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Review on Identity Thief
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From: Eric , 180 months, post #1

I watched it as soon as I got it & with my wife. Its an excellent movie! Considering James's limited resources its amazing! Laura Weintraub in not only a major babe but a very good actress & is very funny as well - Something unusual in a very Beautiful woman. James is excellent as well - especially playing against type when he is the very evil body thief. Rachel Hardy does a very god job as the Ex girl friend & the actor playing Matt's best friend is good as the rather sleazy women crazy best bud! LOL when 'Karen' comes to see him!

What surprised me was how funny the movie was! Not that it is lacking in horror or suspense it has that as well. The movie from the moment of lottery winner Matt meeting the beautiful femme fatal 'Karen' just never stops being interesting & suspenseful. Even my wife who is no fan of supernatural films was so caught up in it as to shout advice to the hero!
By the way she also found it funny & enjoyed it - especially at the problems the new woman had as a female. This is for those who worry that the females in their lives will be offended by the film.

I would rate the film PG 13.

From the evil smile on Karen's face going up the stairs to the hero's wake up in the wrong body scene to the chilling gloating of the body thief in Matt's body delighting in his wickedness the movie is chilling. Then later there are many comic scenes with the new female trying to adjust & get 'her' body back! Don't miss the LOL! after shower scene or the strip club scenes.

Some really excellent writing & surprises which I wont spoil all through out the film! Highly recommend!!

From: guest (Op Prime) , 180 months, post #2

No TF process? Or is it just a poof TF/Mind Swap?

From: guest (Swiftner) , 180 months, post #3

Wakes up in the wrong body no TF process.

From: guest (Op Prime) , 180 months, post #4

Oh. Not my thing, but thanks.

From: guest (Miss Piny) , 180 months, post #5

Just watched it, here's my thoughts:

First off, I think that Matt's friend and Karen's boyfriend both look like stage magicians. That's really neither here nor there, but just my $.02.

Secondly, there's a lot of good humor parts that didn't get into the 'gross-out' factor that so many would. I appreciate that.

I thought it was a great story, though it sort of developed 'Lord of the Rings' syndrome in that I think it ended 3 or 4 times. :-P It made sense in retrospect, but I was wondering why Matt was screaming as she was dragged away after shooting the body switchers, but it was a good plan.

If I could have changed ANYTHING in the movie, I would have changed the final conversation between Matt and his friend. I know they'd been friends since 4th grade, but after the friend said he was glad he inherited $50 million, I would have had Matt say 'Yeah, he might have stolen my body, but he couldn't steal my signature'. Otherwise its just sort of 'lucky' that Matt had already made him his heir.

But, that's a very small nit to pick in a very great film. Really, my only genuine criticism is this:

James, you had a beautiful woman like Laura, and you DIDN'T script a 3-minute makeout montage? I may have to revoke your man-card ;)

From: guest (JohnnyBravo) , 180 months, post #6

So it's safe to assume no nudity? Any bra and panty scenes w/ Laura? Doesn't really influence me buying it one way or another, but just curious.

Thanks.

From: Eric , 180 months, post #7

Miss Piny, funny comments & as to why there were no make out scenes between Laura & James character -well in most cases when you wonder why something did or did not happen it usually MONEY! maybe James couldn't pay Laura enough to make out with him! Snicker!

To Johnny Bravo there is a bra scene & a really LOL scene with 'Karen' in a towel.

From: dis_guise , 180 months, post #8

I just got my copy today and just finished watching it. I'm impressed. For a super-low-budget production, Identity Theft is remarkably well done. (Surely The Hunt For Gollum is more impressive -- I haven't seen it yet -- but that involved vastly more people: in many ways this is a effectively a one-man production, and on an even tinier budget.)

Some of the actors are uneven (with the same actor varying from totally convincing in one scene to a bit wooden in another), but James and Laura are both consistently very good. Good script, some clever jokes, maybe almost too many old portraits and photos in the titles and the album. Putting the Civil War prologue in black and white, almost sepia... well, it did remind me of the photographs of the day, although movie film would be an anachronism.

One cute touch I really appreciated: the new "Karen" says her thoughts out loud a few times when I would have expected a voiceover, and after the last of these says that she must stop talking to herself or people will think she's crazy. This is surely a nod to The Wand of Change, as is the montage of "Karen" trying on clothes.

Laura's face is reminiscent of that of some old-time Hollywood actress... I forget who. I've seen a face very like hers before, in black and white I think.

Yeah, auction that dress off on eBay if Laura's tired of it!

From: guest (TheSaint) , 180 months, post #9

I'll write a more detailed review when I have time but I had to write a quick comment. I'm pretty shy about mentioning my interest in gender benders but Identity Theft is worth sharing. It may be low budget, but the enthusiasm of the cast, the ingenuity of the story, and the cheeky humor make it a blast. I finally understand what James meant by a Thriller / Comedy. It can sometimes be surprisingly dark, but in the end its completely satisfying. The story is very solid and Laura's performance is delightful. My only complaint is a nitpick. I wanted more montages and maybe one more scene at the end.

Overall I was amazed at how James struck a balance between humor and thriller. It's very very impressive. This is a movie that has feature length potential. It knows the cliches of body swaps and finds some pretty fun twists. I'd love to see a longer version that develops the characters more. As it stands, it is a very fun movie with some great humor and a creative story.

Thank you James! It was worth the wait!

From: guest (DaKhan) , 180 months, post #10

How long is the movie?

From: dis_guise , 180 months, post #11

About 66 minutes. A bit too short for a feature film. I suppose they could shoot some more scenes and pad it to feature length, a la Dark Star. Maybe some looney-bin scenes with a psychiatrist type? I think it's fine as it is, but moviegoers would perhaps feel cheated by the length.

From: guest (TheSaint) , 180 months, post #12

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From: dis_guise , 180 months, post #13

One more quibble about the DVD: I would have loved to see more behind-the-scenes information (though maybe James can supply it here, and I understand that he was trying hard to get the DVD done in a reasonable amount of time). For instance:

Did they have to book the motel room for a night or two to get those scenes? Where's the mental hospital and is it actually one? Was the Malibu place actually in Malibu (I'm guessing not)? What about the mess that "Karen" finds when she "returns" to where her body's been living? Did it have to be carefully created? And so on.

A commentary track could have answered all of those and more, but again it's obvious that simply producing the DVD in a reasonable amount of time -- especially if James had to do all the work himself -- was difficult enough (for instance, there are even a few obvious typos in the Scene Selection screens: James clearly pushed himself too hard to get this completed).

Did Sarah (in James' live-action version of Charlie the Unicorn, she played Charlie) end up being in the final cut? If so, I didn't recognize her, but I'm terrible with faces. I didn't see Kim from Wand of Change either. Maybe they just couldn't make it.

From: RdDrfJames , 180 months, post #14

Thanks everyone for the possitive reviews. Only have a few minutes to write at the moment, so I will be breif, but will be back later. When I come back, believe me I will write a page or more.
Thanks Dis-guise...did you see that there is a commentary on the DVD? Go to the bonus features and navigate to the second screen. Click on the little "woman symbol" in the lower left hand corner. There's also the Laura interview where she talks about the movie. Or you can just switch auto tracks and that will give you the commentary too. If you want to send me the typos on the scene selection screens to WandOfChange@aol.com, I can see about fixing them for future DVD's. Yeah, I'm slightly dyslexic and spelling errors are my kryptonite. I had a number of other people previewing the dvd to help me find the errors, but it looked like some slipped by.

Got to run, but Sarah is in it very briefly. She is the girl standing in the front of the bar when Matt goes there. Only a few seconds. Got to go, but expect a super long response when I get a few minutes to do so! And again for the possitive feedback!

James

From: dis_guise , 180 months, post #15

Oh, sorry, James! I missed that second screen of Bonus Features.

Should have suspected a touch of dyslexia. Many creative people I know suffer from it.

From: RdDrfJames , 180 months, post #16

Have a little more time, but have been so busy trying to shop for a car, both at the dealership (which I hate) and online, plus a number of other things that I feel like I have been going non-stop for days. Anyway, lots to say, but still going to have to keep it short as I am meeting someone for dinner.
LOL...stage magicians! I'm glad you've all liked the humor. I tried to make it a little darker then the Wand series, but I still wanted to have some fun with it. And Laura is awesome in comedic roles, so I wanted to give her a wide range of scenes to play. She is actually very versatile and after seeing her in a couple of plays locally, I have seen a wide range of character types she can play. Very talented.
Making an ultra-low budget film is very difficult, especially since I am pretty much the one who has to make EVERYTHING happen. I had so many things going on when I was filming that I kept forgetting to even stop and drink some water. On some days I think I might have been close to passing out. Just so much to figure out with peoples schedules, costumes, locations, feeding everyone, running the camera when I did, acting other times, making props and just a whole lot of details. Its hard, but very rewarding when it all comes together. Still, I need a couple other production people backing me up, but there were times I would hand something off to someone else and things just wouldn't get done�which is also very frustrating. Some did and I was so grateful for those things getting done, but others didn't which really disappointed me.
As for making the film longer, here's the story: When I originally started making it I thought I would probably be as long as one of Mako's movies, around 30 or some minutes long, maybe a little longer. So I wrote the script and got started, but grossly underestimated the time and it turned out to be around 61 minutes. I found that I needed to add a few scenes, so that brought the time up to 66 minutes. I had thought about adding even more, a scene were the body thief visited a previous victim in prison, and even had an actress lined up, but couldn't get a good set to look like a prison and didn't want to make it a mental hospital for obvious reasons. Also almost had a courtroom scene. A local judge who does theatre was interested in being in the movie, and promised me a courtroom and judges robes, the whole deal, but then flaked out after giving me the run around for almost two weeks, but there is a scene that was written for it. Also Laura's schedule became very tight with a show she was doing, so it was hard to schedule times to shoot the two scenes I did add.
Dis-guise questions: We were only in the motel room for one day. I found a place that would let us check in early, so we filmed the days scenes, then went off and filmed the last scene in the movie, then came back and filmed the night scenes. That actually wasn't really a mental hospital. I looked at a real one, but it didn't look ominous enough, then I found an old one in channel islands that had been turned into a college, but it didn't work. What I actually used was a department of defense building! High security and it looked like crazy people were inside there. Nope, the place wasn't really in Malibu. I originally had a beach front mansion, but the guy backed out at the last minute so I had to find a really nice house elsewhere. Yes, the mess in Karen's house was created, that was Laura's place and its spotless�usually. I brought over a couple of car loads of junk and was glad when it was over so that I could throw all that stuff, that I had been saving for months, away!
Well, heading off to dinner now, but let me know if you have any other questions!

Thanks for your reviews!

James

From: dis_guise , 180 months, post #17

Kind of you to give details, James! I was merely curious. One sure has to be flexible when on an ultra- low budget, videotaping actors with other jobs: no grand artistic visions can endure without any modification, it's clear. The commentary track on the DVD answered a lot of other questions about where and how and why.

Anyway, I encourage people to purchase this testimony to James' hard work, adaptability, and ingenuity. It's a good show.

From: guest (waiting) , 180 months, post #18

I cant wait to review this I still havent recieved my copy

From: RdDrfJames , 180 months, post #19

Hi "waiting",
Let me know when you get the DVD. I have been putting them in the mail right away, many of them on the same day they were order or first thing the next day if the post office was already closed. So the delay is with the mail, but I am still not happy that its delayed. I have been trying to get everyone the DVD as FAST as possible. It should be there soon!

James

From: guest (Ciberman) , 180 months, post #20

I must say thaI I like this movie so much. Good plot, fine edition and especially the unexpected end. Very well realised. For my A plus
I recommend it.
James, Congratulations I hope by your next filmI.
Thanks and good luck in your next proyects.

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