Well the Cogman is chiming in with BEST LAID PLANS review. This is the first word I believe I've seen on this film, and hey... it kinda sounds cool. Do note though that this is but one person's opinion. I do know Light House Shines (frequent reporter for Dark Horizons) was there because he thought it was a screening of X-FILES, but hey... noone can get them all right. Even though when I informed Hallenbeck, he knew it was BEST LAID PLANS. By the way, Reese Witherspoon, keep your eye on her in this flick, by the end of the year you'll be in love with her due to PLEASANTVILLE, I promise ya. By the way, there are a couple of spoilers below...
Hi, my name is Cogman. I just got back from a screening of Best Laid Plans shown in beautiful Westlake Village, CA. First of all, I just want to say that the guy who was handing out the invitations was luring people by claiming that it was a screening of X-Files, and no one knew different until the opening credits rolled.
Aside from that, it was a pretty good movie. I enjoyed it. The three main characters were Bryce, played by Josh Brolin, Nick, by Alessandro Nivola, and Lissa, by Reese Witherspoon.
The movie is very original and completely unpredictable. The timeline isn't completely linear, somewhat like Pulp Fiction in the returning to earlier times for explanation.
The plot twists and turns like a roller coaster, and once you think you've figured out a twist, another one is revealed that you never even thought of.
The acting was very good in my opinion, and the casting job was excellent. The music choice fit well with the scenes, a mixture of oldies and some new alternative-type music. There was quite a bit of violence, but it wasn't too distasteful. There were quite a few close ups, and there were used very well to emphasize the dark style.
The plot focuses on Nick and his misfortunes throughtout the course of about a week. From how he has to use his girlfriend Lissa to have sex with his friend Bryce so she can steal a Civil War bill from the house Bryce is housesitting so Nick can pay off some drug dealers, to when he finds his car up on blocks with the wheels missing. (At the beginning of the movie and at the end, an old man is shown riding a bike, and the wheels have car hubcaps on them. When you learn that Nick lost his wheels, you can figure out they went onto the old guy's bike: kind of an inside joke, hard to catch. I mentioned it during the focus group and a lot of people said, "Oh, that's why they kept showing the old man on the bike.")
I would definitely recommend this movie if you're into black comedy, and if you liked 2 Days in the Valley, Pulp Fiction, or if you think you're good at figuring out movie endings before the movie's over.
BTW: Afterward, I was a part of the focus group because I rated the movie as "excellent," but when the woman took the focus group people down to the bottom of the theater, she told my friend, who had voted "poor," that if he said he'd voted "fair" he'd be able to go as well. It was worth it though. We got $10 for our time.
Your faithful spy,
Cogman.
