Hick

Logline: A Nebraska teen gets more than she bargained for when she sets out for the bright lights of Las Vegas.

Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Blake Lively, Alec Baldwin, Eddie Redmayne, Rory Culkin

Directed by:  Derick Martini

I watched this one during the week because I hadn't heard of it and both Chloë Grace Moretz and Blake Lively are in it. I didn't think, I just turned it on and pressed play. Chloë has had everyone's attention since Kick-Ass and Let Me In and Blake has turned heads ever since branching out from Gossip Girl by starring in movies such as The Town, Green Lantern, and Savages proving that she has versatility. I am a sucker for choosing movies to watch with upcoming/proven talent.

Summary

Luli McMullen (Moretz) is a young girl that has grown up her whole life lacking the essential notions of parenthood that every child should have. Her parents are real winners. They take her to the bar for her birthday, she receives a pistol as a gift, and everyone is having a BLAST - except her. Her parents get drunk, everyone gets wasted, she sits on the bar stool and watches with discontent.

Luli has had enough of her alcoholic parents. She takes her pistol and high tails her way to Las Vegas by way of hitchhiking. This is the tale of how she gets there.

Review

The biggest waste of talent I've ever watched. I really do think I mean it when I say EVER.

The film starts off really well - it makes you feel really bad for Luli. What kid deserves that? Thanks to Moretz this character has a little pep to her as well, little acting quirks and style to make her unique from just any child. 

Perfect set up. Zero execution.

She meets Glenda (Lively) after her first hitcher goes terribly wrong. Glenda is just like her, and she does drugs. She's actually very well acted and this movie had me going for the first 20 minutes. But, after that 20 minutes, it became very clear as to why I never heard of this movie. Surely with those names, I'd have at least heard something about it. I should have known there was a reason why this movie didn't get attention.

It had no plot to it. There were just characters wandering around on screen with very little purpose.

Topic of the Day

I decided to try something completely new today. I took 5-10 minutes and I attempted to make this movie somewhat better. I found it almost impossible with the goals being unclear, but I added urgency and a bit of reason to the story.

But first, unclear purpose.

The logline of this movie reads as follows:  "A Nebraska teen gets more than she bargained for when she sets out for the bright lights of Las Vegas." You would think, well, clearly the girl's goal is to get to Las Vegas. That would make perfect sense. But, it isn't really. Once she meets Glenda she kind of gets caught up in the friendship she starts with her. And then the first hitcher she had trouble with comes back, and he falls in love with her. To be honest, the goal of getting to Vegas is hardly ever spoken of and it never seems like she's in a hurry to get there. She just, FLOATS.

The trouble with having an unclear goal is that things get boring really fast, and the audience begins to wonder what the hell is happening & why? For about 45 minutes this movie doesn't change direction, there's very little conflict, and there's a bunch of boring dialogue. Unless you're a poem like yesterday's review... you can't get away with this. 

I am going to demonstrate what I would have done to make this film better by comparing what happens to my quick brainstorming

This will start from when she has a bad interaction with her first hitcher.

(Red is what actually happens, black is my recommendation)

Luli meets Glenda, they do drugs, rob a convenience store, end up at a bar, meet the first hitcher and they become friends.

Luli meets Glenda, they do drugs, rob a convenience store, end up at a bar, meet the first hitcher and he's a psychopath.

Luli and her two new friends go meet Glenda's husband - nothing happens there.

Hitcher threatens to kill them, Glenda tells him her husband has a lot of money, they go meet her husband, shit hits the fan, hitcher steals the money and runs off with Luli.

The Hitcher and Luli end up by themselves - he tricks her into saying Glenda didn't want to see her anymore and told him to take care of her - they go into a poolhall and lose $200 - Luli almost gets raped to pay the debt off.

The Hitcher takes Luli back to his hometown and meets up with his gruesome friends at a bar - Glenda tries to rescue Luli who the Hitcher claims to kill after taking her virginity that night. They battle it out.

The hitcher ties Luli up, says he's gunna keep her forever. Glenda miraculously finds her in the middle of nowhere all tied up. The Hitcher comes back from wherever he was, shoots her, Luli shoots him, the end.

The battle ends with Glenda dying in attempt to save Luli, but in doing so allows time for Luli to take off the rope tying her hands together, and she shoots the Hitcher with the pistol she got for her birthday. She steals his car and the credits roll as she drives with the Las Vegas lights in sight.

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I'm not saying my rendition is any good - not at all. I'm just saying I thought of how to make this movie better in less than 15 minutes. That's called brainstorming. Brainstorming leads to a re-write, which leads to another re-write, which leads to another. This is how stories get depth. It seems like this movie wasn't re-written at all and if it was - it must have gotten lost somewhere in changing things up, because the story was very unclear.

Consensus

Hick is a big disappointment. The plot is almost non-existent, the character goals are very vague and seemingly non-important, and the dialogue is very generic. Chloë Grace Moretz and Blake Lively continue to impress with their acting talents, but even they couldn't save this story from sinking. Not worth the watch, even for these two upcoming stars in the film industry. 

3.2/10