"Wait, you don't mean Richard Wagner, I hope!?" The guy who wrote Tannhauser, Lohengrin, and Ring Cycle (Rheingold, Valkyrie, some forgettable romp after Valkyrie, and Gotterdammerung)? Yes, sorry, but I do mean THAT Richard Wagner. What would he think of films today? He never lived to see the medium rise to its full glory; but by today's cinematic standards, if he wanted to do one, what could stop him? Imagine him writing scripts, composing film scores, and perhaps producing and directing. With his lofty imagination and desire to fuse drama and music with meaningful tact, his films would be unparalleled!
"But Wagner has nothing to do with this tawdry excuse of a 'movie'! What's the point?" Well, while watching this, I remembered recently reading a short parody of The Valkyrie that attempts to summarize the opera's complex story. It was quite funny, but if I didn't know the opera's music and lacked firsthand knowledge of plot points, the humor would have been lost. This "movie" felt much like a short, watered-down, and generally hilarious parody of an otherwise memorable opera. The only problem is that You Got Served is not based on a memorable opera... or anything else! It is very much its own film, and yet the film has this urgent need to feel complete.
Chris Stokes, a band-manager-turned-filmmaker as is the current zeitgeist, writes and directs this laughable exercise in movie-making. I bet he comes from the music video tradition, since the "movie" exploits fast cuts, faster girls, jarring edits (EDIT: The editing in this film was atrocious!), and loud music, all for the sake of promoting a musical act. I hope this experience teaches him that films and music videos do not equate. Films are longer and require much more care.
He didn't think his screenplay through. Its numerous faults include blatant stereotypes, poor exposition (more than once did I see the need for several scenes to be condensed; plot holes were abundant), repetition (Stokes greatly wants to remind us that our protagonists owe money), deus ex machina (Grandma has some backup cash; forgettable friend learns about a major dance contest; "Mr. Rad" getting our "heroes" out of a fine mess with some gang), trite dialog (I could swear that, at one point, it looked as though Steve Harvey badly wanted to say a comeback to some comment made to him, but NOOOOO! The script apparently had other plans!), the sacrificial lamb (in the form of "Lil' Saint". Telling.), and the obligatory "romance" (the film's two resident lovebirds are no Tristan and Isolde, let me tell 'ya).
Nor did he think his casting through. Musical acts don't necessarily make actors. (Mariah Carey paid dearly for not understanding this.) Not one the young "actors" in this film showed any conviction in their roles. The film exemplifies two types of bad acting: One coming from good actors muddled in bad roles (Harvey and a few of the token adults fit this) and another coming from bad actors relishing in awful roles (which this film has in spades).
Boy, did I get served! This is required viewing if you want to learn how NOT to make a film. Wagner would be ashamed of such a hackneyed fusion of "music" and "drama." If he was alive to see this... thing, he would never stop vomiting. Honestly, his oral discharges would be far more entertaining than this act of cinematic terrorism.
"But Wagner has nothing to do with this tawdry excuse of a 'movie'! What's the point?" Well, while watching this, I remembered recently reading a short parody of The Valkyrie that attempts to summarize the opera's complex story. It was quite funny, but if I didn't know the opera's music and lacked firsthand knowledge of plot points, the humor would have been lost. This "movie" felt much like a short, watered-down, and generally hilarious parody of an otherwise memorable opera. The only problem is that You Got Served is not based on a memorable opera... or anything else! It is very much its own film, and yet the film has this urgent need to feel complete.
Chris Stokes, a band-manager-turned-filmmaker as is the current zeitgeist, writes and directs this laughable exercise in movie-making. I bet he comes from the music video tradition, since the "movie" exploits fast cuts, faster girls, jarring edits (EDIT: The editing in this film was atrocious!), and loud music, all for the sake of promoting a musical act. I hope this experience teaches him that films and music videos do not equate. Films are longer and require much more care.
He didn't think his screenplay through. Its numerous faults include blatant stereotypes, poor exposition (more than once did I see the need for several scenes to be condensed; plot holes were abundant), repetition (Stokes greatly wants to remind us that our protagonists owe money), deus ex machina (Grandma has some backup cash; forgettable friend learns about a major dance contest; "Mr. Rad" getting our "heroes" out of a fine mess with some gang), trite dialog (I could swear that, at one point, it looked as though Steve Harvey badly wanted to say a comeback to some comment made to him, but NOOOOO! The script apparently had other plans!), the sacrificial lamb (in the form of "Lil' Saint". Telling.), and the obligatory "romance" (the film's two resident lovebirds are no Tristan and Isolde, let me tell 'ya).
Nor did he think his casting through. Musical acts don't necessarily make actors. (Mariah Carey paid dearly for not understanding this.) Not one the young "actors" in this film showed any conviction in their roles. The film exemplifies two types of bad acting: One coming from good actors muddled in bad roles (Harvey and a few of the token adults fit this) and another coming from bad actors relishing in awful roles (which this film has in spades).
Boy, did I get served! This is required viewing if you want to learn how NOT to make a film. Wagner would be ashamed of such a hackneyed fusion of "music" and "drama." If he was alive to see this... thing, he would never stop vomiting. Honestly, his oral discharges would be far more entertaining than this act of cinematic terrorism.