Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Dead List (2018)

Cal is reading for a small role in a major movie and is up against the same guys he always sees at castings. When Cal arrives late, Scott tries to sabotage him by saying they’ve already called his name.  They have not. But Cal’s reading doesn’t go well and he makes it worse by asking the casting agent to dinner to discuss the role.

On the way home, a giggling book slams into Cal’s windshield. It’s leather bound with a strange symbol on the front. Cal thinks maybe he can get some money for it. When his roommate Trevor sees it, he insists they keep it and do a ritual to help Cal get the role. How does Trevor know about this book? No idea but as you’d expect, things go horribly wrong.

One of the issues with this movie is they introduce five or six characters in a few minutes and only tell us one general characteristic of each. Zander is a cheater. Scott is an asshole.  Bob quit drinking because he’s going to be a dad. Later when the characters appear without Cal, I wasn’t sure if they were the same characters since most only had a couple lines while essentially walking through the scene.   

Another issue is the time line.  Zander and Cal are at the audition. Then it cuts to a guy in his car at night, who turns out to be Zander. Okay so there has been a passage of time, right? Wrong because we later see Cal getting out of his audition and it’s still light. So what is going on? Plus Cal didn’t have the book and they hadn’t done the ritual yet.


Dialogue from a bunch of actors

Hey this isn’t funny. Ha ha, joke’s over.

All you do is take jobs from me.

You know how I like to make people look like assholes.

I am never cheating again.

Tell me there is no lighting without telling me there is no lighting.
Cal accuses Trevor of stealing his jobs, but
maybe Cal isn’t a very good actor.
No movie, no! You do not put ideas from a
better movie in your movie.
People are not as alarmed as they should be when
this shows up on their bodies.
Do radios actually have text that says emergency alert?
Impractical faces of death
The graphics department at the news station phoned it in.
He looks like he’s got a bad burn.
Just watch Death Note instead.



No comments: