnam and he says it's not all dense jungle. And yes your back yard can pass for Vietnam or Nigeria, or your back yard...

P.S. What's the deal with pine trees? I think there's at least 1 freakin' pine tree in Vietnam. I'm not sure but I think there may be... just one. :P

OH MY GOD! Tizzy, I was like "What the F*ck is OUATIM"! It took me a second. Once upon a time in Miami! LOL

I heard bad things about this one. D'oh!
- C. Davis
YELLOW HAMMER PRODUCTIONS

[This message was edited by AFC President on September 16, 2003 at 02:16 PM.]

Hey Tizzy, according to Box Office Mojo, once upon a time.. had a $29 million budget and $20 million marketing cost.

I don't know what it actually cost to make but that's what Box Office Mojo said their numbers were. :P

This is just an interesting fact. Notice that only twice in the past 23 years has the movie industry went down on the amount of money it makes... 9.135 billion last year!

Were'e at 6.444 billion this year - wow!

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/

- C. Davis
YELLOW HAMMER PRODUCTIONS

Thomas Verette when talking about "crying" wasn't refering to the characters, he was talking about the kids watching it at his school at the "premier" Saying something like, "and some people even CRIED!"

Then again, some people in English class cried while we were watching PAY IR FORWARD (CRAP)

I hate High School

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TacoWagonProductions
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http://forums.studentfilms.com/eve/forums?q=Y&s=2086066451&a=tpc&f=3486066451&m=2816053624&r=7096029724#7096029724

hey ppl cried when we watched pay it forward too. i got in **** for laughing my ass off.

Thats funny HDk, cause I laughed too when everyone was crying and the whole class looked at me like I was some sort of a sicko, "WHY ARN'T YOU CRYING?! DON'T U UNDERSTAND THE DRAMA?!?!?!!"

What drama? The movie was retarded, it didn't make sense, and was overdramatic. Plus Helen Hunt sucks

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TacoWagonProductions
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hell i was more disturbed by the appearance of Jon Bon Jovi (as the deadbeat dad). it was a watse of money when osment didnt get axed in 6th sense so this made up for it.

Yeah, Those figures sound right (atleast what they put out there) Studios have a tendency to over exagerate budgets (Even Roberts) they like to say it cost $29 mill. Robert says, "The movie cost $28 mill but only $13 of that was for the actualk film. The rest went to paying actors salaries." Its funny when you hear a budget, that iasnt really what the director got to work with. Almost half was paying actors.

Eithere way. Lets round up to $50 mill. It made almost half that back its first weekend. Do that in Hollywood and youll never stop working.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans
Tizzy Entertainment "Redemption" Hi-Def trailer

This is all for one movie?

Way to go Thomas! You have the masses talking...

HOODIE PRODUCTIONS......"making it happen"

hahahahaha! mind rite is right! nice going tom

"...where wings take dream..."
- G. W. Bush

where is thomas? how come he isn't commenting on this issue? Someone should e-mail him.

we've been talking via instant messages over the past few weeks, and he recently told he's on his way to college. That was the last I talked to him.

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TacoWagonProductions
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I hate you kyle.

i hate the fact that kyle failed to have a wity picture to add humour to the thread