Posted: 08/22/2003

The Battle of Shaker Heights

(2003)

by Hank Yuloff

Hank reviews the latest from Project Greenlight.

I watched with interest HBO’s sophomore version of Project Greenlight, where a complete unknown writer is chosen to have their screenplay directed by other novices and the result is a “major release” film. The show lets us get the ultimate inside look as the movie is cast, produced and shot. The budget that tie in partner Miramax is willing to devote for the project is one MILLION dollars. I am assuming that HBO is more than covering that fee for the viewing rights so Miramax is getting a freebie here. And the Big M gets what it pays for. HBO on the other hand, gets the real life drama of what it is like to make a low budget film with high budget people staring over your shoulder, pulling the purse (make that “puppet”) strings.

The interesting part for me this year is that I saw the test screening of the movie, The Battle of Shaker Heights before the show began to air. I am glad I did because I will give the movie a better review than if I had seen it cold. My suggestion to you is to rent the inevitable DVD, watch the “making of” section first, then watch the movie. You will be given unique insight into how some of the things we loath about films end up being part of the picture.

The problem is—make that “the problems”—are several. I think that the choosing of the screenplay and the choosing of the directors are geared not necessarily to make the best movie, but, dare I say it, might be nudged in the direction of what is good television. Do the math: If HBO can get a million viewers to see the show, you have to figure that 20% might be dumb enough to then go pay $8 in a theater. The numbers work out for the movie to break even so the trick is to make the “Making Of” the 10 or so episodes we see on HBO, dramatic enough for you to want to go out and see the final train wreck of a movie.

Since I am paid (?) to be critical when necessary, I’ll say upfront that the mistake was not in the editing, or the script or the directing… It was in the script that was chosen, the directors that were chosen, and the version of the film that Miramax decided to release. I thought there were better stories than this one. I also thought that once the Battle of Shaker Heights was chosen, that this set of directors were completely wrong, since there was a competitor who was far more in synch with the writer, and probably would have had a much easier time making the project watch able. Sure would have been a lot longer than the 78 minute version that was released. I felt none of them were given a real chance.

I was given the strongest ever evidence to back up my theory that the term Producer/Director/Writer should never occur in the same flick. The real star of the film are producers Chris Moore (American Pie series) and Jeff Balis (Speakeasy). How they kept from killing first time directors Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin is the best part of the show. The other really telling part of Hollywood was watching Chris Moore quickly back away his support for this project, thereby saving his reputation. My guess is that he would, given the chance, not even put this on his resume. Balis, on the other hand, was nonstop in his support—going to the mat to give the film what little chance it had, a fair deal from the studio.

This year’s Project Greenlight ended up with a 78 minute film that attempts to be a comedy without much comedy material. It is the (all sigh at once) coming of age story of Kelly Ernswiler (Shia LaBoeuf from Holes). His hobby is WWII war reenactment. In that world he is a hero. But his real battle ground is in the upscale community of Shaker Heights where he is a put upon kid who wants revenge. He makes a friend of an under-appreciated-by-his-parents rich kid (Elden Henson as Bart Bowland) who is able to bankroll the endeavor and the two are off on a symbiotic relationship of appreciation and adulation. The inevitable bumps along the way include Kelly falling in love with Bart’s college senior sister (Amy Smart as Tabby) who is going through her own rough time because her fiancé may not be the right guy. So she plays with the younger boy’s affections in order to improve her feelings of self worth. The fact that she gets to put a wedge between her brother and his friend seems to just be a bonus to her.

The Bowland parents are part of the humor of the movie that was saved from the massive editor’s chopping block but they are so flat and one dimensional as to be unwatchable instead of funny.

HBO and Miramax lost the Battle but won the war, financially. The real casualties were the newcomer directors who weren’t really given a chance, the writer, who’s story was torn apart by the shrapnel of the studio system and, most sadly, the viewers of this film who are paying the highest price—78 minutes they will never get back.

Hank Yuloff is a lover of teen angst films. But not when they suck.

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