Truly Dreadful Film

Fantastic!

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I'm wary of indie cinema in general and anything set in Cleveland in particular (A Christmas Story a noteworthy exception), but I had heard good things about this film and decided to give it a try.Battle follows the story of one Kelly Ernsweiler (Shia LaBeouf), a smart-aleck from just over the border from Shaker Heights, one of the wealthier communities in the Cleveland area. Kelly takes part in WWII re-enactment battles, but has trouble following the scripts; he steals German uniforms and changes the outcome of the skirmish. In school, he lips off to his history teacher about his glib coverage of the Civil War; and even to his parents, he's kind of sharp and short. Kelly is a young man making his own mess with his quick brain and quicker mouth, but at one battle he meets what might be a kindred spirit, wealthy Bart Bowland (Elden Henson), who shares most of the same interests, he just happens to live in a mansion in Shaker Heights. The two boys get along well, Bart trying to sand down some of Kelly's rougher edges, when trouble between then starts to crop up in the form of Bart's older sister, Tabby (Amy Smart). Kelly falls for the pretty, older woman, and Bart starts to sour on him.LaBeouf is highly engaging as the wise-ass Kelly. It's impossible (well, it's impossible for me) not to like him, because while he is mouthy, he's also usually right. Kelly knows he's meant for something more, and LaBeouf portrays very sharply his edgy energy in trying to figure out exactly what that is. For a while he's convinced it's Tabby, unlikely though that may be.The problem with the film, as engrossing as the first two-thirds are, is that it doubles back on itself. Suddenly Kelly's wit is a liability, not an asset; his rejection of authority morphs into a rejection of reality, and all of his character flaws that make him so interesting are now suddenly regarded as mere selfishness. Kelly himself never changes, it's just that how we are meant to look at him does; and in the end he achieves 'redemption' by dulling his acerbic wit and acting more normal (though he's given a consolation prize in Shiri Appleby, so it's not all bad).I'm a little surprised this film was the winner of the Affleck/Damon driven Project Greenlight project; while it displays some sharp humor and strong acting (and a nice supporting cast including one of my favorites, William Sadler), ultimately the movie betrays not only its own roots but the unspoken indie creed of be yourself and you will find happiness. Indeed, the message of Battle is subvert your intelligence and be part of the crowd and you'll be okay. Which, okay, is probably more honest than the first one, but it's a hell of a lot less satisfying to watch.

I am a big fan of Shia Lebouf, mostly because we watch a lot of Disney channel at my house and enjoy his acting. I didn't see Project Greenlight for this movie, so there were absolutely no expectations.The themes of the movie were fairly simple and clear throughout the movie. The dialogue was great (witty and funny), and I think Shia Lebouf did an excellent job of portraying the struggles of a "normal" teen. We didn't get too emotionally caught up with the characters during the movie, but we did find ourselves empathizing with them. My husband thought the editing was a bit choppy, but I didn't really notice it myself.

SPOILERS. A coming of age movie that raises questions about just how whacky a kid can be without someone in a white coat paying attention. Reminds me a little of other movies in which people walked the edge, "Sterile Cuckoo," for instance.The kid, LaBoeuf, is in high school and is something of an outsider. He makes enemies and he makes a friend, sort of. He's ordinary looking but seems to know everything about everything -- from flowers to art and military history. He'd give all this up in one big jiffy if his friend's sister, Amy Smart, a blonde graduate student who is so stunningly gorgeous that she is to physical beauty what LaBoeuf is to intellectual prowess, would only give him a tumble. And she does. A little anyway, after an especially bad hair day when she needs a little cuddling and reassurance. The problem of course is that this little kiss of sympathy means little to her, but emotionally he's working at about at his grade level.In the end he more or less grows up and starts dating the plain but rather engaging girl of his own age who works at the same supermarket. There are some subplots thrown in. LaBoeuf's father managed to lose all the kid's college money so the kid hates him. Kathleen Quinlan is the mother and there are tearful scenes in which she tells LaBoeuf that he, LaBoeuf, hates the man she loves. Much of this seems to belong to a different movie. And I'm not sure Dad deserves much in the way of admiration, having deprived his own kid of an education at Dartmouth and doomed him to a community college. For that matter I'm not sure that Tabby, the blonde he falls for, deserves his adoration. In a frantic last-minute talk with her, when she's about to be married, he tells her that the groom is not good enough for her because he's just some kind of would-be industrialist while she is an artist. I missed the first few minutes, but her work as we see it later, as she plays with "diffusion" -- well, there are more staggeringly gripping abstracts that have been done by elephants, literally. I kind of liked Tabby's boy friend though. He's tall, muscular, and handsome and looks stupid. When he and LaBoeuf first meet, LaBoeuf comes up with some insane riff about how his job at the supermarket makes him a caterpillar industrialist. The boy friend whistles and looks puzzled, but then anyone would in the face of this uncrafted explication of what it means to be a "pupa." And when we meet the boy friend later, for a minute or two, he seems like a genuinely nice guy who admits to having rented his tuxedo and who is really in love with Tabby. I had the feeling that he and Tabby -- not just Amy Smart but ANYBODY named Tabby -- would get along just fine. Even the divorce would be what is called "amicable."Too many things are going on in the movie, but LaBoeuf comes across as a kid who will eventually grow up and be a success in life once he is able to differentiate between make-believe and realpolitik. It could easily have been worse.

"The Battle of Shaker Heights" focuses on a pedantic high school dweeb (LaBeouf) and his involvements with WWII reenactments, a payback prank on a bully, and, most of all, his affections for two girls. An unfortunate little coming-of-ageish flick, "Battle" is lacking in depth, homogeneity, continuity, and the breadth of things we like to see in stories, characters, and screenplays. Unoriginal, unimaginative, off target, and with too much invested in a rather annoying central character, "Battle" isn't all bad and does manage some warmth, personality, and charm though it's largely overshadowed by its many deficits. Passable stuff which will likely play best with teens. (C)