I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Cashback takes a very enjoyable if somewhat unoriginal idea, dresses it up with a ton of skilled cinematography, and turns it into an hour-and-a-half long misogynistic piece that feels like it came out of a pretentious 18-year-old film student's notebook from a Themes in Cinema 101 class. That this movie has a decent score is beyond me.The film stars an obvious self-insert college student and focuses around his ability to stop time, which he uses to pass his time at his awful job at Sainsbury's by stripping the female customers and painting their nude forms. Not only is this vile act depicted as sympathetic, the film seems to argue that it's making some sort of deep and meaningful statement on the beauty of the female body. The main character is treated as a deep and misunderstood man who truly "gets it," like he understands that undressing women and appreciating their beauty is better than the middle school antics of his coworkers and best friend. Much of the film is, as the premise would indicate, devoted to describing the passage of time. The best moments come early on, when we find our main character contemplating the slowness of retail hell while still finding beauty in still images, even as simple as frozen peas spilled on the floor. But it also veers into the pretentious, with the monologues describing how "time just keeps passing, man" becoming increasingly unbearable. And, of course, when time does actually stop, it very often goes right back into treating non-consensual female nudity as the highest form of art.If there is one thing to praise Cashback for, it's the cinematography. Most of the scenes are framed and shot well, showing that a considerable amount of skill went into this. The best part comes during many of the flashbacks, as the transitions between them are carefully constructed into the present, done so in a way that is not only creative but is a lot of fun to watch. The film's message might be terrible, but hey at least it's shot well.If I were to pin down the principle problem of Cashback, it's that it reeks of self-importance. The film boldly declares that it's saying something deep and giving something to the medium when it's saying little more than "female nudity is deep and artsy, maaaan." I can respect enjoying this film for the cinematography, but honestly, it made me feel too disgusted to enjoy almost anything about it.

If I were to rate this on beautiful, nude female bodies alone, I would give it a 10. The premise of being able to freeze frame time was fun even if it has been done before. The part I was not prepared for was the lead character's droll and depressing persona. When he freezes the scenes to explore things up close, he talks and we are forced to listen to the most unintelligible, self-indulgent drivel in film history. One can always forgive the young girls and boys for incoherence and sophistry, but please someone, anyone, kill me now before the next monologue. They were brutal. However, if you are prepared for that the story and scenery are great.

After 13 years as a member on this site, I realized my profile was never complete because I had never written a review. I had to pick a film, but which one. After a little deliberation, I chose "Cashback" due to the way it lit me up emotionally when I saw it in 2007, eight years ago. I remember constantly walking through the video store and always seeing a single copy of the movie in the new release section. The cover intrigued me for obvious reasons, but when I finally read that it was based on the Academy Award short of the same name, I grabbed it. The story has been reviewed on here over and over. I was a film graduate but still loved a good popcorn movie,meaning I'm not a snob. This film perfectly straddled the line of indecent film, straight forward comedy, and a surprisingly touching love story. This film will amuse any indie lover yet satisfy the film nerds as well, especially when you watch the short before or after (won't affect your viewing of the feature length). It's a great study on how to turn a great, 20-minute short into a 90 minute feature film without losing the spirit and humor of the original, especially by not recasting, retouching, but rather expanding on a universe that for once needed expanding upon. And for any insomniac like myself, this film may help you sleep a little bit better, seriously. I didn't feel so bad being up at all hours, especially in college! A great, quick watch. All my friends I have passed this onto have loved it.

A vapid tale of a young man (teenager?) going through normal adolescent angst - about as deep as a puddle of crocodile tears.Here is a young man so tormented by his recent breakup with his girlfriend that he simply can't sleep - at all. So what to do with the extra hours? Why, get a night shift job at a grocery store. A store inhabited entirely by equally immature and one-dimensional jerks.But our hero finds that he has a secret ability. Where it came from nobody knows, but he can freeze time! So he's free to wander around the store, undressing the (all drop-dead gorgeous) women in the store. But this isn't for any prurient interests, No! He's an artist after all and he just wants to appreciate their natural beauty and draw a few sketches of them. And maybe fondle them a little too, but only in a very artistic manner.Add to this the most rudimentary of plots and a few more cartoon-like, one-dimensional characters and you have Cashback. A boy is heartbroken over a short relationship, he gets a job, and falls for the girl who works at the store. The end. This is philosophy and meaning of life as seen through the eyes of a lovesick thirteen-year-old boy. It's just pathetic.The troubling thing to me is that there are so many over-the-top reviews of this movie on IMDb singing it's praises as one of the great movies of all time. This says to me that there's either many more horny adolescent boys writing out reviews for such movies, OR there's a small army of paid reviewers cranking out laudatory comments on demand. I kinda think it's the latter.