The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Erica Beeney
Directed by Efram Potelle and Kyle Rankin
Starring Shia LeBeouf, Amy Smart, Elden Henson, Kathleen Quinlan, Ray Wise and William Sadler

Released by Miramax
Region: 1
Rating: PG-13
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Rent it if you followed HBO's Project Greenlight in the second season, just to bring closure. Otherwise pass.

The concept behind HBO's Project Greenlight was a decent one: give first-time filmmakers a shot at seeing their dream brought to the screen by a major studio, with backing by two of the most recognizable names in Hollywood today: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Alas, after the second season, the show was canned, and while rumors fly about bringing the series to a different channel, very little seems to be actually happening in that direction. The legacy of this unusual American Idol-esque filmmaking contest consists of just two films, with The Battle of Shaker Heights the final one. And honestly, if the film is representative of what one could expect from future seasons of the show, I'd have cancelled it, too.

The movie revolves around the trials and tribulations of one Kelly Ernswiler (LeBeouf), a high-school outcast with a penchant for wargames and reenactment. It's through this interest that he makes friends with Bart (Henson) and from there clumsily attempts to build a relationship with Bart's older sister Tabby (Smart). What all of these budding relationships manage to do is transform Kelly from a awkward outcast into a more likable young man. It's classic coming-of-age stuff, really, and herein lies the film's greatest problem: it's utterly predictable. There's nothing here that hasn't been churned out in a dozen other adolescent coming-of-age tales, and many of those other installments carried things off with greater wit and panache.

The cast really isn't to blame here. LeBeouf turns in an excellent performance, as does Smart, though she's given less to do. The remainder of the characters are fairly two-dimensional and underdeveloped, though this may have more to do with the fact that the film is only eighty frickin' minutes long than anything else. I suspect the better part of this movie ended up on the cutting room floor at Miramax. Add to that an extremely limited release (thirteen theaters at its peak) and precious little publicity outside of the HBO series, and one has a great recipe for box office disaster. Pulling just over a quarter-million of the Greenlight million-dollar prize budget, it doesn't take Nostradamus to foresee HBO's subsequent axeing of the series.

The DVD is a strictly bare-bones affair, with nary a feature to speak of. This I find surprising, given the ready access to filmmakers that the contest provided. Hell, outtakes from the HBO series would have at least been a little bone to throw to those interested in the film. I can think of few other instances where one has cameras at production meetings, studio pitches, brainstorming sessions, etc., so why not drag some of that footage onto the DVD? Sloppy, shoddy work on this release, to say the least. The video and audio are what one would expect from a recent release coming to DVD, but in the absence of any additional material, there's precious little to recommend this one for ownership.

If you want closure to your Project Greenlight series addiction, this makes a quick rental, but there's nothing here for anybody else. And considering the second series is going to be released on DVD with this as a special feature, I say go rent Rushmore instead, which attempted to tell basically the same story, only without all the suck.