Pretty Bird (2008)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

one of my absolute favorites!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Curtis Prentiss (Billy Crudup) has a new idea for an invention. He enlists the help of his friend Kenny Owenby (David Hornsby) who owns a mattress store. Mandy Riddle (Kristen Wiig) works at the store. Rick Honeycutt (Paul Giamatti) is an unemployed rocket scientist. The invention is a rocket belt but Curtis has no technical knowledge and no money.Billy Crudup is wrong for a wacky indie comedy lead. He is not at all funny. It should be much more of a dark comedy early on. Paul Giamatti is fine as a foil to a funnier character and he's also fine in a black comedy. Hornsby does his normal thing. Kristen Wiig is hilarious when she actually gets lines. In general, there are not enough funny jokes and Crudup is not the best one to deliver them anyways. It's a weak attempt at writing and directing from Paul Schneider who is usually an actor. Actually he could have played Curtis a little bit better than Crudup. The last third turns into something darker which isn't set up in the first part of the movie. I can see what this is attempting but it doesn't work.

Lots of quirky characters! Even before the film starts, we are told what the film is about on a couple title cards. That was a little disappointing, since I like to experience the film as it unfolds, without knowing details ahead of time, I wish they had saved the title cards for the end of the film. Ah well.Billy Crudup is Curtis Prentiss, a scientist with a dream, some eccentric traits, and a schematic for a new invention. He takes on Rick (Paul Giamatti) to help develop the product. Giamatti is also the producer of the film. We seem to spend a lot of time watching Rick and his wife in their odd marriage, so that must be important. Ken Owenby (David Hornsby) is yet another quirky member of the team – he's a high talker, with a silly little barky dog, and hugs a lot.Pretty good film, but they could have shown a few less scenes of Prentiss' annoying habits…..or maybe at least show some cool, science-y stuff for those of us who dig that. Maybe show what things worked and what didn't. They kind of go right to a successful demonstration without showing us the failures of their invention. They also spend a LOT of time on how Prentiss is a crummy boss and has trouble interacting with others. The conflict between Prentiss and Rick grows to a showdown between them, but at the end of the film, we aren't sure what the actual resolution was. When this is for "artistic reasons", I understand it, but here, I think some major plot scenes were chopped off for this shorter DVD version. Frustrating. Written and directed by Paul Schneider. The entry on IMDb shows 120 minutes, but the DVD itself is 98 minutes, as it states on the DVD back cover. I will update IMDb to include this DVD version length.

Actor Paul Schneider turns his hand to directing, for this, his first and only time. With the big star pull (at least now) of Paul Giamatti and a premise along the lines of inventing rocket belts (I think they've been referred to as 'jet-packs' over here) and seen in Bond movie(s), you'd think this would be better known.Or, at least available. I saw it on Film 4 and Radio Times online couldn't be bothered to give it a rating even and provided only the skimpiest of plot outlines. But it seems to be available via Amazon as region 1 DVD only, precluding the majority.It started out OK, when it was vaguely predictable. Some guys (three) seem to phone each other up and suddenly meet and next thing they're moving into an industrial unit to test their invention. Apart from some interesting and nicely diverting fantasy sequences, it's a mess. You don't care for any of them, Giamatti shouts obscenities all the time and Billy Crudup looks uncomfortable. My mind lost interest and before long concentration had melted and I wanted it to end. I don't really know where the story went, if at all and the ending was vague and stupid. Apparently, there's kidnapping and betrayal when someone steals the only rocket belt in existence....With bursts of inappropriate opera singing as background music, one could tell that Schneider is attempting satire and humour but that's completely smashed by an insensitive and heavy hand. It's no wonder that this one-time director realised his mistake and went straight back to acting!, while Giamatti must have shuffled it out of his CV.My 2/10, rather than just one, is for some of the performances and I'm sure some people would find it endearing and no doubt, amusing and all that. But at nearly two hours it's just too long and any attempts to stay afloat whilst watching it is as likely as keeping those rocket belts in the air for any length of time. Disappointing

The foreword script in the intro tells us that rocket belts were real, they worked, but the projects were dropped years ago. But now they are the subject of this movie.Billy Crudup is a dreamer, Curtis Prentiss, who wants badly to be successful. So he seizes on the idea to develop and market a modern rocket belt, one that a person can strap on and fly. But he needs money and he needs a rocket scientist who can do the invention. Crudup is one of the better actors that too few know about, and he is superb here.Enter Paul Giamatti as Rick Honeycutt, recently unemployed but who worked for 20 years in the aerospace business. He is a genuine rocket scientist. But he has a very rough manner, with everyone, and soon forgets that he is the hired help, and wants to claim his invention for himself. (Be cautioned, this character uses a lot of very filthy language, it is in character, but some may object.) The 3rd key character is David Hornsby as Kenny, who is running a pretty successful retail mattress business. Curtis happens to be Kenny's best friend and when Kenny says he has an idea but needs working space and a financial infusion, Kenny says "count me in" even without knowing what the project is.So Rick sets up a lab in the vacant part of Kenny's building, while Curtis names himself president of the company and sets about trying to sell the idea of his project to venture capitalists. It is a rough sell and Curtis always seems out of his league.Soon friction develops and Curtis and Rick compete for leadership and the possession of the working model of the rocket belt.It is a fun and quirky movie, which in general I enjoy, but the ending left me hungry for some resolution. Crudup and Giamatti are both excellent in their roles.