I got a little behind this last weekend watching movies. I meant to do more than one review but never finished the second review until the week started. That is okay, as long as I get to my goal for the month. With this review, I will be three short but will have two weekends and next week to get them in, so I'm hopeful. I'm still dealing with a sick cat. She had a good week last week but started acting up again this week. I'm hoping that will get solved soon. Anyway, it is time for a movie from Amazon Prime. If you remember, my Netflix instant watch film was a film that I missed at a festival. Romeo's Distress (2016) is another film that I missed. I didn't get to go to Nightmares film festival last year, though I went the year befor. This was one of their midnight selections.
James (Anthony Malchar) is in love. He is unsure how to show this woman that he loves her though. He has a couple of problems. One is that he believes he will go back to jail if he tries and this woman's father simply wants James to leave his daughter alone. After talking to his uncle, who says love shouldn't wait, James decides to declare his love for Jane (Kimberely A. Peterson), but Dale (Jeffrey Alan Solomon) has set his own plan in action, with the help of Bobby (Adam Stordy), to get James to his daughter alone and leave for good.
Romeo's Distress was written and directed by Jeff Frumess. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a take on the Romeo And Juliet story. While this story does share some of the same plot points as the story by Shakespeare, it is also very different. It was easy to figure out that this love that James feels is one-sided. We never see Jane with James unless it is in a dream/fantasy that James is having. As the film goes on, we eventually learn why this is. I admit that I was getting a little bored with the story after a while. The start of the film is about getting to know James some. He is an odd guy who mostly keeps to himself and always has a camera with him. He is living with his grandmother, whom he helps take care of. We eventually learn that James has been under house arrest, but it is never clear why that happened. One can probably guess based on what we eventually learn. Bobby will sometimes chase James down and try to get him to forget about Jane, but because he is in love, he refuses to do that. It wasn't until Jame meets Samantha, played by Charese Scott-Cooper, that I felt that the story started getting more interesting again. I really liked the interaction between the two and, as it turns out, it sets things up for Dale to kidnap James and set his plan into motion. Dale decides he will do whatever it takes to rid himself and his daughter of James. It wasn't so much what happens during this time in the movie that I found interesting, but this is where the story starts to really come together. The plot starts to fall into place and hints are made about what the twist to everything is. I figured out what the twist was before the bigger hints started to drop, but I still really enjoyed this part of the film. If it wasn't for feeling a little bored before this section of the film, I think I would have really loved it all. That could just have been because the story was a bit different to start off with. The film itself is shot in black and white with some scenes being in color. The scenes in color are mostly when James has his dreams/fantasies and a flashback scene that shows a key moment between James and Jane. The ending is also in color, but I can't reveal what that is about.
There isn't much as far as effects go. I was rather surprised by this as the midnight selections are usually either very weird, very gory, or some combination of the two. There is some blood and a stabbing with a garden tool. It is a little gory, but not by much and the effect was just okay looking. The acting was mixed. I did like Anthony Malchar in the lead role. Some of his scenes were great and some I felt he could have been better in. I felt that way about all the actors that had more than a couple of scenes. Even when I didn't care for the acting, I didn't find it to be bad. I just felt it could have been better at times. Adam Stordy gave me a bit of a laugh with this little roll that he did while trying to be sneaky. Like no one would think he wasn't up to no good doing that.
The father not wanting James' love to be and the way things end for James reminded me a lot of Romeo And Juliet, but the bulk of the story sets Romeo's Distress apart from that story. There is just enough there to know where this story gets its influence. The more modern story, and perhaps a more modern crime will help put it over for most horror fans today I think. With the slow pace at the start, I'm not sure how many will end up enjoying it a lot though. Personally, I could only take so much of James trying to find a certain kind of flower. Even so, Romeo's Distress turned out to be a pretty good movie. If it sounds like an interesting film to you then I highly suggest giving it a try. It is worth a shot I think.
3 out of 5 Not so sure I want a Romeo
James (Anthony Malchar) is in love. He is unsure how to show this woman that he loves her though. He has a couple of problems. One is that he believes he will go back to jail if he tries and this woman's father simply wants James to leave his daughter alone. After talking to his uncle, who says love shouldn't wait, James decides to declare his love for Jane (Kimberely A. Peterson), but Dale (Jeffrey Alan Solomon) has set his own plan in action, with the help of Bobby (Adam Stordy), to get James to his daughter alone and leave for good.
Romeo's Distress was written and directed by Jeff Frumess. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a take on the Romeo And Juliet story. While this story does share some of the same plot points as the story by Shakespeare, it is also very different. It was easy to figure out that this love that James feels is one-sided. We never see Jane with James unless it is in a dream/fantasy that James is having. As the film goes on, we eventually learn why this is. I admit that I was getting a little bored with the story after a while. The start of the film is about getting to know James some. He is an odd guy who mostly keeps to himself and always has a camera with him. He is living with his grandmother, whom he helps take care of. We eventually learn that James has been under house arrest, but it is never clear why that happened. One can probably guess based on what we eventually learn. Bobby will sometimes chase James down and try to get him to forget about Jane, but because he is in love, he refuses to do that. It wasn't until Jame meets Samantha, played by Charese Scott-Cooper, that I felt that the story started getting more interesting again. I really liked the interaction between the two and, as it turns out, it sets things up for Dale to kidnap James and set his plan into motion. Dale decides he will do whatever it takes to rid himself and his daughter of James. It wasn't so much what happens during this time in the movie that I found interesting, but this is where the story starts to really come together. The plot starts to fall into place and hints are made about what the twist to everything is. I figured out what the twist was before the bigger hints started to drop, but I still really enjoyed this part of the film. If it wasn't for feeling a little bored before this section of the film, I think I would have really loved it all. That could just have been because the story was a bit different to start off with. The film itself is shot in black and white with some scenes being in color. The scenes in color are mostly when James has his dreams/fantasies and a flashback scene that shows a key moment between James and Jane. The ending is also in color, but I can't reveal what that is about.
There isn't much as far as effects go. I was rather surprised by this as the midnight selections are usually either very weird, very gory, or some combination of the two. There is some blood and a stabbing with a garden tool. It is a little gory, but not by much and the effect was just okay looking. The acting was mixed. I did like Anthony Malchar in the lead role. Some of his scenes were great and some I felt he could have been better in. I felt that way about all the actors that had more than a couple of scenes. Even when I didn't care for the acting, I didn't find it to be bad. I just felt it could have been better at times. Adam Stordy gave me a bit of a laugh with this little roll that he did while trying to be sneaky. Like no one would think he wasn't up to no good doing that.
The father not wanting James' love to be and the way things end for James reminded me a lot of Romeo And Juliet, but the bulk of the story sets Romeo's Distress apart from that story. There is just enough there to know where this story gets its influence. The more modern story, and perhaps a more modern crime will help put it over for most horror fans today I think. With the slow pace at the start, I'm not sure how many will end up enjoying it a lot though. Personally, I could only take so much of James trying to find a certain kind of flower. Even so, Romeo's Distress turned out to be a pretty good movie. If it sounds like an interesting film to you then I highly suggest giving it a try. It is worth a shot I think.
3 out of 5 Not so sure I want a Romeo
