Reviews: A Single Shot

Jason plays a vengeful backwoods criminal in pursuit of a hapless Sam Rockwell

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thunder
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Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by thunder » Sat Feb 09, 2013 1:11 pm

First one I've seen, and it's not positive:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review ... iew-420018

Edit: Another one:
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the- ... entID=1479
Not as harsh as the first, but...

EDIT x2:
http://twitchfilm.com/2013/02/berlin-20 ... -shot.html
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ ... e-20130209

They aren't crazy about it either.

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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by LadySekhmet » Sat Feb 09, 2013 4:50 pm

And this...

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/ ... e-20130209

This review has this comment about the casting of Jason for his character:
"The girl had a boyfriend (an oddly-cast Jason Isaacs, perhaps simply nearest the chair when the music stopped?);..."

The review is not as dire as the first of Thunder's...but it seems that, like the other two, this reviewer felt that perhaps the screen writer being the same person as the novelist was not such a good idea - as he might have been too close to his own characters to see where they needed to be given more fleshing out to make them stronger. I wonder if we should all be reading this book before watching it in the theater or netflixing it?

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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by thunder » Sat Feb 09, 2013 6:12 pm

I read an interview with the writer saying he had sold the rights, but didn't approve of any of the attempts of making a script out of his book, so he decided to do it himself instead. Maybe not the best idea...
Review from Variety: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117949200/ They don't like it much...

ln419

Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by ln419 » Sat Feb 09, 2013 8:06 pm

..it's a thought LS, although Netflix is really not up to snuff near me, I'm pretty disappointed in their offerings. So, Jason playing musical chairs, eh? Maybe 2 bad guys in movies back to back wasn't good timing. One of the reviews called him "cookie cutter", that's just wrong, Jason plays bad (ok, ok, I hear you, NOT BAD, misunderstood) in so many different ways and he brings different levels to all those characters; nothing cookie cutter about him (except in his eyes, it's always in his eyes; um and voice, no matter what accent). Hope they find a distributor...e

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thunder
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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by thunder » Sun Feb 10, 2013 12:54 pm

http://grolschfilmworks.com/ca/reviews/a-single-shot
...while Jason Isaacs pops up as the main baddie but is horribly miscast, looking (and acting) more like Bono after an epic Guinness and kebab bender than a ruthless backwoods crimelord
:lol Well, it's just one opinion...

This doesn't sound as negative as some of the others:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/berlin ... arker-side

ln419

Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by ln419 » Sun Feb 10, 2013 1:03 pm

...and as for the quote of "oddly cast Jason Isaacs" maybe this critic doesn't know of his long and varied history, maybe he only knows his as a wizard. Perhaps he's never seen BH, Sweet November, Passionada, CH, PP, Patriot, 9 Lives, West Wing, or a gazillion other things that show his brilliance in thousands of different ways (or even interviews where he is so witty and intelligent and talks about his character development). I can't ever think of Jason as being "oddly cast"...there always seems to be a reason for him to be bringing a character to life. ellen **and so what if all these reviews aren't so great, the whole point is occasionally getting out and having fun in your job; if he had a great time playing in this sandbox with these guys, AND got paid for it, I say GOOD FOR HIM! How does life get ANY better? ;-)

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LadySekhmet
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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by LadySekhmet » Sun Feb 10, 2013 3:50 pm

Oh my gosh, thunder... that quote is excellent:

"...looking (and acting) more like Bono after an epic Guinness and kebab bender than a ruthless backwoods crimelord..."

lol.

ln, I don't think that anyone of them meant that Jason couldn't do the job. I think that they meant that the written character is so stereotypical and cookie cutter that it might not have been such a stretch for him (and that he deserves more interesting characters) and, perhaps, the scripted character might not have given anyone enough substance to dig into to make it into a rounded character representation- or at least that was my take on those comments.

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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by SeattleMel » Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:17 pm

LA Times has a short article on the film , but doesnt render an opinion on it
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/mo ... 1355.story

Another mention http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/wil ... -more-debu short enough to quote the whole thing. It is positive on how it was recieved at the fest
Though not in the festival's main competition, some insiders couldn't stop talking about last night's screening of A Single Shot by David M. Rosenthal and starring Sam Rockwell, Jeffrey Wright and William H. Macy. Guns come to the fore in this feature about a hunting accident and subsequent panicky cover-up. Rockwell plays John Moon, a hunter who becomes the hunted when a misfire hits a young woman. Cornered like wounded animal by criminals and crooked lawyers, he'll do anything to undo the past and win back his wife and children. "It played very well," one potential distributor said.

ln419

Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by ln419 » Sun Feb 10, 2013 8:06 pm

...interestingly in SM's last 2 finds Jason's name isn't even mentioned as being in the movie, wow! How odd, wonder if that was the 'cookie cutter effect'... Now I REALLY want to see and assess this for myself. LN

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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by LadySekhmet » Sun Feb 10, 2013 11:34 pm

And another...in addition to the author's own review, this one also has a little wrap-up of three other reviews (which have been posted already up there *points to earlier posts*). The writer of the main article seems to like it. He calls it "finger clenching."

And it has this quote, which just makes the music from Deliverance mentally play through my head, but only in a good way (ermm...okay, I never thought that I would put all of those words together in one sentence - I might have just creeped myself out):

"...and Joe Anderson and Jason Isaacs as seriously creepy denizens of the deep, wet forestlands."

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononho ... iam-h-macy

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thunder
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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by thunder » Mon Feb 11, 2013 6:27 am

I found a version of the script a while back. And JI's character hasn't got a lot of scenes. From that, I'm thinking probably about 15 minutes screen time. But I don't think I read the final version of it... Anyway, maybe that's why they didn't find it necessary to mention him.

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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by LadySekhmet » Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:08 am


ln419

Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by ln419 » Mon Feb 11, 2013 11:34 am

wondering...(realizing that Jason did NOT go to Berlin) did any OTHERS go to Berlin to do any video interviews? It's always more interesting when the actors/directors do videos to get their take on things...thunder, LS, anything of THAT nature floating about cyberworld? LN

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thunder
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Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by thunder » Mon Feb 11, 2013 11:50 am

I haven't seen anything, and I'm loaded with work at the moment, so no time for any digging around. If there are interviews,I think we would have seen some of them without any digging.

ln419

Re: Reviews: A Single Shot

Post by ln419 » Mon Feb 11, 2013 1:46 pm

sorry you're swamped with work, thunder. 'Whistle while you work', always seems to help me plow through junk. Luck! ;-) LN

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