User Reviews

Unlike other reviewers of this film, I will not whine about how "bad" it is or ask for my money back. While I agree this is not the best film, it is not the worst. It is a series of five vignettes all tied together under two crucial elements: love and distrust. While the plots of the short stories don't have a direct link, they all share this common ground.

'The Summer House' stars Robert Pattinson in a five minute role. He is a lovelorn boy who desperately wants to get back with his former girlfriend. As with most one-acts, it makes no sense whatsoever. While his performance is good, the rest of the story revolves around the moon landing. I was wondering what the point of the summer house was; why didn't it just focus solely on the moon landing and not on the ended relationship? 'Blue Poles' stars Sam Worthington. He is riding with a woman that he picked up on the road. She is rude to him and he tells her he wants to see the blue poles. They sleep together and she leaves him the next day. Another case of a one-act making absolutely no sense, I found this to be the least intriguing of the five.

'Grasshopper' stars James Franco. He is a young executive who meets this woman on a train. She wears heavy makeup and hooker-like clothing; no doubt a prostitute. He is intrigued by her, but at the same time cautious. He tries to befriend her but she doesn't want that. They both end up in the same motel, right next to each other. A tragedy occurs the next morning and Franco leaves the town he's in, never forgetting her.

'Pennies' was an intriguing look at a woman's desperation to do anything for her daughter. Starring Amy Adams, she receives a phone call reminding her that she owes money and that they have her daughter. Throughout the day, Adams' character waits tables and has enough money by the time limit when a robber comes in and takes it all away again. 'Pennies' is a takeoff of the song "Pennies from Heaven," in which good things can happen from people you least expect it. Throughout the short, Adams' character realizes that people are kind at heart.

'Auto Motives' is about what goes on in peoples' cars. A man tries to pick up women on the streets of New York while a woman in a limo laments about her divorce. The best part of this vignette was Robert Downey Jr breaking into James Cameron's house and stealing his Camaro. Downey's screen time is five minutes, but it is five minutes well spent.

I rented this movie because I am a Pattinson and Downey fan and their names drew me in. However, after seeing it, I can honestly say my favorite vignette was 'Grasshopper.' By far the most serious and depressing, it is also the best written. Franco shines in this role and his co-star, Rachel Miner, reminds me of Kirsten Dunst. While I enjoyed Downey and Pattinson, of course, Franco's performance outshined all of them.

I am glad that I saw this, but it isn't one I will add to my collection.

One wonders why a project like this ever got off the planning board. Not having a clue as to what this film was about, we decided to take a look when it showed on a cable channel. The highbrow titles did not reflect for a moment the emptiness of what would follow. There was a sort of allure of watching this mainly young cast in action, but unfortunately, it was just that, a promise.

The crowning blow was the last segment "Auto motives" directed by Lorraine Bracco, an actress that probably wanted to try see things from behind the camera, being usually in front of it. The story is a disjointed account of things that do not actually make sense. It goes from the man offering a ride in his convertible to female passersby on Washington Square North, the Northern end of the famous park to several other unconnected situations in the same vignette. One wonders where did this man with the convertible live? He must have come from the boondocks, for no woman in her right mind in Manhattan would give this jerk a moment of her time.

Then, in the same segment, we get a goofy Robert Downey Jr. with a friend exchanging some inane lines with James Cameron who is driving his Hummer. We thought Mr. Downey had better things to do with his life and his career, for he is an excellent actor, perhaps on an off day having been conned by the director in being in her mess.

Best of all is James Franco in "Grasshopper", showing he can enhance the material he was given to play. Amy Adams tries to do something with her waitress having a bad hair day, although the material does nothing to her screen career.

To be watched at the viewer's own risk.

While I agree wholeheartedly with most reviewers in that this is a terrible excuse for a film, none of them seem to have clocked what I suspected about halfway through the 3rd segment; it was never meant to be a film at all. Each is a standalone short made with nothing to do with the others whatsoever, and they were made up to 10 years apart (the Robert Downey Jnr one was made in 2000, the Robert Pattinson one in 2009, and others in 2004 and 2006 I think). Which does rather suggest that whoever made the decision to edit them together into one was doing so simply to be able to put so many big names on one DVD box, but (rightly or otherwise) suspecting people would be put off by having to call it a collection of unconnected shorts, so trying to hide the fact that that's what it is. I can only hope it failed to sell, otherwise this kind of trick could carry on for as long as stars or future stars make short films with probably no rights at all over what's done with them years later.