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Fifty Pills (2006) More at IMDbPro »

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12 reviews in total

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25 out of 37 people found the following review useful:
almost "laugh-out-loud-funny", 1 February 2007

Author: CrazyMeanDave from London, UK

Having seen "Fifty Pills" last night and subsequently discovered it's score of 3/10 on IMDb, I feel the need to redress the situation.

OK, so it's not the greatest of films ever made in the already massively over subscribed college-comedy genre but it is by no means the worst. "Fifty Pills" is relatively well scripted, and, with one or two exceptions the actors play their parts well; making a good job of portraying believable characters.

Some of the jokes are obvious and predictable, but there was more than one moment when the humour leapt at us with the unexpected voracity of a demonically possessed ferret.

Most importantly, the film flowed well and there were no moments when my concentration wandered towards the events outside of Theo Avgerinos' creation. At just over 75 minutes, the movie was exactly the right length.

The aspects of "Fifty Pills" that let it down for me were the poor dialogue in scenes involving Darren's parents, and the over use of one or two running jokes.

I give this film 6 out of 10.

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8 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Not so bad - and great music, 12 June 2007

Author: leoneNM from NM< United States

Interesting that this movie has received some bad reviews. I think it's being treated too harshly as it's overall a nice tale, with decent acting, cinematography, and a well interwoven soundtrack.

In general, the plot was amusing enough and any ills it may have contained were overcome by a great soundtrack. While, Lou Taylor Pucci can be almost a little too cute sometimes and his character's naivety is a little overplayed, the overall the story moves along, is captivating enough, and the characters both entertaining and compelling enough that you want to see the movie resolve in its predictable but happy ending. It's a nice movie and left me with happy feelings.

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Meh, I've seen better., 17 July 2009

Author: elyswim from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Because I had some free time yesterday, I perused my cable provider's Video On Demand movie listings. While there wasn't anything spectacular, I decided upon a 1 hour and 20 minute film called "Fifty pills." The movie featured Lou Taylor Pucci, John Hensley (Nip/Tuck), and Kristen Bell (Heroes, Forgetting Sarah Marshall). I thought to myself as I was choosing the film, "Hmm, an indie film on Showtime, has great potential." Unfortunately it didn't… First, a quick rundown of the plot. A college student (Lou Taylor Pucci) loses his scholarship after his roommate (John Hensley) throws a party that gets busted. To make it up to him, the roommate offers the student an option to sell 50 ecstasy pills at 20 dollars a pop to stay in school. What follows is a somewhat odd series of supposedly "life changing" events. In his travels the student meets a dominatrix, an insane day trader, and a competing drug dealer (among others).

Content/Performances: Poor Follow through/Forced While the concept has great potential, there was a complete lack of follow through in the story. It seems as though the screenwriter was trying too hard to make jokes rather than allowing them to flow organically from the situation. For example, the student visits a dominatrix. Instead of allowing the viewer to merely enjoy the awkwardness of an innocent college student entering the lair of a dominatrix, the writer went too far. Entering the home, the student was greeted by a grandmother. Thinking he had entered the wrong house, he turned around to leave, however the grandmother stopped him with the statement, "You're the one selling the ecstasy pills, right? My daughter is downstairs." The grandmother acted completely normal in the situation. It might seem funny, but it translated poorly. I didn't laugh, rather I just waited for the plot to continue. To make things worse, once the boy got down there he was greeted by the screaming dominatrix. Who through a combination of poorly written lines and mediocre acting completely took me out of the film. I was so uncomfortable at the poor composition of this scene and the forced attempt at humor that I almost had to fast-forward through the part. This was not the only scene that went poorly, the rest of the drug dealing situations were much the same way: crazy person, awkward interaction, boy leaves.

The mediocrity was not restricted to these situations, however. The motivations of the female love interest (Kristen Bell) were not well developed. I'm not sure whether it was poor acting or writing (likely the former), but I couldn't find a justification for her to act the way she acted. In the film, she is supposed to be "worried" that the protagonist is turning into his roommate by selling drugs. However, the way it plays out is that she doesn't seem too concerned about it, because frankly she is not too invested in the character. They're merely good friends. One things she asks of him in the film is that he show up to her charity Christmas tree selling event. Due to a rival drug dealer the boy cannot make it because he gets kidnapped. When he finally escapes and finds her again, the resulting fallout made it seem like had cheated on her. He literally begged for forgiveness. Strangely enough, he hadn't mentioned that HE WAS KIDNAPPED. I couldn't help but laugh, partially because of how ridiculous he was acting and partially because I wasn't connected to either character in either way. Frankly, I just saw him as an absurd boy, which in this film is not a unique quality for a character.

In this film you'll see that characters are one dimensional which tends to make them very uninteresting. "Coleman" the student's roommate (played by John Hensley) is the quintessential "player." He cheats on his girlfriend, throws parties, yet goes through NO journey in the film. Even though he faces ramifications for his actions, he doesn't learn. He just continues to act of his own accord. This makes it incredibly hard to believe that in some magical moment in the last 5 minutes he shows remorse and offers to pay his roommate's tuition. Once again, what an absurd boy.

Film Design: Nothing Special One could easily argue that without good writing a film is doomed. I would tend to agree, however sometimes the overwhelming beauty of a film can remove some viewers from a poorly constructed plot. This was unfortunately not the case in this film. Unlike Harry Potter which had outstanding visuals to accompany a good plot, lighting was fairly high key. There was no shot complexity, no mood lighting, no inventive editing. Just a banal shot progression. It's what one would expect out of a film and it's what you get.

Overall, this film was mediocre at best. The concept was good, but poor acting and forced comedy essentially killed it. The one thing I will mention that was outstanding was the music. The music was primarily performed by a group called La Rocca; I highly recommend them. Favorite songs: Cambodia- La Rocca, Now the Sun is out- Greg Johnson.

twitter.com/elyswim hopefullymakingfilms.wordpress.com

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0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Combination of predictable and very unpredictable moments, 22 September 2008

Author: mimosveta

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This had some really great moments. It reminds you of those movies, such a "lock, stock and..." where a clumsy guy has to do a "job", except that it's not trying to be cool (movie that is), and instead goes for funny. Thank god for that, I just can't stand those "cool" movies with slow motion and witty thugs. Unfortunately, it was stuffed with bunch of pointless things, like comedy of awkward situations, (each more predictable then the last one), stupid, stupid love story with a girl that couldn't possibly be any more flat and boring, which has a very fine roommate, who apart from making lead lady seem even more bleak, hardly has any purpose in the movie. And oh, some disturbingly bad acting. So, this was a combination of predictable and very unpredictable moments. Although you will be annoyed, there still are some good reasons to see it.

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2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A decent attempt, but in the end an average movie that falls just short, 31 July 2008

Author: PersianPlaya408 from Milpitas, California

This is a decent attempt at making an original movie about a college student who loses his scholarship and battles having to pay for school and working up the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams. Its pretty ambitious but just didn't seem to pull off neither a professional or gritty-like feel to it, i thought the camera-work and stuff was kind of sloppy, and not in a good way. Some of the acting was good, but for the most part, this movie just didn't cut it. It was neither funny, interesting or serious enough to amaze or be considered a good movie. Overall this felt like a film school project movie, but not a legit studio release of a first-rate movie.IMDb Rating: 4.7. My Rating: 7/10

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28 out of 58 people found the following review useful:
If you want the same plot and have it be WORTH watching- see "GO" from 1999, 2 February 2007

Author: dilbertsuperman from Baghdad

This is utter crap. There is no two ways about it. The comedy is not funny the acting is horrible and the girls don't get naked enough to make up for the horrible everything else.

PLOT: a geeky thin college kid on scholarship needs to sell 50 pills in one day or he's totally in big trouble. A variety of totally unbelievable and unfunny scenes follow this is an incredibly boring and tired movie that uses a lot of recycled see it coming a mile away jokes.

LAME.

The dominatrix was a nice touch but not anywhere near enough to save this complete train wreck.

Don't bother.

As I said- see a movie that IS funny and WORTH WATCHING with basically the same plot- see "GO" from 1999

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2 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Good Movie, 3 January 2008

Author: Erin from United States

Overall, I found this to be a rather amusing movie. I watched it because I recently became obsessed with Heroes and this movie has Nora Zehetner and Kristen Bell in it, but I didn't really know what it was about, so I didn't know what to expect.

The humor wasn't really my style, but I still found parts very funny. Mostly, I was amused with the movie in general. The soundtrack was, in my opinion, extremely good. Many parts of the plot seemed unnecessary and unconnected to the rest of the story, but it still somehow managed to flow beautifully.

The character I enjoyed most was Nora Zehetner's Michelle. I only wish there had been more of her, as she only appeared in about two scenes.

I would definitely recommend this movie.

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0 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Best movie I have seen this year, 3 January 2008

Author: miv6 from United States

two words come to mind- Cinematic Masterpiece..... When I saw this movie I felt like I WAS ON Ecstasy. The plot was rock solid, the acting smooth and convincing. The humor was witty and original, and the actors seemed to have a natural knack for comedy. As for the drama, it is a rare occasion when a movie can bring me to tears. I felt that the scenes connected seamlessly and at no point was i left to wonder what what going on. Also, the character of Coleman is WITHOUT A DOUBT the MODERN DAY FONZIE. I felt alittle more "hip" after watching him go about his machismo fueled sexcapades. I was also amazed how much of myself I saw in the main character. Truly he is a reflection of the modern American boy. I would ADVISE EVERYONE TO RENT THIS MOVIE.....CORRECTION BUY THIS MOVIE!.... I AM ATTACHING A LINK TO A PICTURE OF MY 50 PILLS TATTOO...... ......... www.50pillsfan.com/tattoogallery/50pillfanatic

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7 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Fifty Pills Premier at Tribeca, 27 April 2006

Author: TheSilverWolf from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I saw the premier of Fifty Pills at the Tribeca Film Festival Yesterday. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the movie, but since I know the directer I figured I'd enjoy it. And I was right. The characters were great and the plot was entertaining.

**Possible Spoilers** The whole plot revolves around Darren, who lost his scholarship and financial aid. This leads him to a desperate attempt of money making. His roommate, Coleman has given Darren the opportunity to play drug dealer for a day. Fifty Pills of Ectasy, to be sold in one day at 20 bucks a pop. Darren, led by a beeper, travels New York, dispensing 'happiness' to those in need. This action leads to his being hunted by the "Soul Man", another drug dealer who Darren has stepped on in a way. Darren also faces a dominatrix, an avid fan of Different Strokes, and even a cousin. In the end he manages to sell a lot of E, not get shot, killed, beat up, arrested, or subjected to any more watching of Different Strokes. He also gets to keep the girl, who disapproved of his drug dealing ways.

**End of Possible Spoilers**

All in all I thought that this was a great movie, and worth seeing if you like Lou Taylor Pucci, Kristen Bell, John Hensley or the work of the director, Theo Avgerinos.

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27 out of 63 people found the following review useful:
Worth Seeing, 27 April 2006

Author: overbey from United States

I saw this movie today at the Tribeca Film Festival and it was a great movie. It had a little bit of everything thrown into a well written script. Comedy, drama, and romance, what else could you want?! The actors portrayed their characters so well, and with names like Kristen Bell and John Hensley you already know you are getting a good quality performance. The movie flowed very well, never losing my interest. Best part about this film is the age range it seems to grab. The theater was filled with 20 somethings to late 50's. Everyone laughed and seemed to enjoy the entire film. Well written story that I definitely recommend to anyone looking for a good laugh and a good story that tugs at your heart.

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