Tell (2014)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Ethan Tell (Milo Ventimiglia) is a small time crook who listens to his wife (Katee Sackhoff) too much. He is married into an untrustworthy family who have no trouble selling each other out. Ethan gets involved in a bank robbery, gets shot, hides the money, goes to jail and gets out. Everyone want to know what happened to the money and do what they can to get him to give up the information.The film is done in a quirky grindhouse style. It has a number of twists and seems to throw them in there just for the sake of doing so. It has good characters, including an unorthodox parole officer (Faizon Love) who also wants to know where the money is at.This makes for a enjoyable grindhouse style rental.Guide: F-bomb. Sex. No nudity. Some blood, killing, etc.

I hate for this to sound cliché, but this is one of the worst action comedies ever made. Whoever wrote this jive should seek another profession. It's not humorous at all! If you must forge ahead, go back to school and learn your craft or, at the very least, take the time to study action comedies that work like "In Bruges," "Hot Fuzz," "Kick-Ass," etc etc. The acting in this was downright foolish. Some of these actors have been in watchable shows before but it looked like they were trying so bloody hard to make whatever they were given work, that it came across like one big giant improvisation gone very wrong. Every character in this is git and not much differentiates one from another. I'm sure some of this has to be attributed to the director who by now, is likely wondering if waiting tables is what the future holds after this lackluster attempt. I rated this 2 stars because they were clever enough to compile a trailer that duped me into renting this. Fool me once, shame on you...

My boyfriend and I sat down to watch this and turned it off after the first twenty minutes because it was so stupid, Then we decided to give it a chance and continued watching. Big mistake! Whoever made this rubbish was obviously trying to do their best Guy Ritchie rip-off, however, they failed miserably. There's no stars in this so that should have been our first red flag. The lead actor in this is from the series Heroes and in all fairness, both my boyfriend and I liked him in Heroes. But in this role, we didn't believe him in the role one bit. In fact, many of the roles seemed miscast. The filmmakers were so obviously trying to copy films like Snatch and other Ritchie works that we were surprised the actors weren't speaking with Brit accents. The only positive thing that I can say about this film was I liked one of the songs. But one good song does not make a movie watchable. Avoid this one at all costs.

This isn't the worst movie I have ever seen. But it's probably the third or fourth worst movie I have ever seen! The two biggest culprits are the script and the direction. The cast is populated with TV actors you'll recognize including Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls, Heroes), Katee Sackhoff (Bionic Woman, Battlestar Gallatica), and Jason Lee (Memphis Beat, My Name is Earl), and a few other lesser names.In a nutshell, the film is about a criminal (Ventimiglia) who steals money from his brother (Lee) and bank robbing partners. His wife (Sackhoff) turns on him and the film shows all the unscrupulous characters trying to get their hands on the money. It becomes painfully predictable and the action sequences are sub-par.Like others have commented, this story is not too original. The script is weak and attempts to be funny but it's not which makes it painful to watch the actors have to utter the lines. The direction seems flat and the film suffers from jagged pacing and bad music. Overall, you would be better off spending ninety minutes of your time doing something else.