On The Lot: Episode 11 (Fox Television)
Last week’s On The Lot, which aired Monday rather than Tuesday caught quite a few viewers off guard. Surprisingly though, last week’s ratings were the highest the show’s had in weeks. Now, before you start making your films for Season 2, you may want to know that although the ratings were better, they were still unacceptable for any network show. By normal standards, On The Lot would have been cancelled weeks ago, but luckily because it’s a live format reality show, it’s hard to flat out cancel it.
Well it looks like the next great filmmaker won’t be a female. This week’s two victims were Hilary and Shalini, the two last female filmmakers on the show. What better way to celebrate then to have an action week!
Key Witness (Sam Friedlander)
While it suffers from a few stereotypes, both in the characters and story, as an action film Key Witness does it’s job, and quite well. At a certain point, Friedlander embraces his characters stereotypes and embraces them, making the film quite interesting. He also manages to switch up a few action stereotypes, making the action quite enjoyable.
Sweet (Jason Epperson)
I suppose this is Epperson’s best film, which isn’t saying all that much, considering I haven’t seen a good film from him. Sweet is one long running stereotype, and although at times the film defeats this, by the end it’s back where it started. As I’ve stated before, Epperson’s visual style is rather annoying, although with an action film it’s not all that bad.
ZERO2SIXTY (Andrew Hunt)
In Hunt’s best film to date, he manages to bundle an impressive amount of material into a short running time. It’s funny in the right ways, the actors are impressive, and as an action film, it definitely fits the bill. The films only real problem is the fact that most of the action is compressed into too close a frame. Although, considering the amount of dialogue the film had, it’s understandable why the frame didn’t go all that wide.
The Losers (Kenny Luby)
A typical plot and characters, a rubber lizard, and unrealistic skateboarding all plague Luby’s latest film. That said, there’s something redeemable to the whole thing, and that’s the fact that Luby embraces his main character with a enthusiasm, and the actor does the same. The end result is a rather goofy short, but it at least has heart, which counts for something.
Catch (Mateen Kemet)
Although his plot is rather uninspired, Mateen’s direction of the action scenes is quite well done, especially considering it’s his first time with the genre. As usual, his talent can be seen in the acting. The first thirty seconds or so are probably Mateen’s greatest achievement so far. The biggest problem is the fact that Mateen feels the action genre requires one to continually surprise, even if it’s beyond ridiculous.
While I didn’t expect much, this week’s show was probably the most solid group of films the show has had thus far. So maybe, the audience is making the right choices as far as eliminations go. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was the best show yet, seeing as how this week’s guest judge, Antoine Fuqua, was as boring a critic as he is a filmmaker. The ever predictable Garry and Carrie didn’t help, especially Garry’s jokes, which are at this point worth covering your ears for.
Another surprise, and a welcome one, was Adrianna. In her wonderfully small dresses, she provides not only something nice to look at, but some great material. Watching Kenny Luby try not to look down at her breasts was quite possibly the best bit of reality television I’ve seen in a while.
This is the only week I’m not sure I know who will be eliminated. If I had to take a guess it would be Mateen and Kenny, but I think the audience enjoy’s Luby as a character too much to let him go.
