Sundance: First Date
Starring: Tyson Brown, Shelby Duclos, Jesse Janzen, Nicole Berry, Samuel Ademola, Ryan Quinn Adams, Angela Barber, Josh Fesler, Scott E. Noble, Leah Finity, Jake Howard
Director: Manuel Crosby, Darren Knapp
After years and years of liking her. Mikey (Tyson Brown) has finally worked up the courage to ask out Kelsey (Shelby Duclos). The only problem is that he doesn't have car, as his parents have taken it to Vegas for the weekend. His friend Brett (Josh Fesler) suggests he buy a cheap car and finds one online being sold by Dennis (Scott E. Noble). Dennis is able to talk Mikey into buying a 65 Chrysler, but that car has baggage. Soon Mikey finds himself in the crosshairs of crooked cops (Nicole Berry, Samuel Ademola) and drug dealers (Jesse Janzen, Ryan Quinn Adams, Angela Barber, Leah Finity, Jake Howard) as he tries to make it on time to pick up Kelsey for their first date.
This was ultimately a fun throwback to violent action comedies of the 70's and 80's.
For as low budget as it felt, the action scenes are frequent and well-shot. The film really moves and is filled with a ton of odd ball characters. Some were incredibly funny and others were incredibly annoying. Despite their ultimate allegiances, I found the two cops to be hysterical, offering some good meta jokes about Mikey and his situation. The drug dealers fell on both sides of the fence for me. At times all they did was yell at each other and that became grating almost immediately. What was funny about them was that they were all also part of the same book club and made numerous funny comments about how their current situation would affect it.
As much as I liked Mikey, his character isn't very smart. There were plenty of signs for him to not buy the car in the first place. Even after he does, he doesn't really help himself out much either. As much as I did end up liking him, he doesn't give you much of a reason to root for him. However, I really enjoyed the character of Kelsey and Duclos' performance as her. I wish the film hadn't kept her out of the main plot for as long as it did. Duclos and Brown do have a good chemistry, even though they don't get much time together for us to fully experience it.
Those looking for a good midnight movie should enjoy themselves with this.
Grade: C
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