Coming Down To The Wire

After taking last week off, I return to another week of "On The Lot" reviews. The show is coming down to the wire and my early favorite to win the competition, Zach, was booted off tonight. I was surprised when he was in the bottom two last week and disheartened that he was voted off this week.

My new favorite to win it is Will Bigham. His effort this week certainly helps his chances of making it to the final. All four directors had to make a film with the same general premise of a man waking up in a dress and not knowing how it happened. Will chose to make the man the boss at a company filled with yes men. Will did more with dialogue this week than he ever has and it worked. It was funny, the acting was good and the story was also very good. Of all the directors remaining, I really think Will has the best commercial potential.

On the other hand there was Sam's effort. Sam really should have gone home a couple weeks ago and I think (I hope) he sealed his fate this week with a predictable by the book plot of a sexist boss getting his comeuppance from his female office staff. It dragged horribly and wasn't particularly funny either.

Adam is the other favorite to win it all. His movie was the most inventive with the men in dresses turning out to be dolls that children are playing with. Great special effects, the payoff was very funny. My only problem with it was the acting. The Barbie and Ken type characters were great, but the GI Joe star and his Russian nemesis were only so-so and they were the ones driving the action. So I was kind of weirded out by the time we got to the payoff and thus wasn't as exhilerated by the film as the judges were.

Jason was last up and his film about a nerd's revenge at one of his high school tormenters was funny at first. The sight gags of a man in a ballerina outfit dancing and later kissing his next door neighbor were laugh out loud funny. When I found out the reason for it all, I became less interested. And the finale of the bomb going off made the whole thing a little too cartoonish to me.

For the third straight week, I've got to pick Sam as the one going home, but the way the past two weeks have gone, it sure isn't a safe bet!